Australians will embrace AI if it makes consumer life easier, but still fear the ‘robots’

Australian brands are scrambling to understand how they can implement AI – including everything from chat bots and CX to marketing and product development – but need to bear in mind consumers are still fearful of the technology and in many cases fundamentally misunderstand its function, new research from Ipsos has revealed.

A new research paper ‘Brave new world: Are Australians consumers ready for AI?’ based on a representative sample of more than 1,000 Australians, found 70% believe robots will increasingly take human jobs, with 62% agreeing that “using robots and artificial intelligence to replace human workers is bad for society”.

Australian consumers are open to the idea of interacting with AI – but largely indirectly – and they are less comfortable with communicating with brands via AI.