Around seven in 10 Canadians are excited about technology and its ability to improve their lives, but believe the advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are still far away in the future, according to research by KPMG.
The research found that 16 percent of Canadians are not excited because they believe the changes will be minor. On the other hand, 15 percent of Canadians are worried that technology is ‘taking over.’
“It is great to see that Canadians believe in and embrace the potential of new technologies but the runway to get there is not nearly as long as Canadians think,” Peter Hughes, partner and digital services leader at KPMG, said in a press release.
Hughes says that technology is now in the exponential era, and that the magnitude of change will be larger than anything we have known so far.
Interestingly, most Canadians do not believe that new technologies will threaten their jobs. Only 11 percent of Canadians believe that their jobs will be replaced by new technology. While 55 percent say technology changes are a continuous factor in their occupations.
Thirty-five percent of Canadians don’t think technology will replace or impact their jobs.
Hughes believes that technology will displace tasks and parts of jobs, but will also introduce new roles.
KPMG conducted the research through an automation platform called ‘Methodify,’ which studied the attitudes of Canadians towards new technologies. The study surveyed 2005 people between May 5th and 9th of this year. The survey respondents were representative of Canada’s demographics by region, age and gender.
Source: KPMG
Update 25/05/19: Additional information regarding the methodology was added.
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