What the UK thinks about AI

The latest wave of our research exploring public attitudes to AI, delivered in partnership with the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, highlights our consistent finding that many people in the UK remain cautious about AI and want to know more about the impact it will have on the economy, wider society, and on their own lives. The findings emphasise the importance of building public trust as AI becomes more embedded in the economy and society.

Key insights include: 

• People in the UK are more likely to see AI as a risk than an opportunity in a range of areas. This includes 59% who view AI as a risk to the UK’s national security, 45% as a risk to UK society, and 39% as a risk to the UK economy. However, perceptions of whether AI is a risk or opportunity vary, including based on how often someone uses AI in their day-to-day life.
• A lack of trust (38%), concerns about privacy and data security (32%), and ethical worries (28%) are key barriers for UK adults when using or considering generative AI tools.
• How comfortable UK adults are with AI varies depending on the specific use case. For example, while people are open to the use of AI to personalise training programmes to support employees (40% comfortable), they are not comfortable for the use of AI to monitor employee performance to feed into evaluations of their performance (56% uncomfortable).

Click here for the full report, including recommendations for building trust in AI.

Technical note:

Ipsos interviewed a representative probability sample of 3,727 British adults aged 16+, via the Ipsos UK KnowledgePanel. Data was collected between 30 May – 4 June 2025.

Panel members are recruited via random probability sampling, by sending letters to randomly selected addresses, which invites them to join an online panel. This approach means every household in the UK had a known and non-zero chance of being selected to join the KnowledgePanel. Those who are digitally excluded are provided with a tablet and free, restricted data connection.