October 13th, 2023, Lesley Simeon
Very few topics singularly manage to evoke a range of reactions from the general public, triggering both a sense of optimism and pessimism (or perhaps even doom). The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on humankind is one of them. Perhaps then, it might help brands to understand what impact, if at all, consumers feel the technology might have on a variety of tasks.
A recent YouGov survey asked consumers across 17 international markets about which activities they think artificial intelligence (AI) could improve, worsen or have no impact on in the coming five years. In this piece, we look at public perception towards AI’s impact on managing personal finances.
Let’s first get an overview of the survey results.
Polling data shows that consumers are least likely to believe that AI will improve managing their personal finances (25%). On the other hand, they are most likely to say the technology will improve diagnosing medical diseases/conditions (43%), followed by building travel itineraries (42%).
When it comes to tasks AI will worsen, more than a quarter of consumers (27% each) cite providing customer service and driving a car or other vehicles.
Demographic data shows that men are more likely than women to say AI will improve managing their personal finances. For instance, nearly three in ten (28%) men are of this opinion, compared to under a quarter (22%) of women. However, at 23%, women are more likely than men (20%) to say that AI will make things worse as far as managing personal finances is concerned. Meanwhile, 31% of men and 27% of women believe there will no impact.
Across the 18 markets though, 29% of consumers say AI will make no impact on managing personal finances and a quarter believe AI usage will make things better.
By country, what consumers think of AI’s impact on managing personal finances
UAE leads all our markets with consumers here most likely (49%) to say that AI will improve managing personal finances. Conversely, a quarter (25%) of consumers here say AI will have no impact in the task and 11% of them feel the technology will worsen the task.
The US accounts for the lowest share of consumers (13%) who think AI will improve managing personal finances. The market accounts for the largest share of consumers (31%) who feel AI will worsen the activity.
As for those who feel AI will have no impact on managing personal finances, Germany leads (38%), followed by Singapore and Denmark at six percentage points behind (32% each).
In Singapore, almost identical proportions of consumers say AI will make managing personal finances better (33%) and the tech will have no impact (32%).
In urban India, consumers are more likely (42%) to say that AI will improve the activity and less likely to say that it will worsen (14%) it.
As for Great Britain, consumers aren’t too optimistic about AI’s impact on managing personal finances - 27% of them feel the tech will worsen it and just 16% feel it will enhance it. Nearly a third of them (32%) here don’t have an opinion on how AI might impact managing personal finances.
Denmark accounts for the largest share of consumers (35%) who say they don’t know how AI might impact the management of their personal finances. Nearly a third of Danes (32%) feel AI will have no impact on managing personal finances.
Explore our living data - for free
Discover more banking and insurance content here
Want to run your own research? Run a survey now
Make smarter business decisions with better intelligence. Understand exactly what your audience is thinking by leveraging our panel of 20 million+ members. Speak with us today.
Methodology: YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18+ years in 17 markets with sample sizes varying between 437 and 2045 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in June 2023. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.
Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels