Telecommunications Media & Technology

AI Adoption and Public Trust — Understanding Consumer Perceptions of Emerging Technology

Published on October 17, 2025

Summary

As artificial intelligence becomes woven into everyday life, the conversation around it reveals more than technological curiosity — it exposes the deep emotional and ethical dimensions of public trust. In this study, RILA partnered with a leading tech company to decode how consumers perceive AI across industries, exploring the balance between fascination and fear. RILA uncovered that transparency is the cornerstone of trust, while concerns over job loss and data ethics continue to drive skepticism. By translating these insights into actionable strategies, RILA helped the client reshape its communication and ESG messaging to build a more responsible, human-centered approach to AI innovation — one rooted in empathy, accountability, and sustained public confidence.

Client Background

A leading global technology company partnered with RILA GLOBAL CONSULTING to explore how consumers perceive artificial intelligence (AI) adoption across industries.

The client sought to understand the emotional and ethical dimensions of public discourse around automation, privacy, and the future of work — and how these perceptions influence trust in AI-driven innovation.

Challenge

As AI systems became integrated into everyday tools, public sentiment oscillated between fascination and concern.

Discussions on social platforms and digital media often reflected a mix of optimism, fear, and skepticism, particularly regarding privacy, bias, and job displacement.

The challenge for RILA was to capture these nuanced conversations and translate them into actionable insights for responsible communication and innovation strategy.

Approach

RILA designed a Global AI Trust Listening Framework, combining AI-powered social analytics, behavioral segmentation, and topic modeling to uncover what drives consumer trust:

Cross-Platform Sentiment Analysis:

Monitored millions of posts and news mentions across North America, Europe, and Asia to track how sentiment evolved by industry and use case.

Ethics and Emotion Mapping:

Identified emotional drivers (fear, awe, hope, distrust) associated with AI conversations, particularly around healthcare, finance, and education applications.

Stakeholder Segmentation:

Clustered audiences into consumer advocates, tech skeptics, and digital optimists — providing a clear view of who influences trust narratives.

Reputation Benchmarking:

Compared brand positioning among major technology companies to identify communication best practices.

Key Insights

Transparency was the top trust driver, mentioned in 48% of positive discussions around AI adoption.

Job displacement concerns accounted for over 30% of negative sentiment, particularly in automation-heavy industries.

Ethical AI and data privacy were the most discussed topics within professional communities.

Public trust improved when brands used human-centered storytelling rather than technical jargon.

Outcome

RILA GLOBAL CONSULTING delivered a comprehensive insight report and dashboard visualizing public perception by topic, tone, and audience type.

The client used these analytics to refine its corporate communication and ESG messaging around AI ethics, focusing on transparency, inclusion, and responsible design.

This data-driven adjustment led to improved engagement metrics across brand-owned channels and a measurable rise in positive sentiment.

Impact

By combining social listening, emotion analytics, and trust modeling, RILA GLOBAL CONSULTING enabled the client to align innovation with responsibility.

The insights became the foundation for ongoing trust measurement within their global AI strategy.

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