Factors Affecting Consumers’ Attitudes Towards Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

To successfully develop, launch, communicate, and promote new AI-intensive products, marketers need a deep understanding of how attitudes toward science and technology (S&T) shape positive or negative attitudes toward AI within their target groups. To gain insight into these dynamics, this study employs non-metrical multidimensional scaling to map the opinions of European consumers (N = 20,671) regarding S&T and AI. The results reveal a strong link between opinions on S&T and attitudes toward AI: individuals with a positive opinion of S&T tend to have a positive attitude toward AI, and vice versa. Regarding sex differences, men generally exhibit a positive opinion about the impact of S&T on society, which translates into positive or very positive attitudes toward AI among both older and younger men. In contrast, women of all ages tend to have a more negative view of the impact of S&T on society, leading to a higher likelihood of negative or very negative attitudes toward AI. Incorporating these findings into their marketing and promotion strategies will help practitioners effectively position themselves for the transition to an AI-driven society.

Keywords:

• science & technology acceptance
• AI acceptance
• AI-based products
• artificial intelligence
• technology-intensive products

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

This study is based on anonymized secondary data provided by the European Union under license CC BY 4.0 and it does not require ethical approval, 10.4232/1.13884 (DOI).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in HARVARD Dataverse at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/TDWVVF, reference number UNF:6:7caMTmalnao2IVq2Yi1iCA== [fileUNF].