According to research by enterprise analytics AI firm Alteryx, 76% of consumers in EMEA believe AI will significantly impact the next five years. However, 47% question the value AI will bring, and 41% worry about its applications.
The release of ChatGPT by OpenAI in November 2022 sparked widespread interest in generative AI, heralded as one of the most revolutionary technologies of our time. Despite 79% of organizations reporting positive contributions from generative AI, a significant gap still needs to be filled to demonstrate its value to consumers in both personal and professional contexts. The ‘Market Research: Attitudes and Adoption of Generative AI’ report, surveying 690 IT business leaders and 1,100 members of the general public in EMEA, highlights key issues of trust, ethics, and skills as barriers to the successful deployment and acceptance of generative AI.
AI hallucinations—incorrect or illogical outputs generated by AI—are a major concern. Trust in generative AI is a substantial issue for both business leaders and consumers. Over a third of the public is anxious about AI’s potential to generate fake news (36%) and its misuse by hackers (42%), while half of the business leaders report dealing with misinformation produced by generative AI. Additionally, the reliability of information from generative AI is questioned, with half of the public finding AI-generated data inaccurate and 38% perceiving it as outdated. Concerns also include generative AI infringing on copyright or intellectual property rights (40%) and producing unintended outputs (36%).
A critical trust issue for businesses (62%) and the public (74%) revolves around AI hallucinations. For businesses, the challenge lies in applying generative AI to appropriate use cases, supported by the right technology and safety measures. Nearly half of consumers (45%) advocate for regulatory measures on AI usage.
Ethical Concerns and Risks in Generative AI in EMEA
Ethical concerns and risks associated with generative AI are prominent among both business leaders and consumers. More than half of the public (53%) oppose using generative AI for ethical decision-making, while 41% of business respondents share similar concerns for critical decision-making areas. Consumers notably oppose its use in politics (46%), and businesses are cautious about its deployment in healthcare (40%).
Research findings highlight worrying gaps in organizational practices. Only a third of leaders ensure that the data used to train generative AI is diverse and unbiased. Furthermore, only 36% have set ethical guidelines, and 52% have established data privacy and security policies for generative AI applications. This lack of emphasis on data integrity and ethical considerations puts firms at risk, with 63% of business leaders citing ethics as a major concern, closely followed by data-related issues (62%). Better governance is essential to build confidence and mitigate risks related to generative AI use in the workplace.
The Rise of Generative AI Skills and the Need for Enhanced Data Literacy
As generative AI evolves, establishing relevant skill sets and enhancing data literacy will be crucial to realizing its full potential. Consumers increasingly use generative AI for information retrieval, email communication, and skill acquisition. Business leaders employ generative AI for data analysis, cybersecurity, and customer support. Despite successful pilot projects, challenges such as security problems, data privacy issues, and output quality and reliability persist.
Trevor Schulze, Alteryx’s CIO, emphasized the necessity for both enterprises and the general public to fully understand AI’s value and address common concerns during the early stages of generative AI adoption. Schulze highlighted the importance of addressing trust issues, ethical concerns, skills shortages, privacy fears, and algorithmic bias. He underlined the need for enterprises to expedite their data journey, adopt robust governance, and enable non-technical individuals to safely and reliably access and analyze data, addressing privacy and bias concerns to genuinely profit from this ‘game-changing’ technology.
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