Over the last few weeks there have been four viral videos circling around of speakers drawing overwhelming boos from their audiences.

The speakers and audiences include:

Gloria Caulfield to University of Central Florida

Eric Schmidt to University of Arizona

Scott Borchetta to Middle Tennessee State University

Tiffany Hernandez to Glendale Community College

Surveys by Pew Research Center breakdown the viewpoints of the population into approx. half “more concerned than excited” and about an eight are “more excited than concerned”.

What is interesting is that the proportion of those “more concerned than excited” actually decreases with age, with the figure as 43% of survey participants aged 18-34.

It does not take an AI scientist to think of the reasons why AI has such a bad rap. There is currently a shotgun approach by the big tech companies who have essentially tried to incorporate AI into every product imaginable. Due to the hallucination rates and technical problems, this has resulted in AI fatigue and friction with users. Combined with the hype/fomo headlines like “50% of entry-level white-collar workers will be replaced” the reputation of AI has been severely damaged.

What we’re seeing in the corporate world is the scatter from the AI shotgun. Some companies are all-in, and are all but force-feeding AI to their employees. Sentiment is negative internally as the off-the-shelf products hallucinate and create more work rather than less.

The good news is we’re seeing the 10-13% of employees who are “more excited than concerned” by AI in our clients. When AI works behind the scenes, out-of-sight, out-of-mind, to provide insight not previously available, both the employee and customer benefit tremendously. This is how AI should be.