ABBYY Survey Reveals FOMO Drives AI Adoption in 60% of US Businesses – but trust issues continue

• Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) a key driver for AI uptake
• Trust in AI is highest in the US at 87%, while France is more skeptical at 77%
• Purpose-built AI considered the most trustworthy type of AI at 90%

A new survey from intelligent automation company, ABBYY, finds that fear of missing out (FOMO) plays a big factor in artificial intelligence (AI) investment, with 63% of global IT leaders reporting they are worried their company will be left behind if they don’t use it.

IT decision makers from the US report spending an average of $650,000 on AI investment in the last year despite 42% having concerns about implementation costs. However, almost all (98%) of US respondents in the ABBYY State of Intelligent Automation: AI Trust Barometer said they plan to increase their investment next year.

This may be attributable to the US lagging behind other regions on AI spending, with the research revealing Germany, France and Singapore invested an average of a million US dollars, the UK over $950k and Australia investing more than $720k in the last year..

Surprisingly, the survey revealed the top fear for global IT leaders implementing AI was misuse by their own staff (35%). This came ahead of concerns about costs (33%), AI hallucinations and lack of expertise (both 32%), and even legal and compliance risk (29%). .

Furthermore, over half (55%) of global business leaders admitted that another key driver for use of AI was pressure from customers, with 59% of US respondents believing it will help them provide a better service. .

Overall, respondents reported a tremendously high level of trust in AI tools (84%) with US workers having the greatest confidence at 87%. The most trustworthy globally according to decision makers were small language models (SLMs) or purpose-built AI (90%). In the US, 63% said they were already using purpose-built AI tools, such as intelligent document processing (IDP), while 39% are using SLMs. US companies also topped the table for the most widespread use of AI throughout their organizations with 37% using it across all parts of their business compared to France, which was the lowest at 15%.

Maxime Vermeir, Senior Director of AI Strategy at ABBYY, commented, “It’s no surprise to me that organizations have more trust in small language models due to the tendency of LLMs to hallucinate and provide inaccurate and possibly harmful outcomes. We’re seeing more business leaders moving to SLMs to better address their specific business needs, enabling more trustworthy results.”

On the matter of trust and ethical use, an overwhelming majority (96%) of US respondents are confident their company is following all government regulations around the use of AI. Yet only 64% say they have their own trustworthy AI policies in place that teams adhere to, while just 39% say they plan to implement policies soon. Globally, half (50%) of respondents said they would feel more confident knowing their company had a responsible AI policy. Having software tools that can detect and monitor AI compliance was also cited as a confidence booster (48%) rising to 60% in the US.

The ABBYY State of Intelligent Automation Report AI Trust Barometer gauged the level of trust and adoption of AI technologies across 1,200 IT decision makers in the UK, US, France, Germany, Australia and Singapore. Data specific to each country is available upon request. The study was carried out June 3-12, 2024. Download the full report for additional details at abbyy.com.

The results of the AI Trust Barometer survey and other topics about the impact of AI-powered automation will be discussed during Intelligent Automation Month; register today at https://www.abbyy.com/intelligent-automation-month/.