Intel Survey Finds Consumer Trepidation That Technology Will Create ‘New Problems’
Consumers are “torn” on the role emerging technologies will play in their everyday lives, with equal proportions expressing the thought that future technologies “will create as many new problems as they do solutions,” said Intel in a “Next 50" survey…
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report Wednesday on what consumers “are most and least excited about regarding the future of technology.” Intel celebrated its 50th birthday July 18 (see 1807270010). For the survey, Intel canvassed 1,000 consumers online May 9-20 to “understand current attitudes toward technology and its role in day-to-day activities,” to depict what consumers think the world “could look like in the next 50 years through technology innovation,” it said. The survey also sampled 102 respondents identified as “tech elites,” which Intel defined as adults 25 and older with at least a college education, household income of $100,000 and higher and a tendency to follow news about technology closely. Despite trepidation that the future can bear a whole new set of problems, consumers, especially millennials and parents, “generally feel excited about emerging technologies,” said Intel. Consumers and tech elites agree that technology “makes their lives easier,” with 57 percent of consumers and 88 percent of elites agreeing to that statement, it said. More than six in 10 elites (61 percent) agreed with the statement, “I pride myself in having the latest technology,” compared with only 21 percent of consumers who agreed, it said. In another key finding, said Intel, consumers today “express the most excitement toward familiar, established technologies such as computers and smartphones.” In 50 years, it said, consumers “expect these same technologies to be the most important, along with smart home technology.”