AI Acceptance Survey

About the project

SITUATION: This survey was the final project for my UX Research class at MSOE as a part of my User Experience and Communication Design degree. The project involved creating, distributing, and analyzing the survey.

GOAL: The goal of this survey was to examine the connections between age, familiarity with technology, and feelings about artificial intelligence.

Details

TIMELINE: Three Weeks

ROLE: UX Student, Researcher, and Analyst

TOOLS: Google Forms and Google Sheets

YEAR: 2020

OVERVIEW

Due to the limitations in time and distribution methods, 55% of the 129 responses were from responders in the 18-24 demographic. Additionally, only one response was collected from the 75+ demographic. This is not an accurate reflection of the demographic but has been included for the sake of completion. Due to the online nature of data collection, this survey is skewed towards people who are more familiar with technology as they are more likely to have access to the survey itself.

The bulk of the survey was made up of Likert Questions in order to gauge the responder’s level of competency and knowledge regarding a topic so as not to gain a bias through overconfidence.

For the statement “advancements in automation and Artificial Intelligence pose a risk to the job security of future generations”, very few responders answered with “strongly agree” or “strongly disagree” so it is possible that this question is one that most people are unsure about. Additionally, younger demographics tended to agree with the statement while older demographics tended to disagree.

FINDINGS

The statement “I am the first of my family and friends to get the latest device” had a very different trend where the youngest and oldest demographics answered similarly in a pattern that resembles a bell curve. The singular response for the 75+ demographic is an outlier.

A possible explanation for this is younger people have the greatest desire to own the latest device but lack the disposable income to do so. On the other hand, older people tend to have a more stable income but may not feel as great a need to upgrade. Thus, people in the 35-44 age range sit in the middle where they are young enough to desire upgrades, but old enough to have the income for it.

For the question “how often do you use a virtual assistant”, respondents were given Siri and Alexa as examples of virtual assistants. Overall, 36.7% responded with never and the only age group without this response was the 35-44 age range. In many new pieces of technology, often referred to as smart devices, voice activation and control are being pushed and advertised as key features. The startling lack of use of virtual assistants found in this survey brings this focus into question.

REFLECTION