Trust in AI and grow with it

And as Thailand plots its way towards its Thailand 4.0 objectives, AI is becoming one of the key facets within the area of digitalisation, bringing opportunities and concerns with it.
Trust in AI strongly correlates to how well consumers understand the technology and the higher the level of understanding, the higher the trust. While most Asian consumers are aware of AI, only two in five admit to having an understanding of what AI really is.
A recent survey by Salesforce, titled “Artificial Intelligence in Asia: Trust, Understanding and the Opportunity to Re-Skill”, involved 1,000 participants from Thailand and the feedback outlined that Thais see a very positive future with AI and all of its implications.
This is no surprise as Thailand is focused on educating and engaging its workforce in its commitment to accelerate digitalisation across industries. This is, of course, not a challenge without hurdles as it requires financial resources and in-depth transition across the workforce and the education system.
According to McKinsey, automation backed by AI is poised to affect an estimated 75 million to 375 million people worldwide by 2030. With a large proportion of the workforce to be impacted by this wave of new technology, people expect business leaders to have solutions for transitioning employees to new jobs.
But is Thailand’s workforce ready for it? According to our survey, a large proportion of Thais (68 per cent) are aware of AI and close to half (45 per cent) think they understand it well. Further positivity comes with the findings that overall sentiment towards AI is very positive and many Thais believe that AI will greatly improve their lives and the world in the future. Only two per cent of those surveyed had a negative feeling towards AI.
Trust varies dramatically across different AI applications. Thai consumers tend to trust AI for simple and rudimentary tasks such as alarms, appointments and controlling domestic appliances but few are aware of AI-powered content recommendations, which could indicate that they might not be aware of the ubiquity of AI embedded deep in their lifestyles in Thailand.
The outlook for Thailand is excellent if AI has anything to do with it. Thais see a bright future for AI in terms of convenience, business opportunities, and creating a smarter society. With urbanisation, a major factor in the country’s development and smart cities being at the top of the agenda for Thailand 4.0, a belief in AI and its support for a smarter urban society is a positive stance and a great platform to build on.
When general business users are able to take on new tasks in a few clicks that used to require weeks or work, everyone benefits. Each employee is able to up-level their skills when there is technology to guide them. And this opportunity has not been overlooked by Thais. Almost 60 per cent of Thais in the survey said that AI would give them the freedom to do a better or more interesting job in the future. A similar percentage also recognized that they needed to improve their technology skills and were willing to do so.
I predict that Thais are ready and willing to take advantage of the AI opportunity that now sits on the doorstep of Asia and there are huge benefits to be made by employees and the industries that they are employed in.
If we embrace AI and combine it with the positive outlook of Thai people, we can gain massively from the wealth of digital benefits AI supports. This in turn will alter how we work and completely change the world we live in.

Rob Newell, Vice President, Solution Engineering, Asia Salesforce