Business leaders in Western Europe are overconfident that the general public is positive about their adoption of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI). 

But the reality couldn’t be more different, with general public confidence in tech entrepreneurs also waning, a new study has found. 

Just under half of Europeans (46 per cent) surveyed across five European countries said they felt positive about businesses using new tech, while 79 per cent of businesses said they felt the public was trusting in tech, according to a new survey shared first with Euronews Next on Wednesday.

The general public was also 20 per cent less optimistic than business leaders about frontier technologies, the survey conducted by research firm Opinium and released by tech consultancy firm Hotwire Global, showed.

“Without public trust, it doesn’t matter how good the technologies are if no one is going to use them,” Chris Holmes, Baron Holmes of Richmond, a member of the UK’s House of Lords, told Euronews Next.

“It is abundantly clear from the research that public trust is essential if we are to optimise the opportunities and empower people against the risks from new technologies,” added Holmes, who did not participate in the survey, but whose focus is digital technologies for the public good.

The poll surveyed 8,000 members of the general public and 740 business leaders in the UK, France, Spain, Italy, and Germany on 15 different frontier technologies, which include generative AI (GenAI), Agentic AI, robotics, and cloud computing. 

The survey’s conclusions showed that the countries had reached a general consensus in trust between what companies and the public felt, and there was very little difference between countries. 

The French and German public felt the least positive about businesses using frontier tech, while the UK was barely ahead in third place. 

They were followed by Italy and then Spain, whose publics felt slightly more confident than the other countries. However, overall, the stats were very similar and paint a picture that no country is confident in the deployment of these technologies by businesses. 

“It’s no surprise that the majority, not only tech leaders, but business leaders are very enthusiastic about the frontier technologies and say: ‘I want to employ that, I can create efficiencies and so on,” said Ute Hildebrandt, CEO of Continental Europe at Hotwire.

“What becomes interesting is when we look at how they think that the general public sees it, and they think the general public is as enthusiastic as they are, and lo and behold, that is not the case,” she told Euronews Next. 

The study concluded that over half of the general population said they were concerned about how these technologies would impact the job market or wealth, and equality. 

“At a time where the role of business in society is under close scrutiny, there is a significant risk that business becomes disconnected from public sentiment regarding the use of technology to achieve commercial objectives,” Hildebrandt said.

For her, it is vital that businesses communicate what technology is and their objectives in a clear way. 

“We are in a space and time where it’s about being transparent in your communication, and also act instead of only talk, to really show what your story is, be open, interact with the public, understand that you have stakeholders outside your investors, and then also really put action into place,” she advised companies. 

‘Technology is too important to leave to the tech bros’

However, at a time when tech companies have been shown to sell user data, such as the Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal, users should also be wary and educated about such matters, Lord Holmes said.

But he is optimistic that from these types of data scandals, new tech models emerge, such as BlueSky, which gives users more control.

“We’re seeing the rise of these decentralised technologies, especially in, I would say, in a younger, more tech-savvy target,” he said. 

As well as the general public being better educated in technology, Lord Holmes said that it was not just a question of whether we should trust tech companies or not, but that regulators should also play a role in ensuring technology is safe and that users are protected. 

Despite the EU implementing its AI Act, Lord Holmes said it is too soon for it to have a major impact on general public trust in AI, as its first provisions only came in at the beginning of February.

But he said that for citizens in the  European Union, they probably feel the EU AI Act is “somewhat distant from their daily lives,” adding that “there needs to be that coming together and that connecting of the Act and what this means for people on an everyday basis”.

“The EU AI Act, certainly, they were first out of the blocks to legislate. But it’s that public-engagement connecting piece which is still missing in that jurisdiction as well,” Lord Holmes said. 

The study also found that only 24 per cent of the public trust companies that use frontier technologies without explaining why and how. 

Trust in tech bosses is also at a low with the European public, who are 29 per cent less likely to identify them as a trustworthy source. On the other hand, business leaders rank tech entrepreneurs as the most trusted source of information when it comes to frontier technologies. 

The general European public instead trusts scientists and researchers the most. 

“Everybody has a voice, everybody’s voice must be enabled in this discussion. Technology is too important to leave to the tech bros,” said Lord Holmes.

“Ultimately, it’s our data, our decisions, if we get this right, it can be such a positive. Our human-led digital futures,” he added.