28 countries were surveyed by Edelman Trust Barometer in 2019, to know-how is the trust issue in the technology sector by people and it showed a significant rise as compared to the prior year. It was a little shocking to see that trust in the US, Hong Kong, and France saw a sharp fall in those regions.
It seems last year when the survey was conducted, fake news of a weapon used generated fear among the minds of most of the respondents. Whereas, 2019 recorded the technology sector to be the most trusted sector among all other sectors.
The result also shows that consumers are differentiating the social media market and the technology market. The more technical hardware-oriented market produced a trust of 78% whereas social media only produced 44%.
The developing country markets have shown a high level of weak trust in the technology sector where 39% of the respondents believed that tech companies are putting customer welfare ahead of profits. The trust in newer emerging technologies like AI, blockchain, and self-driving vehicles is creating concern in consumer segments where people worry about job loss.
As we also know that people with age and interest find it difficult to adapt to new skill sets and the knowledge required for such an area leads to fear among most of the employees to being left behind.
Also, there is a concern with adopting new technology and trends, as what to do with the existing skill sets or knowledge?
In every decade innovations are happening and the R&D department is pushing its best to get the most out of it. But how far is it going to be worth it? To be in the competitive field, Alibaba fired dozens of his low qualified skilled people with automated robots to gain momentum with Industry 4.0. The terms look fancy but how far people are going to combat the loss which may become a potential threat?
32 percent on a global level, says that people suffered hardship because of the technological innovations and 47% of them believed it is happening too quickly. 56% of the people believe in blockchain, 55% in a self-driving vehicles, and 62% in AI.
Privacy and security though have been a major concern, as per Milhorance & Singer (2018), digital technology due to its broader ethical questions is threatening the trust in institutions.
Power-hungry data centers, electronic waste, and power blockchain with a significant amount of energy have become a concern for new digital technologies.
Source:- Statista