New InsideSales.com Study Offers Window into Consumers' Often Complicated Attitudes Towards Artificial Intelligence

SILICON SLOPES, UT--(Marketwired - Mar 27, 2017) - InsideSales.com, the world's leading AI-powered predictive sales acceleration platform, announced today the publication of its State of Artificial Intelligence (AI) 2017 Report. With insights derived from a survey of nearly 2,000 Americans, the study breaks down consumers' use of AI in daily life and in the workplace and captures their perceptions of and predictions for the technology. It reveals that, paradoxically, most consumers are currently unaware of the significant role AI plays in their lives today, but envision a bright future for the technology and its capacity to transform the way they work and live.

"2017 is the year AI truly goes mainstream. Over the past year we've seen tech giants place major bets on AI and its applications," said Dave Elkington, CEO and founder of InsideSales.com. "But what this data shows us is that consumers are still confronting the basics of AI, assessing its merits in their home and work lives. This study gives us a baseline to understand how they are interacting with AI, whether consciously or passively, and provides a glimpse into which bets will ultimately pay off in the future."

Consumers and AI: It's Only the Beginning
When it comes to AI adoption, the majority of survey respondents are just getting their feet wet. In both their personal and work lives, people are split in their use of AI. Out of the office, more than half (55 percent) report that they have used AI before. Of the total respondents, about 10 percent can be considered early adopters, using AI on a regular basis.

The data suggests that regular use of AI may correlate with income level. In the survey, 45 percent of consumers say they have never used AI, however, that number rises to 50 percent when looking at higher income brackets ($125,000 to $149,999). When it comes to the number of consumers using AI all the time, nearly one quarter earn less than $25,000 (23 percent). This was the largest percentage in all income brackets, with this demographic consistently showcasing a familiarity with AI.

Consumers today mostly interact with AI through services geared towards convenience or entertainment, such as navigation apps (60 percent), video streaming (55 percent) and music streaming (47 percent). These technologies are familiar to consumers, having been in use for a decade or more. It's the new technology utilizing AI that has yet to hit critical mass. Only 12 percent of consumers surveyed reported finding AI-enhanced assistants like Amazon Alexa useful. Two other areas where AI hasn't yet gained significant traction in consumer's day-to-day lives are ridesharing services (15 percent) and bots in the workplace (one percent).