The less people know about AI, the more they use it

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📝 Intro

Remember the very first time you ever used ChatGPT? A task that used to take hours was suddenly done in seconds. Felt like magic right?

Prof. Chiara Longoni from Bocconi University, co-author of this new research, explains:

“Our work shows that those with limited knowledge about AI tend to be more receptive to using the technology because they view AI as magical and awe inspiring. This sense of magic makes them more open to using AI tools. This means that initiatives aimed at enhancing AI literacy could inadvertently reduce enthusiasm for AI by stripping away its sense of magic.”

Here’s what this means for your marketing.

P.S.: For more on how to optimize your use of AI, make sure you check out our Science-based Playbook of AI Best Practices.

Target your AI products to non technical audiences

Topics: AI | Messaging & Copy
For: Both B2C and B2B 
Research date: January 2025 
Universities: University of Southern California, Bocconi University, George Washington University.

📈 Recommendation

If your product uses AI, target your marketing to people with a lower technical understanding of how AI works (e.g. people in non-tech industries) and highlight the AI aspect in your messaging.

People will see your AI-powered products as awe-inspiring, and will be more open to trying and using it than people with a higher understanding of AI.

🎓 Findings

• People with lower knowledge about AI are more open to using it, compared to people with higher AI knowledge.

• As part of a series of 7 experiments and a survey of 19,504 people from 28 countries, researchers found that compared to people who were familiar with AI, people who scored low on AI literacy:

  • Were 31% more likely to use AI

  • Were more willing to use AI to complete tasks (e.g. writing assignments)

  • Were 29% more likely to perceive AI as magical

  • Preferred having AI carry out tasks (e.g. writing a business plan), compared to having humans do it

🧠 Why it works

• We feel a sense of awe when we see a machine (AI) carry out tasks we thought only humans could do (e.g. writing and having conversations).

• When we have limited knowledge of how AI works at a technical level, this feeling is heightened and we perceive AI as magical.

• This feeling of magic and awe towards AI, makes us more willing to use it.

• This is weakened when we understand that current AI is just a probabilistic model of most likely patterns and words, and is not really ‘intelligent’.

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✋ Limitations

• The study findings may fade in the future. People’s openness to AI and perceptions of it as magical are likely to decrease as AI becomes more prevalent and people understand it more.

• The type of task performed by AI impacts how magical it’s considered. Generative, human-like tasks such as writing or making a graphic are likely to be perceived as more magical compared to using AI for technical tasks like data analysis.

🏢 Companies using this

• Canva, targeting non-technical audiences, highlights heavily their AI features, adding “AI” to their new feature names (e.g. “Canva AI”).

• On the contrary, IBM’s targets their Watsonx code assistant tool to developers, using technical language and focusing on features and uses, rather than the AI component.

• Yuka, an app providing health impact metrics by scanning product labels, is mostly used by non technical audiences which could be more receptive to using it if they highlighted their use of AI in their messaging. They now have no mention of it.

Content creation AI tool “Omagic” uses AI as their core differentiating factor, targeting non-technical audiences and comparing their AI to magic to evoke a sense of awe.

⚡ Steps to implement

• Try to understand your customers’ level of understanding of and experience with AI and adjust your messaging accordingly.

• If you’re targeting people with low AI literacy, highlight your use of AI:

  • Mention AI in your value proposition (e.g. Create faster with AI), feature names (e.g. AIwriter), or mention it in your general messaging

  • To increase use of these AI features, mention magic when talking about AI. For example refer to AI as magical (e.g. Unleash the magic of AI in content creation) or use magic metaphors

• If you target people with high AI literacy (e.g. data scientists, developers), focus on other characteristics of your product or service as highlighting AI heavily may not increase adoption as much.

🔍 Study type

Lab and online experiments and market observation (survey of 19,504 adults polled between November and December of 2021, across 28 different countries)

📖 Research

Lower artificial intelligence literacy predicts greater AI receptivity. Journal of Marketing (January 2025)

🏫 Researchers

• Stephanie M. Tully (University of Southern California)

• Chiara Longoni (Bocconi University)

• Gil Appel (George Washington University)

Remember: This is a new scientific discovery. In the future it will probably be better understood and could even be proven wrong (that’s how science works). It may also not be generalizable to your situation. If it’s a risky change, always test it on a small scale before rolling it out widely.

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