India has always been considered as one of the leading adopters of new technologies. The country is ranked among the topmost attractive investment destinations in the world for technology companies. At a time when India’s digital landscape is set to explode, YouGov’s latest survey explores the awareness levels about 14 new technologies among the residents of the country and highlights their opinions about the future and impact of these technologies on society.
Data from the study shows that of all the polled technologies, Artificial Intelligence, Cryptocurrency, 3D printing, and Self-driven cars are listed as the top technologies most urban Indians have heard “a lot about” or have little awareness of. Conversely, the ones that most urban Indians are unaware of are decentralised autonomous organizations, lab-grown meats, and non-fungible tokens.
By comparing different age-groups on awareness quotient, we find that a higher proportion of young adults between 18-29 years claim to have heard a lot about artificial intelligence (59%), cryptocurrencies (59%), and autonomous cars (53%) than others. Meanwhile , the familiarity with Metaverse (37%), lab-grown meat (26%), and decentralized autonomous organizations (25%) is the highest among those aged 30-39 years.
In India, it is no surprise that the awareness of AI is the highest and one of the reasons for this could be the constant efforts of the government to support the development of AI in the country. At present, the use cases of AI in the government includes biometric identification, facial recognition, criminal investigation, crowd/traffic management, digital agriculture, etc. and to further accelerate the development of the technology, the government is trying to build AI centres that will collaborate with academia and industry to develop AI-based solutions.
Most of these listed new-age technologies, have already penetrated in India, while others may soon catch up. Data shows that among those who are familiar with each of the technologies, a majority believe that all of these will become widespread, notably 3-D printing (82%), AI (81%) and self-driven cars (80%).
When asked which technologies would have the biggest positive impact on society, a higher proportion of those who have heard of each said 3D printing (82%), AI (75%), and Virtual Reality(71%), will be good for the society. Interestingly, seven in ten urban Indians (70%) think that autonomous cars will have a positive impact on society. This raises the question whether or not it’s time for policy makers to enact the laws that authorize autonomous cars in India (which are not allowed at present).
Additionally, when we asked which of the 14 technologies the government should invest in, AI came on top with nearly nine in ten (86%) considering it as an important area for govt investment. 3D printing, Quantum Computing, and Virtual Reality are thought to be the next most important.
Both men and women consider 3D printing important as an area for government investment (83% each), while a much higher proportion of men than women think quantum computing is a crucial field (86% vs 77%).
Data was collected online among 1003 respondents in India by YouGov’s Omnibus between May 17th-20th, 2022 using YouGov’s panel of over 20 million people worldwide.
