Download a summary of the study here.
London and New York, July 2019 – As adoption increases, people want more relevant and engaging AI interactions according to OMD’s second wave of research tracking people’s AI perceptions and adoption. However, people are divided on how much they trust AI which could have consequences for future adoption and acceptable capabilities.
OMD surveyed over 12,000 respondents in 11 countries to investigate how AI should be applied to create more valued and valuable brand experiences across the consumer journey. As expected, smart technologies are at different stages of adoption. Voice assistants are leading adoption with over half of respondents claiming to have now tried one, overtaking music streaming.
Italy and Spain report to lead voice assistant usage at 72 and 69 per cent respectively. While, the US has the highest smart speaker ownership at 37 per cent. Across all countries monitored, 50 per cent of voice assistant users claim to access voice control functions on a weekly basis. This increases to 64 per cent amongst smart speaker owners.
As people are becoming more familiar with the capabilities of AI, they are expecting increasing levels of baseline functionality. Consumer expectations for what AI should be able to deliver have shifted to personalization and entertainment, and they want their exchanges with AI to be more relevant and engaging.
“Key AI use cases are rapidly becoming a natural and largely invisible part of the consumer experience,” said Israel Mirsky, OMD Worldwide’s Executive Director, Global Technology & Emerging Platforms. “At the same time, many consumers are suspicious of AI and its application to their data.”
There is a clear gap between people’s AI aspirations and the trust and data needed to deliver these types of interactions.
People think AI is developed enough to improve their lives. However, they are divided on how much they can trust the technology and providers. This has become a barrier to how much people consciously let AI into their day to day lives. With only 41 per cent of people willing to share their data to have better AI experiences.
Brands have an opportunity to build these new experiences for their customers. But trust has implications for brands operating in these spaces. There is an opportunity for brands to demonstrate empathy towards people’s aspirations and concerns alongside any new AI features introduced to enhance favorability and uptake.
“It is now clear that consumer-facing AI technologies are poised to transform the communications landscape through the 2020s,” comments Jean-Paul Edwards, OMD EMEA’s Chief Product Development Officer. “The Retail Revolution provides us a map of consumer’s needs, desires and fears to capitalize on that disruption.”
About the Retail Revolution
OMD’s global multi-phased research study tracks longitudinal AI perceptions and adoption, as well as investigates how voice AI should be applied to create more valued and valuable brand experiences across the consumer journey. All figures in this report are derived from quantitative online surveys representative of the total population (+18 years old). The first wave was conducted across 14 countries in August 2017 with a total sample size of 17,078. The second wave was conducted across 11 countries in April 2019 with a total sample size of 12,196. There are seven countries included in both research waves, which is where we draw our longitudinal findings. For more information please contact [email protected]
