60% of Australians don’t trust AI in the workplace

The results in Australia were similar to countries like the UK, Canada, and France however, more Australians have heard of AI and have more trust in AI in 2022 than they did in 2020.

The study, Trust in Artificial Intelligence: A Global Study 2023, found Australians are among the least trusting with the use of AI at work with less than half being comfortable with its use and only a minority of Australians believing its benefits outweigh the risks.

The younger generations of Gen X and Millennials are more trusting of AI (65 per cent) while older Australians are least trusting of its use (39 per cent) while 56 per cent of university-educated Australians trust AI more than those who don’t have a degree (40 per cent).

Professor Nicole Gillespie, KPMG chair for organisational trust at The University of Queensland School of Business, said most people are comfortable with AI use for the purpose of augmenting employee performance and decision-making.

“However, people are notably less comfortable with AI use for human resource management, such as to monitor and evaluate employees, collect employee performance data, and support recruitment and selection processes,” she said.

Results from the survey also found that only 35 per cent of Australians believe there are enough safeguards and current laws or regulations in place to make AI use safe, with no improvement in the adequacy of regulation in the two years since the last survey was conducted.

The report found that Australians expect AI to be regulated with the preferred option indicating the nation needs a dedicated independent regulator to monitor AI usage across a variety of sectors.

James Mabbott, lead partner at KPMG Futures, said a key challenge is that a third of people have low confidence in government, technology, and commercial organisations to develop, use, and govern AI in society’s best interests.

“Organisations can build trust in their use of AI by putting in place mechanisms that demonstrate responsible use, such as regularly monitoring accuracy and reliability, implementing AI codes of conduct, independent AI ethics reviews and certifications, and adhering to emerging international standards,” he said.

Professor Gillespie said the findings highlight the importance of developing adequate governance and regulatory mechanisms that safeguard people from the risks associated with AI use and public confidence in entities to enact these safeguards, as well as ensuring AI is designed and used in a human-centric way to benefit people.