Innovation Insights is a monthly series on research world looking at all thing’s technological innovation. The series is based on several recent surveys with Arm (semi-conductor company valued at £23.4 billion) and will cover topics such as:
- Security – will security concerns stifle technological and product innovation or simply lead to more secure products?
- Insight driven innovation – what processes can be used to turn insight into innovation and how can insights into the way youths interact with technology be used to prototype software that assists and empowers them to tackle cyberbullying?
The proliferation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an exciting prospect that promises a revolution in the way we live our lives. However, how much do consumers really know about these technologies and are they aware that they’re already taking advantage of them?
Three phases of AI
AI’s evolution within the consumer market falls into three distinct camps:
- Mid-2000s technology (e.g. Online shopping and GPS)
- Mid-2010s technology (Personal engagement AI driven technology, e.g. voice assistants)
- Now technology (e.g. Augmented Reality (AR), drones and smart homes)
First, we see tech which went mainstream in the mid- to late-2000s and is now used by over 50% of people[i]. Online shopping, GPS and navigation apps, and social networking are firmly part of everyday life—they don’t feel new anymore.
AI already exists in our daily lives… like travel, shopping, browsing the web. [US Consumer]
Then we see innovations that begin to create a personal engagement between us and AI, this time in the mid- to late-2010s. Between 30-50% of people use these, with the numbers rising for those aged under 45. Computational photography, facial recognition and voice assistants are close to becoming fully mainstream.
Finally, we see the innovations whose adoption will define the 2020s. That’s AI-enabled tech used by under a third of people today but is set to play a far greater role in the future through devices such as drones, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), wearables and smart home technology.
There are plenty of devices with AI, but I think they are very expensive. I think people are getting too lazy by having Smart Home [technology] managing lighting or temperature. I guess, when it gets more popular and less expensive, I would like to try some AI devices, e.g. wearables for fitness. [UK Consumer]
All this technology uses AI—but it’s the emerging innovations that hold the greatest promise for applications which might transform society in the near future.
Some consumers are yet to feel the reach of AI in their daily lives
Only 37% of people believe that AI currently has a noticeable impact on their daily lives. With that said, most people don’t expect to wait long before AI does begin to impact their daily lives, 54% said this would occur within the next 10 years. That leaves only 9% of people that think AI will only begin to impact their daily lives in more than 10 years’ time.
People are aware of AI powered devices/services when they are ‘separate beings’
People accept they’re living in an AI world, or at least they will be very soon. But how visible is that intelligence in the technologies they use? 58% of people believe that AI is essential to the functioning of voice assistants. This is followed by home robots and drones (52%), facial recognition technology (50%) and smart home devices (47%).
A significant minority of people think that dating apps (30%) and social media (29%) do not use AI at all. Perhaps this is more a reflection of where people think AI should be used; for providing information via voice assistants but not determining what we see on social media or which potential partners we are shown. Despite this, social media (and many other sectors) continue to use AI even if it is behind the scenes. Beyond tailoring feeds, social media companies are using AI to fight inappropriate content and cyber bullying.
The next Innovation Insights article will begin to look at where insights can be used to develop innovative products and services. We’ll introduce Jobs to Be Done and Design Thinking as powerful techniques for turning insights into innovation.
[i] All following %s from a global sample of 3,800 people across 8 regions
