Automation in the UAE: Residents prefer automation at home and in online shopping, but want more human led approach for medical consultation and education
YouGov’s latest technology highlights areas where consumers show enthusiasm for automation as well as the areas where they oppose it. The whitepaper titled International Technology Report 2021 explores sentiments towards Artificial Intelligence (AI) across 17 geographies and 19,000 consumers, and aims to help public and private sector organisations plan for the future.
Positive perceptions
The data shows beliefs about the impact of automation in the UAE on society skew more towards positive feelings among residents. About three in ten (30%) consumers in UAE stated ‘Acceptance’ as the word to describe their feeling towards AI and automation, and almost a similar proportion chose optimism, hope and excitement (28% each). Less than one in five respondents feel skeptical (18%) towards AI or chose words like fear (18%), confusion (19%) and unnecessary (15%) to describe their feelings towards automation.
In the UAE, almost three in ten (29%) feel AI will have a “more positive than negative” impact on society. However, this number increases to 44% among those who claim to be well informed about the technology, highlighting a positive correlation between knowledge and positive perceptions about AI
Human-led policies
UAE consumers are generally comfortable with automation in most areas of life. They are comfortable with AI in their homes (54%), for shopping (53%), manufacturing (51%), mobility (47%) and travel (43%), but prefer human-led approaches in areas including education, medical consultation and government policies.
When asked about the industries that will be more profoundly impacted by AI, about two in five consumers in UAE think that the manufacturing industry (41%) will have the greatest impact followed by communications (39%), banking and financial services (38%), transport and mobility (36%) and education (32%).
Trust
Consumers across the globe are more likely to put their trust in big, established companies over small ones, and the private sector more than the public sphere when considering the development of ethical AI. Among UAE residents, even though the big technology companies (46%) are trusted the most with this responsibility, the trust in government is also high and is above the global average (33% vs 16%). Trust in non-government public serving entities and foreign governments is the least in the country (18% each).
Download the full report here.
