AI is becoming a bigger part of our lives, but the real question is: where do we actually feel comfortable letting it take the lead? It’s easy to assume that people trust AI across the board, but when you look closer, the reality is much more nuanced.
To explore this, I ran a survey to understand how much we really trust it.
The Survey: Do We Trust AI to Work on Its Own?
I asked 300 participants globally: “Do you fully trust AI to run autonomously, or do you constantly check its output?”
Here’s what I found:
- 50% of respondents said they constantly check AI’s work.
- 50% said they don’t feel the need to check it.
At first glance, this seems like a balanced split. But when I looked at their job titles, I saw that:
- 50% came from IT, development, and security roles.
- 50% came from sales, marketing, customer care, customer service, and support roles.
This insight led me to ask about specific use cases. That’s when a clear pattern emerged.
What the Results Seem to Show
It might look like half the people trust AI completely, while the other half are skeptical. But when you examine the information from the right perspective, it’s all about knowing how to look—and that’s when I saw it.
The people who don’t check AI are using it for systematic, repetitive tasks—the kind where machines naturally excel. Examples include:
- Managing notifications and updates.
- Automating processes like data backups and alerts.
- Running scripts or system checks.
These are tasks where AI’s precision and consistency outperform human effort, making it easy to trust the system.
The Real Story Behind the Numbers
The real story lies with the 50% who constantly check AI. When looking at their job titles, it’s clear that the tasks they use AI for are often in the realm of customer engagement.
Think about tasks like sales, customer support, or anything requiring one-to-one human interaction.
These tasks demand emotional intelligence, nuance, and the ability to adapt in real-time—areas where humans are still not quite sure how AI fits in.
The constant checking shows that while AI might assist in these areas of business and in many cases, has become a standard, like customer support chatbots. it hasn’t earned the same trust as it has in systematic tasks.
Why Humans Still Double-Check AI
The hesitation comes down to trust, judgment, and clear vision.
When dealing with repetitive, predictable tasks, AI feels like a natural fit. But in situations involving human connection or decisions that impact others, people are more cautious.
This tells us that AI requires a clear vision based on an understanding of its capabilities and limitations.
Once we understand what AI can and can’t do, we can start to build trust. It also highlights how limited our experience with AI in the workforce currently is.
With rapid changes, constant evolution, and the hype surrounding AI, we lack the stability and consistency needed to establish our own experience of co-creating with AI. Trust comes with time, and we’re still in the early stages of this journey.
My Thoughts
This clearly shows that we are still not in a place where we feel fully comfortable with AI.
When you look at the hype, interest, adaptation, and investment surrounding AI, it becomes clear that these are not yet aligned with the survey results. The tasks we trust AI to handle independently are still those where we’ve always known systems outperform humans—systematic outputs that reduce human error in repetitive tasks. This isn’t something new. AI has simply made what we already knew better by learning on its own in areas already dominated by machines.
So, what’s truly new?
When it comes to marketing, sales, customer support, or anything involving customer engagement, the fact that we constantly check AI’s work reveals something deeper. It shows that we don’t fully understand what AI is, how to use it effectively, or what success looks like. This last point is critical because, for the first time, AI isn’t just about efficiency and productivity. It’s not just about freeing up time—it’s about creating experiences and connecting with people.
By a universal principle, when you don’t trust something, it often means you don’t trust yourself. I believe the survey results clearly reflect this. AI doesn’t operate by itself; we assign it tasks. If we don’t trust ourselves to use it effectively, we won’t trust it to deliver.
Think about it! For me, the answer is clear.
What Are We Missing?
What we’re missing is a deeper understanding of what AI is and how to make it work for our benefit. This lack of understanding leads us to not trust ourselves when it comes to AI, which is why we constantly look over its metaphorical shoulder.
AI is a thinking revolution, and what we believe it to be sets the limits of what we will achieve with it. This is yet another example of that.
Perspective is everything, and gaining the right perspective requires understanding. If you’re looking for a fresh perspective—let’s talk.
