Half Of Us Unwilling To Trust AI, Another Half Hiding Its Use: Study

More than half of people globally are unwilling to trust artificial intelligence, reflecting an underlying tension between its obvious benefits and perceived risks, a recent global study has revealed.

The study, conducted by University of Melbourne's Professor Nicole Gillespie and Dr Steve Lockey, in collaboration with KPMG, surveyed over 48,000 people across 47 countries between November 2024 and January 2025. 

It found that less than half (46%) of respondents worldwide are willing to trust AI, despite the fact that 66% of people already purposefully use it on a somewhat regular basis.

When compared to the last study of 17 countries conducted before the release of ChatGPT in 2022, it showed that people have become less trusting and more worried about AI as adoption has increased.

The study found three in five (58%) employees intentionally using AI, and a third (31%) using it weekly or daily. Most employees report increased efficiency, access to information and innovation, and 48% said AI has increased revenue-generating activity.

However, businesses are also facing complicated risks as a result of AI use in the workplace. Nearly 50% of workers acknowledge using AI outside business policy, such as entering private company data into open-source, free AI applications like ChatGPT. 

Many rely on AI output without evaluating accuracy (66%) and over half (56%) are making mistakes in their work due to AI. The fact that 57% of workers claim to conceal their usage of AI and pass off work produced by AI as their own makes managing these risks difficult.

This could be due to governance of responsible AI lagging behind. Only 47% of employees said they have received AI training and only 40% have a workplace policy or guidance on generative AI use. Half are also concerned about getting left behind if they do not use AI.

Four in five people report benefits of AI, including reduced time spent on mundane tasks, enhanced personalisation, reduced costs, and improved accessibility, as per the study.

However, four in five are also concerned about risks, and two in five cite negative impacts of AI. These include a loss of human interaction, cybersecurity risks, misinformation and disinformation, inaccurate outcomes, and deskilling. Almost 70% believe AI regulation is required, yet only 43% believe existing laws and regulation are adequate.

People in emerging economies showed higher adoption of AI at work and for personal purposes, are more trusting and accepting of AI, and feel more optimistic and excited about its use, compared to advanced economies, the research revealed.

They also self-report higher levels of AI literacy (64% versus 46%) and training (50% vs 32%) and more benefits from AI (82% vs 65%), compared to people in advanced economies. In emerging countries three in five people trust AI systems, while in advanced countries only two in five trust them.