Stirling has been named as the ‘AI anxiety’ capital of Scotland according to a new report which reveals how people are increasingly searching online to see if the technology will take their jobs.
Efficiency experts Aisla looked into how often people search for terms like ‘will AI take my job’, ‘will AI replace me’, and “will I be replaced by AI’.
The team then worked out which areas had the most searches per 10-thousand people. Stirling came first with an average of 404 searches per 10-thousand people a month., Inverness came second with 283, and Dunfermline third with 263.
Perth and Dundee rounded out the top five with 244 and 154 respectively, according to the data, which showed Glasgow sat at the bottom of the table, with just 33, followed by Edinburgh and Aberdeen with 97 and 148 in that order.
When it comes to attitudes towards AI, YouGov data says 34% of adults use AI frequently, but 37% say they never use it.
However, only 18% of people trust AI to make decisions or take actions, and 72% wouldn’t trust AI to act on their behalf without their approval.
Kane Taylor, operations director at sustainability firm Aisla, which has offices in Kilwinning, North Ayrshire, and Aberdeen, said: “I think it’s a big question on a lot of people’s minds at the moment, and a bit of fear, is this going to affect my job? Is this going to take my job?”.
“But I think we can twist this in a positive way. If AI can do all the remedial tasks in the background, it means we can upskill our workforces to do more interesting, or more complex things, that we can focus our time on. Certainly, in my business, a lot of our time is going through a lot of admin and graphs, things that an AI could easily to, to allow us to focus on the more important things.”
“AI becomes a business enabler, rather than a risk and something to be scared of,” said Jamie Burns, the firms’s managing director. “I think a lot of people are scared and worried about AI taking their job, but companies can use AI to streamline their processes and enable them to become a better business.”
He added: “One thing I would say, is that companies that incorporate AI into their businesses, and take away the more mundane tasks that people don’t like doing, some of the admin functions that seem to take all day but need doing, that’s what you can use AI for and then use the people in the business to do the more complex and skilled stuff because you’re always going to need people.”
Nationally, Northern Ireland is the most concerned with an average of 32 searches per 10-thousand people a month. Wales came second with 23, followed by Scotland with 20. England sat at the bottom of the table with just 16.
