Study Finds Consumers Are Wary of Emerging Cyber Threats

Recent innovations in artificial intelligence, connected-home technologies and autonomous vehicle design are pretty exciting for scientists and software engineers, but consumers may still be hesitant to welcome these new technologies into their lives.

That’s what IT consulting firm SQS found in a recent survey of consumer attitudes toward new technological developments.

While many of the respondents who participated in the survey were aware of the potential benefits of these new technologies, their interest was often outweighed by concerns about hackers and other cyber threats.

• In fact, 48 percent of survey participants said that they were not interested in purchasing products that use artificial intelligence at all due to cybersecurity concerns.
• Even among those who were interested in AI-enabled products, 80 percent said that they would reconsider their purchase if products were targeted by hackers.

It might be easy to dismiss some of these concerns as mere paranoia, but many of the cybersecurity issues surrounding Internet-connected devices are actually very real. In 2015, for example, a team of white hat hackers managed to gain remote control of a Jeep Cherokee and disable it from afar. Security experts have raised concerns that other connected devices such as security cameras and smart thermostats may be vulnerable to hackers as well.

So what can tech companies do to put consumers’ minds at ease?

According to SQS, these companies should implement rigorous testing and quality assurance procedures to ensure that cybersecurity is a top priority, rather than an afterthought.

“It is crucial that companies adopt a quality-first approach to gain the trust of the consumer,” said SQS CEO Dik Vos in his comments on the study’s findings. “If advances such as AI, self-driving cars, home robots and connected houses are going to take off … stringent software testing and quality assurance must be carried out at every stage of product development to guarantee the safety of this technology.”

Want to learn more about how thorough software testing procedures can improve your product and make it more appealing to consumers? Give us a call today at (415) 878-2990 to speak with the quality assurance experts at Beta Breakers.