80% of knowledge workers knowingly make business decisions based on unreliable information

The vast majority (80%) of knowledge workers admit to making business decisions based on information they aren’t entirely sure about. That’s according to a study from AI-powered market intelligence platform AMPLYFI.

Knowledge workers are reliant on search engines, social media and third-party research to make critical business decisions. Validating this wide variety of content is considered the number one priority (54%) as it forms the basis of this decision making.

Despite this, 88% say they only discover information is inaccurate after putting plans in place.

AMPLYFI commissioned independent research house Censuswide to poll 100 decision makers within businesses of at least 250 people, with the aim to benchmark how selective knowledge workers are about the content they read and trust.

Paul Teather, AMPLYFI’s CEO, commented: “Trustworthy content is in danger of being an echo chamber of what lots of peers are seeing and thinking. A truly original and independent view can only be taken with a wider appraisal of the available content. Even if some of the insight makes for uncomfortable reading.”

The study found that 93% of knowledge workers are confident that they are accessing the most relevant resources available to them. However, only 6% frequently go past the first page on a Google search to find relevant results, and only two in 10 (21%) choose to explore new channels.

64% of knowledge workers fear that navigating the increasing volume of content around their industry is becoming unsustainable – which will only get worse as the datasphere grows.

At the same time, trust in technology is at an all-time high, with 86% of knowledge workers deeming AI platforms to be altogether trustworthy.

However, the AI industry is fighting a bigger battle, as over three quarters of respondents (78%) believe that popular Generative AI models like ChatGPT are actually eroding people’s trust in AI.

Teather added: “These AI tools are chasing the broadest possible user base and are essentially B2C tools that can also be used by organisations. However, this use has to be carefully managed so as not to undermine the truly transformative potential of the technology when applied to a specific use case.”

Survey respondents reveal that primary benefits of AI for market intelligence to be faster data analysis (44%), making it easier to identify market opportunities (38%) and improved accuracy of research (38%).

Over three quarters (81%) state that generative AI provides accurate and relevant intelligence and insight, and the most common measure of trust is that it has been externally validated and fact checked (37%), which trustworthy AI can offer.

Teather concludes: “In every organisation, knowledge workers are under pressure to become more effective, to take shortcuts, to "hack" processes. But along the way, we have to make sure that these steps do not undermine the very things they sought to benefit. We believe that AI unlocks huge potential to solve both a volume and quality challenge in the content space."