The Role of Social and Individual Differences in the Use of Artificial Intelligence

Baltas Group

The rate of adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) tools around the world is very high. According to a joint report by the University of Melbourne and KPMG, two out of three people (66%) regularly use AI applications for education and work as well as for personal needs. 38% of people say they have made AI tools part of their daily and/or weekly routine.¹

Trust in AI technologies and emotional reactions

Willingness to share personal information with AI and to let the system work on it reflects the relationship of trust built with AI. On average, 58% of people are known to find AI tools trustworthy.¹ However, trust can be considered from two different angles: the first is the technical infrastructure of AI systems, which involves conveying accurate and reliable information; the second is their ethical approach and the perception of safety. While 65% hold a positive belief about the technical competence of AI systems, their capacity to provide reliable and accurate information and the services they offer to help at work, 52% of people are sceptical about ethical issues such as the safety of AI technologies, the control they exert over people and the protection of privacy rights.¹

In advanced economies, trust in AI and acceptance of technology applications are relatively low. Only two out of five people living in these economies trust AI technologies and the data they provide and are willing to share their information, while emerging economies find AI systems more trustworthy and are more inclined to adopt them.¹ The situation in Türkiye is consistent with the pattern seen in emerging economies. On average, 76% of people find AI systems trustworthy. However, in line with the overall picture, trust in technical ability is relatively higher at around 82%, while trust in terms of personal data sharing and ethical use is around 72%.¹

The emotions people feel towards AI applications are diverse. While the majority show an optimistic and excited attitude, some are worried about AI. This shows that people do not share a common view and remain emotionally ambivalent. Emerging economies hold more positive feelings towards AI applications, with optimism and excitement prevailing among 74–82% of people, while only 56% express feelings of worry. In advanced economies, however, those with positive feelings lag relatively behind and negative emotion is more dominant: the share of people who feel excited about AI is 51%, compared with 61% for optimism and 64% for worry.¹

Creating value with AI

The rapid arrival of AI, and especially generative AI (GenAI), in our lives has required transformation both in our personal lives and in working life. According to Deloitte’s State of AI in the Enterprise report, 94% of global business leaders believe AI is critical to successful performance. For this reason, many organisations have built AI into process automation and shifted their focus to achieving results that make a difference, empowering their employees and making the most of opportunities.²

From the perspective of employee experience, developments in AI represent a transformation in employees’ ability to access and use information, develop insights from it and achieve fast and comprehensive results. Financial analysts, software developers and customer service teams are examples of occupational groups strongly affected by developments in AI. 84% of CEOs who use AI in the workplace believe it will increase employee productivity. Research supporting this view has shown that productivity grows 4.8 times faster in occupations that make use of AI.³ This productivity does not simply mean that work will be done in less time; it indicates that AI-supported ways of creating value within organisations can be discovered and that, as a result, organisations will innovate in the ways they create and deliver value in the coming years.³

Employment continues to grow in occupations highly exposed to AI, but this growth is on average 27% slower than in other occupations. In addition, occupations where AI is present experience 25% more skill change.³ This highlights the importance of skill development for employees who do not want to fall behind in the race. Employees who develop their ability to use AI can become pioneers of the changes in how they carry out their own work and can seize the new opportunities that emerge.³

In occupations that AI is rapidly transforming, employees’ existing skills are becoming relevant for ever shorter periods. At this point, a critical factor affecting skill development and new learning in the age of AI is personality, which shapes a person’s approach to this process and their motivation.

