Helping the public aboard the AI bandwagon

When the first automobiles started making their way across our muddy, rutted roads, the public’s reaction was decidedly mixed. One car inventor remembers being called “crazy” for thinking his “fool contraption…will ever displace the horse.” And in cities, pedestrians bristled, and outright refused to yield the streets, angered by the idea that they be “forced to submit to the tyranny of the automobilist.”

These reactions are not so different to the reception of artificial intelligence today. Some struggle to imagine how AI will displace existing technology. And people worry that AI might change how we live and work, imposing a technological tyranny on us all.

It took decades before the general public came to embrace a car-centric world. AI technology is developing much quicker and needs far less infrastructure to succeed. Can public acceptance of AI keep up with the pace of change?

In the early automobile days, one of the more outlandish ideas to help horses be more comfortable sharing the road was a car with a wooden horsehead on the hood. The solution was silly, but the idea that we should take steps to promote comfort around new technology was sound. We need to understand the public’s feelings about AI and use that knowledge to craft solutions that support their usage and acceptance.

We can’t assume public acceptance of AI

For those of us working in the technology space, it’s easy to be enthralled by the near constant advancements in artificial intelligence and expect that the public will hop on the AI bandwagon too. But we can’t assume that great technology automatically leads to public acceptance, much less excited, paying customers. 

Instead, surveys point to persistent public unease. In an Ipsos global survey, 52% expressed nervousness toward AI products. A Pew survey of the U.S. public found 52% are more concerned than excited about AI in daily life. In both surveys, these worries have actually risen over time, with a 13% rise in the global survey and 14% jump in the U.S. in just one year. This suggests that the public’s attitude toward AI may actually be getting worse over time.

Why acceptance is lagging

Why is the public not matching our excitement about AI? I’ve noticed a few challenges:

1. Our own limitations

Humans are creatures of habit and resistant to change. We operate using a lot of unconscious, automatic processes to get things done. Using new technology means revamping these shortcuts, and it can feel uncomfortable and challenging to rewire habits.

What can help us change? Having specific, concrete changes to implement are more likely to be successful than broad changes. Motivation, clear reasons or benefits for action, can also help people overcome their discomfort.

2. Lack of clear use cases

Unfortunately, we currently lack specific, concrete AI applications with obvious benefits for use. Journalist Ezra Klein’s experience is telling: “I find it really hard to just fit it into my own day to day work. I consistently sort of wander up to the A.I., ask it a question, find myself somewhat impressed or unimpressed at the answer. But it doesn’t stick for me. It is not a sticky habit.” Klein’s reaction is not unique.

The great innovations with AI are largely yet to come. In the future, AI products will likely have such clear uses and obvious benefits that they will replace our current tools. In the meantime, though, most of us continue to play around with it and then go back to business as usual.

3. Poor experience

Last, lagging public acceptance is a result of AI failing to deliver a good experience. From suggesting putting glue on pizza to messing up hands in generated images, our AI tools are still lacking. AI summaries of meetings may be useful, but the amount of time you spend validating them cancels out much of the convenience.

AI also delivers poor experience because it lacks originality. How valuable is an AI written cover letter if it is identical to the one twenty other job applicants submit? And how great is an AI powered radio DJ if the listener can tell by their words and ideas that they aren’t human? We have high expectations, wanting AI to provide both superhuman performance and a human-like personality, that have yet to be met.

When the public tries out AI and is disappointed, they aren’t likely to keep trying. If the tool needs validating and fine tuning, takes time, and isn’t making things easier, people aren’t going to replace their existing routines.

Public acceptance is earned

Newer and more powerful AI isn’t going to change public acceptance on its own. Public acceptance is nurtured by the actions we take and it is earned by the products and services we deliver. Here are five things companies can do today to promote public acceptance of AI:

1. Care about public acceptance

We can’t assume the public will be on the AI bandwagon and surveys are telling us as much. Companies need to care about the public’s attitudes and want to take proactive steps to support public acceptance. Our job isn’t just to create great technology, we also need to ensure the public—our customers, our employees, and our businesses—are as comfortable and excited about the technology as we are.

2. Focus on clear use cases

Chatting with AI or generating images are fun activities, but how do we incorporate that into our everyday lives and work? Especially now, when AI is in its infancy, we need to help people know how to use this powerful tool. Embedding suggestions into people’s existing activities is one way to support usage. For example, while someone is designing a presentation, having AI offer suggestions for improvement can promote use.

More fundamentally though, we need to develop AI tools with more compelling use cases. AI is supposed to transform our lives, but we have yet to see the applications of AI that follow through on this promise. The public will use new technology when it creates a better experience than what came before.

3. Provide motivation

Along with clear use cases, the public needs motivation. We use tools when they help us by saving time, making a job easier, or producing a better outcome. For the public to accept and use AI, they need to believe that AI will help them live their lives or do their work better than before.

4. Deliver results

If we have clear applications for AI that promise all sorts of benefits, they need to deliver. Meeting summaries with factual inaccuracies, search results that aren’t helpful or flat out wrong, and images that seem unnatural are not going to grow public acceptance.

What would happen if the next time a person played around with AI, they were blown away by the results? I don’t think public skepticism would be so high if we were impressed by AI rather than just amused by the novelty.

5. Prioritize experience

Use cases, motivation, and better performance are all things that should improve over time. They require innovative thinking and advancements in AI technology. But the final piece of the puzzle for promoting public acceptance is to prioritize experience.

Using AI should feel natural and seamless, rather than something that we have to deliberately opt into multiple times when completing a task. Prioritizing experience also means not treating AI as just a cost and labor-saving device. Instead, AI should help free up workers’ time so they can expand their skills.

AI should help us all to grow and innovate. Right now, AI is being used to summarize things like a customer service call. In the near future, AI will

• offer suggestions on how the call could be done better
• analyze projects and processes to suggest improvements
• create personas that we will ask business questions to, eventually leading to organizational digital twins

These are just a few examples of how AI, rather than automating employees out of existence, can enhance employees and businesses.

Last, businesses need to prioritize different elements of AI experience for users versus customers. For customers, choice is crucial. Businesses should offer human-like AI to help customers, but customers should also have the choice of direct interaction with a person. For users, accuracy is paramount. AI doesn’t need to be human-like, especially when it is supplementing employees’ work, but it needs be accurate, so users are getting enhancements to their abilities rather than more work and poor experience.

Lead with design, acceptance follows

It probably comes as no surprise that the Horsey Horseless, the car with the wooden horsehead on the hood, was never a success. Quick fixes are not enough to promote public acceptance of new technology. Instead, we need to focus on developing clear use cases that offer real value for people while providing a seamless, great experience.

AI will stop feeling like an unnecessary new technology when people truly see how it applies to their lives. And it will feel like less of a threat when it can deliver value and a great experience. Just like the automobile, the public will embrace AI when the applications to their life and work are obvious, easy to use, and are worth the effort of changing. We’ll get there eventually, but we’ll get there faster if companies understand and prioritize public acceptance today.