Consumers are fairly split on whether emerging technologies will bring improvements to people’s lives or cause just as many new problems as solutions, research from Intel [pdf] has found. Predictably, youth are more enthusiastic about tech than their older counterparts. But there’s one other demographic group that could be at the vanguard of tech adoption: parents.
In fact, almost half (48%) of parents believe that emerging technologies will bring tremendous improvements to communities around the world and individuals’ day-to-day lives. That’s one-third higher than the 36% of respondents without children feeling that way.
Moreover, 53% of parents agree that they’re “excited” about emerging technologies, compared to 45% of respondents without children.
This excitement bears out across technologies, as parents show an above-average level of excitement for each of 12 technologies identified in the report. Some of the technologies for which they show a much greater degree of excitement than non-parents include:
- Smartphones (91% excited vs. 76% of non-parents);
- Smart home technology (74% vs. 55%);
- Wearables (64% vs. 49%);
- Autonomous vehicles (55% vs. 42%); and
- Drones (54% vs. 42%).
Male parents – acknowledging a small sample size here – are particularly enthusiastic about artificial intelligence (AI). Fully 64% say it excites them, compared to 38% of respondents overall.
Part of parents’ excitement about AI relates to relieving them of some of their daily tasks: 51% believe it will increase their quality of life by enhancing and automating everyday tasks, versus 38% of non-parents. Moreover, parents are more likely than others to be excited for AI tools that can help humans with their tasks. (Like making school lunch?!)
Meanwhile, parents are already more likely to own AI technologies than non-parents. They have above-average adoption of mobile phone voice assistants, home voice assistants, smart home devices and voice-activated remote controls.
Perhaps this all shouldn’t be too surprising: parents have long shown above-average adoption of internet-connected devices, and more recently of smart home technologies.
As such, for tech marketers, it’s certainly a group to pay attention to!
About the Data: The results are based on a May 2018 survey of 1,000 US adults (18+), of whom 328 have children.