Attitudes towards AI from a personality perspective

In today’s digital age, individuals’ attitudes towards technology largely determine how much they accept these technologies in their daily lives and the extent to which they benefit from them. In this respect, personality traits have the potential to predict people’s attitudes and tendencies towards AI. This is because personality acts as a lens that explains why and how a person thinks, feels and behaves in certain situations, and which they systematically use when observing their environment.⁴ The study by Park and Woo⁴, which examines how personality traits shape attitudes towards AI within the framework of the Five Factor Theory, summarises the findings for each personality dimension as follows:

Openness: Individuals high in openness can be expected to have an accepting and positive attitude towards new technology, because they tend to seek new information, activities and experiences. They are willing to use different and new technological tools even when these are unfamiliar to them. In individuals with high openness, a positive attitude towards using AI may also be reinforced by past experiences with technology. Having previously used AI applications or information technologies can increase their desire to turn to new tools that support their creativity.⁴

Emotional stability: Individuals with low emotional stability are sensitive to threat and punishment. They may withdraw in the face of a stressful stimulus, resist change and fail to show an accepting attitude. In their experiences with new technology, this increases the likelihood that they will perceive their communication with AI as a threat and feel stressed. However, the study also showed that individuals with low emotional stability do not always display a negative attitude towards AI. These individuals were found to view AI’s social interaction skills positively. Even if they did not fully believe in AI’s functionality, they said they saw it as warm or friendly and that it satisfied their need for relationships and their sense of belonging.⁴

Extraversion: Highly extraverted individuals value social interaction because of the rewarding and positive effect of interpersonal relationships. Their emotional reactions to social robots are generally positive. However, some extraverts prefer face-to-face interaction to communicating through technology. In addition, extraverts evaluate the functionality of AI negatively. This appears to be related to their sensitivity to reward and suggests that they may view AI technology negatively when it outperforms humans in skills such as problem-solving.⁴

Agreeableness: Highly agreeable individuals strive to maintain positive relationships and tend to resolve disagreements constructively. They also tend to build and sustain prosocial relationships with others and to accommodate other people’s ideas. When technology supports collaboration, highly agreeable individuals can internalise its usefulness and engage with it. In the study, highly agreeable individuals displayed positive attitudes towards AI technology from both a social and a functional perspective. Because these individuals are motivated to respond to events that might trigger negative emotions with a constructive solution and to maintain the relationship, the study suggests they may make extra efforts to maintain their positive attitudes when uncertainty or disagreement arises in their interaction with AI.⁴

Conscientiousness: In the study, conscientiousness was considered in relation to the need for achievement. Individuals high in conscientiousness are highly sensitive to opportunities to demonstrate their competence at work. Accordingly, the research showed that because individuals high on this dimension see AI technology as a functional support that helps them achieve better results in their job performance, a positive attitude towards AI technologies can develop when competence and productivity increase. However, this positive relationship does not apply to the social side of AI. In addition, the open-ended and unstructured nature of AI technologies may be associated with negative AI experiences in individuals who are sensitive about following rules and acting according to plan.⁴

Conclusion

AI continues to rapidly increase its impact by taking on critical tasks in many occupational groups in working life. It is highly important for employees to develop skills suited to the age of AI and to learn how to use AI tools. In general, trust in AI’s technical knowledge is higher than trust regarding privacy and ethics. Attitudes towards AI can be shaped by geography and culture, and personality is also an important determinant. Each personality dimension evaluates AI from both a social and a functional perspective in line with its own characteristics, which significantly diversifies AI usage habits.

Sources:

1. Gillespie N, Lockey S, Ward T, Macdade A, Hassed G. Trust, attitudes and use of artificial intelligence: A global study 2025. Melbourne (Vic): University of Melbourne & KPMG International; 2025. doi:10.26188/28822919.
2. Deloitte. State of AI in the Enterprise, 5th Edition. New York (NY): Deloitte Consulting LLP; 2022. Available from: https://www.deloitte.com/uk/en/Industries/technology/research/state-of-aiin-the-enterprise-5th-edition.html
3. PwC. AI Jobs Barometer 2024: How will AI affect jobs, skills, wages, and productivity? London: PwC; 2024. Available from: https://www.pwc.de/de/workforce-transformation/pwc-ai-jobs-barometer-2024.pdf
4. Park J, Woo SE. Who likes artificial intelligence? Personality predictors of attitudes toward artificial intelligence. J Psychol. 2022;156(1):68–94. doi:10.1080/00223980.2021.2012109.