December 7th, 2022, YouGov
In this piece, we round up the key trends and insights our data revealed in the tech world for 2022.
2022 was an eventful year for tech: the past few months alone saw Elon Musk buy Twitter, the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, and the launch of increasingly sophisticated AI chatbots. Over these twelve months, our tech insights have explored consumer attitudes, behaviours, and preferences across these subjects and more.
One of 2022’s most significant stories was the way cryptocurrency crashed – and crashed again. Our data explored how the public felt about these currencies: finding that they were more likely to see them as an avenue for investment/speculation than as a means of making payments and protecting against inflation.
It’s a topic we also explored in the UK, where we asked whether celebrity endorsements were influencing public opinion of crypto, and in the US, where we compared perceptions of its value over the year so far. The subject of non-fungible tokens also came up; we found that Britons who had seen NFT artwork such as the Bored Ape series were more likely to dislike it than like it, and more likely to view companies who sold NFTs negatively than positively.
Looking towards other forms of technology, we examined attitudes towards AI and how consumers were using it. Our data showed that consumers were most likely to find chatbots and similar tools helpful in the realms of appliances and healthcare technology, and that they were most likely to use it in the areas of navigation, facial recognition, and voice assistants.
But, in a story that is perhaps more relevant to everyday concerns, our data found that consumers across the globe were less willing to spend money on electronics. Three in ten consumers said they expected to reduce their outlay on items such as smartphones, TVs, and games consoles (30%). With inflation rising across the globe, and with technology costing more as a consequence, it’s a tendency that might only become more pronounced in the next year.
Whether it does or not, we’ll be there with the latest insights into public opinion in 2023 and beyond. And in the meantime, the above only represents a brief snapshot of what we covered in 2022.
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