IDC Data and AI Impact Report: The Trust Imperative, commissioned by SAS, found that almost half (47%) of APAC organisations report a mismatch between their perceived trust in AI and the actual trustworthiness of their systems, which is slightly above the global average of 46%.
“Our research shows a contradiction: that forms of AI with humanlike interactivity and social familiarity seem to encourage the greatest trust, regardless of actual reliability or accuracy,” said Kathy Lange, research director of the AI and Automation Practice at IDC. “As AI providers, professionals and personal users, we must ask: GenAI is trusted, but is it always trustworthy? And are leaders applying the necessary guardrails and AI governance practices to this emerging technology?”
Trust in AI in APAC
The research, conducted among 2,375 respondents across North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific, also found that Australia & New Zealand lead the APAC region with the highest Trustworthy AI and Impact scores (3.01 and 3.53, respectively). On the other hand, China and South Korea rank lowest.
Top barriers to scaling AI in APAC include non-optimised cloud data environments (49%), data governance struggles (44%), and talent shortages (41%)
The study also found that APAC organisations prioritising customer experience and resilience over cost-cutting report more substantial returns. Mature adopters focus on process efficiency (64%) and decision-making in line with global best practices.
“For the good of society, businesses and employees – trust in AI is imperative,” said Bryan Harris, chief technology officer at SAS. “To achieve this, the AI industry must increase the success rate of implementations, humans must critically review AI results, and leadership must empower the workforce with AI.”
