29 May 2019
The development of artificial intelligence (AI) is advancing at a rapid pace, and Nordic consumers believe that the increased use of AI benefits most industries. The manufacturing industry is expected to profit the most from the increasing use of AI. When it comes to healthcare, people in the Nordics are much more sceptical. This and much more gets revealed in Tieto's new Nordic survey that shows how the general public in Sweden, Finland and Norway see the development and use of AI in different occupations and industries.
Today, machine learning can be used to analyze large amounts of complex patient information and often make predictions of the human condition that are more accurate than predictions made by a clinical expert. Despite the benefits, the healthcare sector is found at the bottom of the list of industries that are expected to benefit from increased use of AI – almost every fifth (19 percent) believes that the healthcare sector would not at all benefit from using the technology.
The study shows that human contact is essential to ensure trust in the technology. 43 percent of the Nordic consumers only trust a diagnosis made by an AI if a human has been involved, and every fourth (24 percent) does not want an AI to be able to make their diagnosis. Only 8 percent would completely trust an AI-only diagnosis.
“AI has the potential to revolutionise the healthcare sector, and we have only scratched the surface of the opportunities that await. The technology can, for example, already now enable preventive healthcare, support more accurate diagnoses and find hidden patterns in patient data that humans tend to miss. Despite the many benefits, the scepticism seems to be linked to a fear of losing human validation and contact. While AI will augment and replace many tasks, we can also expect to see new tasks emerge in the healthcare sector, particularly new tasks that humanise the experience at a doctor’s office or during a hospital visit,” says Christian Guttmann, Global Head of Artificial Intelligence & Data Science, Tieto.
The sectors that most people in the Nordic countries believe would benefit from increased use of AI is industry and manufacturing (82 percent agree to some extent), followed by post and logistics (80 percent), accounting (78 percent) and banking and finance (77 percent).
“The survey provides us with a sentiment of how the general public views how AI will impact each person’s daily lives, and what they see happening to key industries and professions in the near future. Industries that have started to use AI solutions early benefit to a greater extent today than industries that play a catch-up game. Several forward-looking banks and insurances invested early in the development of new consumer-centric AI solutions, and their resulting experience proves invaluable to develop a strong position in the emerging AI era,” says Christian Guttmann.
Among the professions that the Swedes believe would be made better by an AI topped the list of bank officials, politicians, accountants, officials and bus/taxi drivers. The profession of nurse, doctor and teacher is not expected to be improved at all by an AI, according to a Nordic majority.
About the survey
The survey was conducted by the opinion and market research company YouGov, commissioned by Tieto, in April 2019. In total, 3 659 people over the age of 18 responded to web banking in Sweden, Norway and Finland. Respondents are representatively distributed according to age, gender and geographical location.
Download the full report: https://campaigns.tieto.com/AIsurvey2019
For more information, please contact:
Tieto Newsdesk, news@tieto.com, +358 40 570 40 72
Results from Tieto’s Nordic AI Survey – questions about job roles and industries
To what extent do you think the following sectors would benefit from utilizing AI more?
| Industry/area | Not at all | To a small and very large extent | Do not know |
| Industry and manufacturing | 6% | 82% | 12% |
| Postal services and logistics | 8% | 80% | 12% |
| Accounting | 9% | 78% | 13% |
| Banking and Finance | 10% | 77% | 13% |
| Cleaning and disposal services | 11% | 76% | 13% |
| Customer support | 12% | 76% | 12% |
| Retail | 11% | 76% | 14% |
| Insurance | 10% | 76% | 14% |
| Public administration | 10% | 75% | 15% |
| Taxi and transportation services | 14% | 73% | 13% |
| Media and journalism | 15% | 71% | 14% |
| Career and job coaching | 14% | 71% | 15% |
| Schools and education | 17% | 71% | 12% |
| Health care | 19% | 68% | 12% |
In the following roles; to what extent do you think an AI would make better/worse and more/less unbiased decisions than a human?
| Job role | AI to do worse than a human | AI to do equal or better | Do not know/have an opinion |
| Accountants | 24% | 64% | 11% |
| Bank clerks/financial advisors | 31% | 58% | 10% |
| Politicians | 34% | 54% | 12% |
| Public/government officials | 36% | 52% | 12% |
| Customer support (chat or phone) | 39% | 51% | 10% |
| Bus/taxi drivers | 43% | 46% | 11% |
| Journalists | 45% | 44% | 11% |
| CEOs | 44% | 42% | 14% |
| Managers | 47% | 41% | 12% |
| Human resource experts | 44% | 39% | 16% |
| Lawyers | 49% | 39% | 12% |
| Teachers | 58% | 32% | 9% |
| Doctors | 60% | 30% | 10% |
| Nurses | 66% | 25% | 9% |
Do people in the Nordics trust a diagnosis made by an AI?
Is the Nordic public willing to let an AI help and service them in financial matters?
Top 5 things people in the Nordics would like to solve with help of AI:
