AI’s Rapid Growth Limited to the Young and Affluent; Trust and Privacy Issues Remain
By Dr. Martin Block, Professor Emeritus, Northwestern University, Retail Analytics Council
Executive Summary:
Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming how consumers and businesses interact with technology, offering new opportunities for personalization, efficiency, and creativity. A recent survey by Prosper Technologies provides valuable insights into consumer awareness, usage patterns, and concerns, helping retailers better understand how to adapt to this evolving landscape.
- Nearly half (45.9%) of adults surveyed are aware of Generative AI, with 26% already using it and 19.9% excited to experience it. Awareness has grown significantly since March 2023, as those unaware have dropped from 57.6% to 18.3%.
- Top uses of Generative AI include research (11.1%), writing assistance (8.4%), creative writing (5.9%), content creation (4.6%), and education-related tasks (6.8%).
- Younger, more affluent demographics are the primary adopters, while older and less affluent groups remain less engaged. Households with children also show higher interaction with AI.
- Consumer concerns include the need for human oversight (37.6%), potential for misinformation (34.4%), trust and transparency issues (29.9% and 29.8%, respectively), and privacy violations, with 55% extremely or very concerned about AI privacy risks.
- Trust is a key factor influencing adoption, as users are separated from non-users based on their comfort with AI’s intentions, transparency, and reliability.
- Privacy concerns related to AI (55%) are slightly lower than online privacy concerns (60.9%) but significantly higher than in-store concerns (41.9%).
- Retailers can utilize these insights to integrate AI tools effectively, address consumer concerns about trust and transparency, and target key demographic groups more likely to adopt these technologies.
Generative Artificial Intelligence and Consumer Trends in Awareness, Usage and Trust.
By Dr. Martin Block, Professor Emeritus, Northwestern University, Retail Analytics Council
Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) includes ChatGPT, Bard, and Copilot, among other things. It is rapidly becoming a technology for consumers and retailers to use. Prosper Technologies, in the December 2024 monthly survey (n=7861) among adults aged 18+, asked questions about the usage and attitudes of Generative Artificial Intelligence.
The survey respondents were asked whether they had heard of Generative AI and given four options, as shown in Table 1. Nearly half, 45.9%, said they had heard of it and were either already using it or excited to experience it. Over a third said they didn’t know what it is, leaving 18% who said they have not heard of it.
Table 1: Heard of Generative AI.
| Percent | |
| No | 18.3 |
| Yes, but I don’t understand what it is | 35.8 |
| Yes, and I am excited to experience it | 19.9 |
| Yes, and I already use it | 26.0 |
The question has been asked every month since March 2023. As shown in Figure 1, the percentage of people saying they have not heard of Generative AI has decreased substantially from 57.6% to the current level of 18.3%. Those saying they already use it have more than tripled from 6.6% to the current level of 26.0%. Those saying they don’t understand it have remained relatively flat.
Figure 1: Heard of Generative AI Trends.
Those in the four different “knowledge of Generative AI groups” also seem to have demographic characteristics. Considering only four demographic variables, age, income, gender (categorically coded as female), and the presence of children in the household, a discriminant function was performed. As shown in Table 2, the variables yielded three functions: age, affluence and male. The first two functions explain 95.8% of the variance. The third function is labeled male because the female variable is negative. It contributed only 4.2% to the explained variance.
Table 2: Demographic Variable Structure Matrix.
| Age | Affluence | Male | |
| Variance % | 85.1 | 10.7 | 4.2 |
| age | .801* | ||
| income | .916* | ||
| female | -.676* | ||
| kids | .479* |
Figure 2 plots the four Generative AI categories on the first two discriminant dimensions. The most important (horizontal) dimension shows age as the discriminator between using it, being excited to use it, not understanding it, or not hearing of it. Affluence, or income, shows the difference (vertical dimension) between having heard of Generative AI and not. Those not having heard of it are clearly among the oldest and lowest affluence.
Figure 2: AI Demographics.
Table 3 shows the list of uses among those who have used Generative AI. The largest use is research 11.1%), followed by writing assistance (8.4%). Creative writing (5.9%) and content creation (4.6%) are in the middle of the list.
Table 3: Reported Uses.
| Percent | |
| Research (generating summaries, providing relevant information) | 11.1 |
| Writing assistance (generating ideas or providing feedback on writing samples) | 8.4 |
| Education (generate test questions, provide explanations of concepts) | 6.8 |
| Personal assistant (scheduling, setting reminders) | 6.3 |
| Creative writing (generating story prompts or character descriptions) | 5.9 |
| Customer support (answer frequently asked questions | 5.7 |
| Content creation (articles, blog posts, or social media posts) | 4.6 |
| Language translation | 4.6 |
| Chatbot development | 3.5 |
| Language learning | 3.0 |
There are a variety of concerns about Generative AI, as shown in Table 4. The leading concern is that it needs human oversight (37.6%) followed by providing the wrong information (34,4%). Only 17.9% expressed no concerns.
Table 4: Generative AI Concerns.
| Percent | |
| It needs human oversight | 37.6 |
| It can provide wrong information | 34.4 |
| I don’t trust that AI has my best interests in mind | 29.9 |
| It needs more transparency on the data it uses | 29.8 |
| It will cause job losses | 29.2 |
| It needs to be regulated by the government | 23.6 |
| It is biased (age, gender, race) | 17.6 |
| It makes me anxious | 17.0 |
| It will know too much about my life | 16.9 |
| No concerns | 17.9 |
Another discriminant function analysis was run to predict the Generative AI categories but from the concerned variables. As shown in Table 5, the ten concern variables are reduced to three functions, as shown in the structure matrix. The first function (52.0%), labeled No Worry, is highly correlated with no concerns and negatively correlated with needing human oversight and needing transparency. The second function (42.3%), labeled Trust, is highly correlated with “I don’t trust that AI has my best interests in mind. It also makes me feel anxious.” The third function (5.7%) is correlated with “It can provide wrong information.”
Table 5: Concerns Structure Matrix.
| No Worry | Trust | Wrong | |
| Percent of Variance | 52.0 | 42.3 | 5.7 |
| No concerns | .907* | ||
| It needs human oversight | -.571* | ||
| It needs more transparency on the data it uses | -.532* | ||
| It needs to be regulated by the government | -.417* | ||
| It is biased (age, gender, race) | -.331* | ||
| I don’t trust that AI has my best interests in mind. | .906* | ||
| It makes me anxious. | .357* | ||
| It will know too much about my life. | .284* | ||
| It can provide wrong information. | .824* | ||
| It will cause job losses. | .366* |
A plot of the four Generative AI categories is shown in Figure 3. The most important (horizontal) function clearly shows the difference between those who have not heard of it. The difference between those already using and excited to use and those that don’t understand is trust.
Figure 3: AI Concerns.
Potential privacy violations are a consideration with AI. As shown in Table 6, over half (55%) say they are extremely or very concerned about AI violating their privacy. Interestingly, this is slightly less than the concern for online (60.9%) but considerably more than in a store (41.9%).
Table 6: Privacy Violations by Environment.
| AI | Store | Online | |
| Extremely concerned | 28.8 | 21.0 | 31.9 |
| Very concerned | 26.2 | 20.9 | 29.0 |
| Both Extremely and Very | 55.0 | 41.9 | 60.9 |
| Not concerned at all | 13.1 | 15.5 | 7.1 |
Generative AI is gaining traction among consumers and retailers, with nearly half of the survey respondents indicating awareness and enthusiasm or active usage, according to the December 2024 Prosper Technologies survey. Awareness has grown since March 2023, driven by younger and more affluent demographics. The most common uses include research, writing assistance, and content creation, but concerns persist, particularly about the need for human oversight, potential misinformation, and privacy violations. Retailers can leverage these insights to understand consumer engagement with AI, address concerns about trust and transparency, and integrate AI-driven tools to enhance customer experience and operational efficiency.