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Among Asian countries surveyed, Singapore had the highest percentage of perceived trustworthiness in AI, with close to 65% of respondents indicating so.
A new global study has looked into how artificial intelligence (AI) is perceived among respondents in 47 countries, along with challenges faced implementing it, employees' attitude towards it, and more.
Trust, attitudes and use of Artificial Intelligence: A global study 2025 is a collaboration between KPMG and Melbourne Business School at the University of Melbourne. Led by Chair of Trust Professor Nicole Gillespie, the study surveyed 48,340 people across 47 countries including Asian regions such as Singapore, China, Japan, India, and Korea.
The study derived results using nationally representative sampling of the adult population based on age, gender, and regional distribution. Insights gathered were then split into two sections recording the impact of AI on the society as a whole and the impact of AI on employees in the workplace.
Excerpts of the findings are shared below.
Public attitudes towards AI
To what extent do people use and understand AI systems?
It was concluded that public adoption of AI is high as two in three people (66%) report their intentional and regular use of AI tools for personal, work or study purposes. From the chart below, 38% reported using AI weekly or daily, with 28% using it semi-regularly and 34% rarely or never intentionally using AI.
It was also observed that countries between advanced and emerging economies, emerging ones had a higher usage of AI tools with about 80% of people in those areas using AI on a regular or semi-regular basis. Meanwhile, AI use levels in most advanced economies fall below 70% of the population, with the lowest usage reported in the Netherlands (43%) and the highest in Singapore (73%).
This has suggested that AI systems can now be used with ease, especially general-purpose generative AI tools which can be accessed by a diverse range of people and applied to a broad variety of tasks.
Despite the regular usage, most respondents indicated not have any AI training, with half of them saying they don't understand it. Yet, three in five believe that they can use AI effectively. As such, only one in five is shown to have high levels of AI knowledge while almost half have limited knowledge.
Interestingly, moderate to high levels of knowledge in AI was reported to come from people in emerging countries, while a greater number of people having limited knowledge in AI belonged to advanced countries. The same data was also reflected in AI efficacy and training whereby advanced countries scored a lower percentage in those aspects as compared to emerging countries.
To what extent do people trust and accept AI systems?
Although majority of the respondents use AI regularly and semi-regularly, they still had their reservations about the trustworthiness of AI systems and their use in society. 65% of people had more trust in the technical ability of AI such as its reliability and accuracy in delivering results but only 52% trust the safety and security of the system. Among Asian countries surveyed, Singapore had the highest percentage of perceived trustworthiness in AI of close to 65%.
The trust and acceptance of AI was also found to be lower in advanced economies as compared to emerging countries. Only two in five respondents in advanced economies are willing to trust AI systems while the rest found moderate levels of acceptance.
With that, many still have mixed emotions on AI with most of them feeling excited and optimistic but also worried.
Employee attitudes towards AI at work
In the era of rapid AI adoption in the workplace, three in five employees report the intentional use of AI, with 58% of them using it for their work on a regular basis. Among the frequent users, 70% of them use free, public generative AI tools while 42% use tools provided by their employer and 18% use publicly available AI tools that they pay to access. It was also recorded emerging economies are leading in workplace adoption of AI.
However, such increase in AI usage has led to more employees using tools in complacent and inappropriate ways. This includes uploading confidential company information into public AI tool sites which may be a breach of company policies.
The complacent use of AI may also reduce the quality and accuracy of work where more than half (56%) have admitted in making mistakes in their work as they rely on the performance of AI fully without evaluating the information it provides.
Overall, employees have reported benefits to using AI in the workplace, such as increased levels of efficiency and improved access to accurate information, enhancing innovation and idea generation.
READ MORE: Early AI investments pay off: 98% of surveyed leaders plan to invest more in 2025
Infographics/ Trust, attitudes and use of Artificial Intelligence: A global study 2025
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