73% of People Don't Trust AI Voice Technology to Make Simple Calls

Nearly three-quarters of people (73%) say they are somewhat or very unlikely to trust a tool such as artificial intelligence (AI) voice technology to correctly make simple calls for them.

Google Duplex is a tool within Google Assistant that can call restaurants and book reservations using an AI-powered voice. Duplex caused controversy when it was unveiled in spring 2018 due to its lifelike realism.

This data comes from Clutch, a B2B ratings and reviews firm, and Ciklum, a global digital solutions company. Clutch and Ciklum surveyed 501 people who called businesses at least three times in the past six months to understand their comfort level with conversational AI tools.

Experts mentioned that people often feel hesitant toward new technologies that later become accepted, such as ATMs or self-checkout lines.

AI voice technology presents new obstacles for winning consumer confidence due to its lack of monitoring, though.

"On the computer, you have a user interface," said Daniel Shapiro, chief technology officer and co-founder of Lemay.ai, an enterprise AI consulting firm. "... You can see what it's doing. Over the phone, you really have no idea what it's capable of doing. You have to just believe."

Yet, experts say that as a tool like Duplex becomes more commonplace and demonstrates its success, people will grow to trust it.

Conversational AI Concerns

More than 8 in 10 people (81%) want AI voice technology to declare itself as a robot before proceeding with a call.

This desire for identification shows that people may be wary of the ways in which AI voices can be used for manipulation.

Criminals could use conversational AI to automate increasingly realistic scam calls.

Overall, the survey indicates that people are presently uncomfortable with conversational AI but will likely embrace it as it grows in popularity. People should be cautious of scams that exploit the technology for malicious purposes, though.

Read the full report: https://clutch.co/developers/artificial-intelligence/resources/conversational-ai-voice-technology-survey