About a quarter of the respondents (24%) use Generative AI for personal or professional purposes. Almost one in two respondents, or 47%, prefer domestic solutions, such as GigaChat or Kandinsky by Sber, YandexGPT or Shedevrum by Yandex, and another 36% rely on both Russian and foreign solutions. Such are the conclusions presented by the experts of Yakov and Partners consultancy and Romir Holding, “The New Russian Society: People and Artificial Intelligence”.
The survey was undertaken in May 2024 using the Romir Longitudinal System, a social measurement system that helps analyze public sentiment as it evolves, taking into account all the specifics and segmentation by socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle, values, and other criteria.
The authors of the report state that the level of AI awareness in Russia is very high: when asked ‘Do you know what artificial intelligence is?’, 84% of Russian respondents answered in the affirmative. To put this into perspective, this figure stands at 67% in the US, at 64% in the UK, and at 61% in Germany.
Over the past year, the most active users of AI have been zoomers (young people aged 18 to 19) and high-income individuals. The proportion of GenAI users stands at 42% among zoomers but varies inversely with the respondents’ age, dropping to 28% among the respondents aged 20–37, to 22% among those aged 38–58, and to a mere 11% among those aged 59–64. At the same time, more than half of zoomers rely solely on domestic solutions. In contrast, high-income individuals are three times as likely to report using foreign AI solutions.
“The survey findings help us to refine the picture regarding the purposes for which Russian citizens use artificial intelligence. Representatives of all generations who took part in the survey report that they most frequently use AI for personal needs. The share of those who chose this answer option varies from 24% among the senior generation to 46% among zoomers. The proportion of those who use AI for professional purposes stands at only 10% to 12% among the respondents aged 18 to 58 and at 5% among those aged 59 to 64.”
Marina Dorokhova, senior engagement manager at Yakov and Partners
According to Ms Dorokhova, respondents most frequently report using AI in such areas as the internet and social media, smart home, art and entertainment. The other areas of application were selected by fewer than 20% of the survey participants. Respondents across all generations most frequently come into contact with AI through social media and the internet. In contrast, the frequency of AI application in other areas varies significantly with age. For instance, generation Y respondents (20 to 37 y. o.) are twice as likely as the senior generation (59 to 64 y. o.) to use AI in smart home systems, and twice as likely as zoomers to come into contact with AI in the areas of art and entertainment.
Among those surveyed, 29% expect AI to have a rather positive impact on their lives, while almost half as many respondents, or 14%, apprehend a negative impact. It bears noting that almost half of the participants (47%) hesitated to provide any answer to this question, and another 10% of the respondents don’t expect AI to have any impact on their lives at all.
According to Inna Karaeva, Executive Director of Romir, young people, respondents in the high-income bracket, and residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg generally tend to take an optimistic view of AI, while low-income respondents and those aged over 38 tend to feel apprehensive of AI prospects.
“Those respondents who take an optimistic view primarily count on AI to minimize the need to perform routine tasks, increase productivity through production automation, and improve the quality of services, e.g. in healthcare. Pessimists, on the other hand, apprehend such negative consequences as job loss, data breach, harm caused by technical errors, and loopholes for violation of the law and ethical norms. Some respondents expressed concerns that “young people may forget how to think for themselves” and that “AI will be the end of humankind.”
Inna Karaeva, executive director of Romir
It is also worth mentioning that one in two survey participants, or 48%, pointed to the need for full regulation of AI development and implementation; 37% of the respondents are in favor of limited regulation of AI, i.e. to the extent that does not hinder the development of this technology, and only 15% believe that AI may be deregulated.