Belgians are not negative about AI and generally expect positive impacts. According to a study by Salesforce, the Belgian is also a big supporter of stronger legislation.

37 percent of Belgians have a positive or very positive attitude towards AI. This emerges from a survey conducted by Salesforce among 1,100 compatriots. Striking: Our northern neighbors are more reserved. Only 26 percent of Dutch people are positive about the arrival of AI. Those under 30 are generally more positive (49 percent).

This line continues when it comes to trust. 7.5 percent of Belgians fully trust AI, compared to just 1.3 percent of respondents in the Netherlands, where Salesforce conducted a similar survey. Fifteen percent of Belgian respondents do not trust AI.

Government help

It is striking that Belgians expect the government to guide the development of AI. 68 percent would like more regulations and laws, 46.9 percent expect this from the government.

“It’s encouraging that Europe is leading the way,” said Reinier van Leuken, senior director of product management and AI expert at Salesforce. “That is not easy. I am not jealous of the difficult situation of our political decision-makers. They are thinking carefully about flexible legal frameworks that can keep pace with advancing technology.”

The Belgian places the responsibility for the development and correct use of AI on the developers of models such as OpenAI (45.7 percent), on the companies that develop solutions with AI, such as Salesforce (42.8 percent) and to a lesser extent on ethics oversight committees (31.9 percent).

What is AI?

Research from Salesforce shows that Belgians don’t really know what technology AI uses. The majority (74.5 percent) know that voice assistants and chatbots (72.6 percent) are AI-based, but only half (52.6 percent) are aware that AI makes purchasing suggestions online technology plays an important role in fraud detection (36 percent).

We also believe that the term AI has a different meaning today than it did two years ago. Because what was previously called predictive analytics or fell under the term machine learning now bears the stamp of AI.

Turning back

Belgians are particularly enthusiastic about the time savings that AI can enable (44.2 percent). A majority fear that there is a significant downside. 58.6 percent believe we will lose human control in decision-making, 54.5 percent see a decline in human interaction, and 53.3 percent believe jobs will disappear due to the rise of AI.