Washington – In an increasingly connected environment, which are the devices that we choose to act as our gateways to the rest of the world? A new survey by market research firm Omdia and commissioned by CCIA delves into people’s digital technology use. The answers may surprise you. Smartphone use may be widespread, but desktops more than hold their share, and AI-driven enterprise usage on the desktop could be key to future GDP growth through productivity. In fact, the most surprising find is that young people prefer using desktops when it comes to interacting with AI.
The surveys run by Omdia were conducted with 1,000 Consumers and 1,000 Enterprise/ business users, to understand preferences between device types. The biggest differentiator seems to be between the consumer survey respondents and the Enterprise survey respondents. 78% of Enterprise respondents say they have access to both desktop and smartphone for work usage, but the desktop is preferred when it comes to AI applications and customer support.
One thing is for certain, allowing users to choose their device, browser, and application combination is key to enabling future gains, where allowing users agency will increase adoption.
Some interesting parts of the survey worth mentioning:
- Over two-thirds of all respondents say they’ve switched their default browser.
- 74% of enterprise users say AI will increase their desktop usage in the next 12 months.
- 39% of all consumers are using AI applications for their work several times a week, while 47% of enterprise users are doing so every single day.
- The top two priorities for enterprise and consumer users are making AI applications easier to use (both at 47%).
- 67% of consumers and 72% of enterprise users say they have changed their default browser on their device.
The following quote may be attributed to Trevor Wagener, CCIA’s Chief Economist and Director of the Research Center:
“The survey shows a preference for using desktop computers and browsers over smartphones to access AI tools amongst enterprise users, implying that most of the estimated $6.6 trillion economic impact of AI productivity gains by 2030 will be driven by desktops and browsers.”
