- Kyle Chua
58% of Workers in Singapore Fear Humans Will Lose Control of AI
Not everyone is onboard with the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.
According to Salesforce’s new AI Trust Quotient research, there's a gap between workers' trust for AI and businesses racing to adopt the emerging technology. The research found that more than half (58%) of the 545 full-time workers surveyed in Singapore fear humans would lose control of AI, and 94% do not currently trust AI to operate without human oversight.
Data is reportedly one of the main factors that could make or break trust. Close to half (48%) of the Singaporean respondents find it hard to get what they want from AI right now, and 40% do not trust the data used to train these systems today.
Salesforce believes workers' concern over data is valid, stating in its research that AI does indeed have data problem. "Without the right data, businesses risk exacerbating the trust gap between workers and AI," said the cloud-based software provider.
It adds that 70% of workers who don’t trust AI say it lacks the information needed to be useful. In Singapore, 65% of workers say out-of-date public data and incomplete customer or company data (61%) would break their trust in AI.
Among the improvements that businesses can implement include feeding the AI tool more accurate data (84%), keeping that data secure (82%) and having the tool use holistic and complete data (79%).
Over 80% of workers in Singapore say that AI needs to consistently produce accurate outputs for them to trust it. That figure is higher than the global average of 68%. In Australia, for example, that figure stands at 73%, while in India, it's 71%.
The respondents think AI and humans must work in tandem to create more productive businesses and empowered employees. For example, 90% of workers in Singapore do not trust AI to keep data safe on its own, but 59% trust AI and humans to keep data safe together.
If humans are kept in the helm, workers agree that the full potential of AI technology could be unlocked. If not, the gap in trust could only grow and adoption would slow down. 95% of those who don't trust AI overall hesitant to adopt it, as the research finds.
"Businesses need to unify their data across systems for AI to deliver useful, accurate outputs that workers trust," said Sujith Abraham, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Salesforce ASEAN. "This has to be supported by keeping humans in the driver's seat of AI, empowering them to focus on the most important outcomes as we enter a new era of AI innovation."
The research, which surveyed nearly 6,000 workers globally, was launched at World Tour Essentials Singapore 2024, Salesforce’s annual in-person thought leadership, industry networking and customer event.
Salesforce's new research found that workers in Singapore have trust issues with AI.
More than half (58%) of the Singaporean respondents fear humans would lose control of AI, and 94% do not currently trust AI to operate without human oversight.
Over 80% also said that AI needs to consistently produce accurate outputs for them to trust it.