Sinus
Not Everyone Views AI the Same Way – Sinus Study Highlights Five Societal Reactions
A recent study by the renowned Sinus Institute shows that AI has long since become part of everyday life. 83% of Germans use AI applications. At the same time, 74% see significant risks regarding data protection and security.
Research shows that people evaluate AI differently depending on their values, life goals, and experiences. While age explains when people begin using AI, social circles are the decisive factor in how they interact with the technology.
The study identifies five response patterns:
1. Innovation Leaders:The “Early Adopters”—Expeditives, Performers, and Neo-Ecologists—use AI as a matter of course and view it as a tool for productivity, creativity, and self-determination.
2. Reflective Knowledge Leaders:The post-materialist milieu exemplifies a new type of AI user who possesses a high level of AI competence but evaluates opportunities and risks with particular criticality and calls for clear regulation.
3. Responsibility-Oriented Skeptics:The conservative-upper-class segment supports AI only under clear rules to ensure safety, control, and trust. The post-materialists seek to limit societal risks and protect democratic values.
4. Pragmatic Social Center:Adaptive-Pragmatic users primarily use AI when it offers a concrete benefit in their daily lives. This group is likely to play a key role in driving its further adoption.
5. Structurally Disadvantaged Groups:Above all, people in precarious employment situations, as well as segments of the traditional and nostalgic-bourgeois milieu, are wary of AI and fear job losses and growing social inequality.
The study also shows that fears of job loss are now affecting even young, well-educated people. “Until now, a good education has been the surest protection against job loss. With AI, that’s no longer the case,” says Manfred Tautscher, managing director of the Sinus Institute. To ensure that as many people as possible can take advantage of the opportunities offered by this technology, access to AI must be accompanied—above all—by skills training, accessible educational programs, and practical experience.
