MOSCOW, 03 December 2024. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the findings of a survey about Artificial Intelligence; the survey was conducted for the Forum of Innovation Centers (FIC 2024).

Not a new thing!

As yearly as three years ago, only a third of Russians could explain what AI was; today six-in-ten Russians (63%) already apply AI in their daily life.

The younger the Russians, the more actively they use AI: 86-87% among Zoomers and Young millennials. Young generations are more likely to be tech savvy than older generations, but even older respondents are active AI users: four-in-ten respondents belonging to the Stagnation generation (42%) and almost every fourth respondent belonging to the Thaw generation (23%) have used AI over the recent year. AI adoption is also tied to the level of education (74% of those who have incomplete higher and higher vs. 42% of those who have incomplete secondary education diplomas), urbanization rate (69-77% in metropolitan areas and million-plus cities vs. 49% in rural area) and media consumption model (80% of those who prefer the Internet vs. 13% of active TV viewers).

The most popular ways to interact with AI are voice assistants and text queries using chat GPT or neuronetworks (31%, each). Remarkably, women are more likely than men to use voice assistants (35% vs. 28%). Every fifth (21%) has used chat bots; almost the same number of respondents (19%) have used object recognition system and image search. Respondents also used content generation (14%), smart home (13%) and applied AI at work (12%).

Every third Russian (33%) has not done any of the above-mentioned activities (12-14% among Zoomers and Younger millennials; 70% among the Thaw generation respondents).

Zoomers and Young millennials are especially likely to engage in content generation (31-37% vs. 14% of total Russians), to use smart home (22-25% vs. 13%) and to apply AI at work (26-28% vs. 12%). 

Not friends, not enemy… but an assistant?

An overwhelming majority of Russians perceive AI positively, mainly as an assistant (54%), meaning they use it as a tool to make their life easier. Twelve percent of respondents use AI as a toy.

There is some uncertainty and ambiguity as to how respondents perceive AI: enemy and friend - 10% (each); competitor and expert – 7% (each); slave and overmind – 6% (each). Older generations (Stagnation and Thaw) and those who rarely use AI often failed to give an answer (20-25%).

Different generations view AI’s role similarly, except for Zoomers who often perceive AI as a friend (22%).

First books, then AI

In the list of options Russians use for an in-depth study of a topic AI takes last place (5%); even books and libraries are more common ways to study a topic (6%). The Internet is ranked first (50%), being even more popular than personal connections (29%). The following conclusions can be drawn:

• AI is still not perceived as a reliable source of information. Even Zoomers, when in need to go deeper into a topic, would use the world wide web (57%) or go to experts (28%), rather than AI (7%).
• The Internet is the main and the most convenient source of information.
• The culture of conscious information search pays less attention to getting advice from a live human expert. The only generation that places personal connections (42%) above the Internet (20%) is the Thaw generation; for the Stagnation generation both answers are equal (37-39%); younger generations appreciate the Internet more than personal connections (2-2.8-fold).

AI and education? Why not!

Russians are largely loyal to using AI in education (76% accept it). However, only 7% support applying AI at schools and higher education institutions without any restrictions; 69% are confident that certain guidelines must be followed.  Eighteen percent of respondents oppose such applications.

Those who are more likely to support using AI in education are former students and pupils – Zoomers and Younger millennials: 83-87% accept the idea, including 14-15% who say no restrictions are needed. Older millennials and the reform generation, i.e. those whose children go to school or university, more often oppose applying AI in education (21%, each, vs. 13-14% of Zoomers and Younger millennials).

All-Russian VCIOM-Sputnik telephone survey was conducted November 26, 2024. A total of 1,600 respondents aged 18 and older took part in the survey. Survey method: telephone interview, stratified random sample based on a complete list of mobile phone numbers in use in Russia. The data were weighted for socio-demographic characteristics. The margin of error at a 95% confidence level does not exceed 2.5%. In addition to sampling error, minor changes to the wording of questions and different circumstances arising during the fieldwork can introduce bias into the survey.

Key effectiveness indicators, survey of 26 November, 2024:  cooperation rate (CR)* = 0.7447; minimum response rate (MRR)** = 0.0207; response rate (RR)*** = 0.0762. Calculations are based on corporate standard https://profi.wciom.ru/principy_standarty/korporativnyj-standart-po-izmereniyu-rezultativnosti-oprosov-sputnik-vciom/

* CR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews and b) non-interviews with eligible respondents.

** MRR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews, b) interrupted interviews after successful screening and c) all the respondents where it is unknown whether they meet the selected criteria or not.

 ** RR is calculated in the same way as MRR, with the only difference that the number of respondents with unknown eligibility decreases proportional to the percentage of eligible cases in the total number of respondents with identified eligibility or non-eligibility.