Over half of advertising professionals in the study ( 65%) said they knew what machine intelligence was, while 61% had heard of and knew what machine learning was.

The general public, however, had a far lower level of understanding of AI’s tenets. While the majority reported to have heard of and understand what AI itself is ( 77%), only a third ( 35%) knew what machine intelligence was, and understanding of machine learning was at the same level.

The new quarterly AI Radar report from the IPA found that consumer awareness of other AI-related terminology was low – just over half ( 55%) had heard of algorithms, 18% knew of programmatic and 16% were aware of artificial neural networks.

According to the research, the most commonly used services that harness some form of AI are predictive text ( 78%), email filtering ( 66%), and predictive search terms ( 62%).

The ability to give or find information was the most appealing benefit of AI for consumers ( 56%), followed by making their lives easier ( 45%) and educational purpose – ‘to educate me’ ( 39%).  

The online survey of 1,100 UK adults, including 100 advertising/marketing professionals, was conducted by Bilendi in March 2018.

Nigel Gwilliam, IPA consultant and head of media and emerging tech, said: “AI is bubbling up in all manner of places, but we don’t necessarily appreciate it as AI from the fuel injection and anti-lock brakes in your car to the heart of YouTube’s content filtering.”

He said the findings expose disparities that represent an opportunity for the advertising industry “to engage and guide clients on AI and take the lead in demystifying the landscape for consumers so they can better understand the real benefits”.