High Awareness, Higher Anxiety: Indians Most Aware of AI but Also Most Fearful, Survey Says

Since the launch of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot, in 2022, Indians have rapidly adapted to the technology. A new survey shows that about 95% of urban Indians say they know about AI, compared with just 65% of Australians and 81% of Singaporeans.

However, the report by global research firm Forrester also reveals that 45% of respondents in metro India believe AI poses a serious threat to society. In contrast, only 36% of adults in Australia and 28% in Singapore share this concern.

According to Vasupradha Srinivasan, Principal Analyst at Forrester, Indian consumers have always shown a stronger affinity for emerging technologies.

“The concerns emerge from a partial understanding of how AI models work and learn. The adaptive nature of AI, which produces hyper-personalised responses, makes it unnerving for non-technical users and raises fears about the extent of data access,” she said.

India’s AI Bet

The findings come as Indian companies and the government are making massive bets on AI. A recent report by Niti Aayog, the Centre’s lead think tank, says AI-driven opportunities could contribute $1–1.4 trillion to India’s GDP by 2035. By then, the Narendra Modi-led government aims to place India among a small group of developed nations as part of its ‘Viksit Bharat’ goal.

The government has launched the India AI Mission with an estimated budget of over ₹10,000 crore for five years. Built on seven core pillars, the mission aims to deploy more than 38,000 GPUs through a federated compute network, develop India-specific large language models, and establish an anonymised, consent-based public dataset platform—placing data at the centre of innovation, scalability, and governance in a diverse, multilingual nation.

Meanwhile, Nifty 50 companies are also spending billions on enhancing their AI capabilities. Reliance is building a massive data centre in Jamnagar, Gujarat, estimated to cost over $20 billion. Recently, it also invested $100 million in a joint venture with Meta to build and scale AI technology.

The Adani Group plans to invest $4 billion to establish 1.5 GW of net data centre capacity within the next two years. Through its AdaniConneX joint venture with EdgeConneX, it is also building hyperscale data centres in Chennai, Navi Mumbai, Noida, Visakhapatnam, and Hyderabad.

Bharti Airtel’s Nxtra is investing $600 million to double its net data centre capacity to 400 MW by 2026.

India’s AI Paradox

The Forrester survey also shows that 45% of metro Indians believe AI is biased. These concerns are stronger among those who are more knowledgeable about AI.

“Knowledge of AI and how it works allows people to better understand its risks and inaccuracies, fuelling concerns about bias and potential threats,” the report notes.

Interestingly, more Indians can detect AI-generated content than Singaporeans or Australians. In metro India, 56% of respondents said they usually know when AI is used in company interactions, compared with 22% in Australia and 25% in Singapore. A majority in all three countries—57% in India, 58% in Australia, and 51% in Singapore—believe organisations should disclose when they use AI.

Comfort with sharing personal data to improve AI varies widely: 46% in metro India are willing, versus just 13% in Australia and 18% in Singapore. The knowledge gap is also significant—among “knowledgeable” respondents, 69% in metro India, 58% in Australia, and 58% in Singapore said they could identify AI use, compared with only 26%, 6%, and 9% respectively among the less knowledgeable group.

The report also highlights generational differences. In Singapore and Australia, Gen Z is most likely to recognise AI use, whereas in metro India it is Millennials. In Singapore and Australia, students report higher AI awareness than workers, while in India the opposite is true.

The study surveyed more than 4,500 participants across metro India, Australia, and Singapore, including about 1,500 from India.

How Indians Use AI Tools

Among AI-enabled tools, language translation commands the highest trust, 64% of metro Indians expressed confidence in it, compared with 27% in Australia and 38% in Singapore. Other tools with relatively higher trust levels in India include text creation (60% versus 20–32% elsewhere), travel tools, virtual assistants, and productivity applications, each trusted by more than half of Indian respondents.

By contrast, tools such as chatbots, application assessments, and self-driving vehicles scored much lower, with less than 20% trust in India and only slightly higher levels in Australia and Singapore. Overall, metro India consistently reports stronger trust in AI outputs across categories.

But this trust comes with concerns. About 73% of Indians and 74% of Singaporeans worry most about online scams using AI tools. Many also cite identity theft, fake news, deepfakes, and violent content as threats from AI.

When it comes to regulation, just over half of respondents knew about government regulations on AI. Respondents in all three countries—Australia, metro India, and Singapore—said they trust such regulations about as much as they trust their own governments to manage AI risks.

India is addressing these risks through the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, which includes strict guidelines to prevent unauthorised data use and protect personally identifiable information.

“DPDP enforcement and continued education on the responsible use of AI will help address these concerns,” Srinivasan said.