In one series of surveys of businesses and individual customers in Australia, China, India and Singapore, some trust gaps were discerned

Based on a 2023* survey of 760 businesses and 1,760 individual customers across Australia, China, India and Singapore on the topic of customer trust, a European-African telco has announced some findings from the data.

First, 51% of the respondents in the business cohort had indicated their firms’ adoption of generative AI, (GenAI). Also, 70% of business respondents had indicated that budgets for digital transformation had risen in 2023, up from 60% from the previous year.

Second, 65% of businesses respondents indicated concerns that the rise of emerging technologies like AI could potentially erode customer confidence, with the top reason being customers’ privacy concerns around personal data (57%).

Other findings

Around six in 10 respondents in the individual-customers group “trusted organizations the same or even more when Gen AI is used. Some 35% of customer respondents in China, and 29% of those in India, indicated their sentiment that “the use of Gen AI will increase their trust in an organization. The same sentiment was expressed by 23% of individual-customer respondents in Singapore (23%) and 19% of those in Australia. Also:

  • 39% of respondents in the individual-customers group indicated that the use of Gen AI would make them trust an organization less.
  • 85% of respondents in the businesses group cited their belief that their use of technology added value to customer interactions. Among the individual-customers group, 67% shared this view.
  • 45% of respondents in the individual customers group in Singapore indicated their sentiment that organizations “use technology in a way that inspires trust and confidence”. For the same respondents’ group in Australia, this sentiment was voiced by 34%. In China and India individual-customer respondents 71% and 74% respectively, indicated “higher levels of trust and confidence in the way businesses use technology”.
  • In the area of individual-customer respondents’ indicated trust in businesses’ implementation of robust data privacy and security policies, the results were Australia (62%), China (82%), India (79%) and Singapore (65%).

According to Bhupinder Singh, President, Vodafone Business (Asia-Pacific and Middle East), the firm that commissioned the survey of the four markets in the Asia Pacific region, “businesses must use technology in a human way and prioritize transparency, fairness, and robust data protection measures. It’s also essential for businesses to invest in robust digital infrastructure, advanced networks, and comprehensive security solutions… to support the seamless adoption of emerging technologies…”

*In this case the 2023 data has been referred to as data relevant for 2024