Which Countries Are Most Excited (Or Nervous) About AI?

Globally, there’s mixed feelings towards AI-powered products and services: 54% of people are excited, and 52% of people are nervous. However, feelings about AI differ substantially between countries.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist, by creator Julie R. Peasley looks at how these viewpoints vary among people in 31 different countries using data from Ipsos.

Feelings About AI by Country

Overall, people in Asia and South America are most excited about products and services using AI. However, it’s important to note that the samples in many of these countries were more urban, more educated, and/or more affluent than the general population.

People in Thailand lead in levels of excitement. Interestingly, they are most likely to say they think AI will make their job better in the near future, but are also most likely to say that AI will replace their current job.

Country
Percent Very/Somewhat Excited
Percent Very/Somewhat Nervous
🇹🇭 Thailand
80
57
🇰🇷 South Korea
76
44
🇮🇩 Indonesia
75
48
🇲🇽 Mexico
74
48
🇹🇷 Türkiye
74
54
🇲🇾 Malaysia
74
55
🇵🇪 Peru
72
47
🇮🇳 India
66
58
🇧🇷 Brazil
66
51
🇸🇬 Singapore
65
53
🇨🇴 Colombia
62
45
🇷🇴 Romania
62
50
🇿🇦 South Africa
59
53
🇨🇱 Chile
51
54
🇯🇵 Japan
51
23
🇪🇸 Spain
50
51
🇮🇹 Italy
50
50
🇵🇱 Poland
50
38
🇦🇷 Argentina
46
46
🇭🇺 Hungary
45
46
🇩🇪 Germany
43
46
🇳🇿 New Zealand
43
63
🇬🇧 Great Britain
42
65
🇳🇱 Netherlands
42
50
🇦🇺 Australia
40
69
🇮🇪 Ireland
38
62
🇨🇦 Canada
37
63
🇫🇷 France
36
52
🇺🇸 U.S.
36
63
🇧🇪 Belgium
35
50
🇸🇪 Sweden
32
53

Base: 22,816 adults under the age of 75 across 31 countries, interviewed May 26 – June 9, 2023. The survey was online only in all countries except India. The samples in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, and Türkiye are more urban, more educated, and/or more affluent than the general population.

In Sweden, people are the least excited. They are tied with Belgium and Ireland as being the least likely to say that AI-powered products and services have profoundly changed their daily life in the past 3-5 years. On top of this, they are least likely to believe AI will change how they do their job or replace their current job.

When it comes to Australia’s feelings about AI, the country has the highest nervousness. People there have low agreement with the statement that products and services using AI have more benefits than drawbacks. They also have some of the lowest levels of trust when it comes to AI bias and privacy concerns.

What Might Impact AI Sentiment?

People’s self-assessed knowledge of which types of products and services use artificial intelligence is connected to their feelings about AI.

For instance, countries where people rated their knowledge to be the lowest tended to have low levels of excitement and higher levels of nervousness. Conversely, when people rated their knowledge more highly, these countries tended to have higher excitement.

To learn which countries are hotbeds for AI innovation, check out this graphic on the number of AI startups by country.