Robotics and artificial intelligence (R&Ai) perceptions of consumers and producers: An international comparison among Portugal and Spain

In this paper we study the perceptions of producers and consumers regarding Artificial Intelligence (IA) and robots and perform an empirical study to Portugal and Spain. We base ourselves in current theory about the phenomena and construct to questionnaires, one for each side of the market; we apply the two questionnaires in Portugal and in Spain. We use factor analysis and clusters analysis to obtain our results. We conclude that the consumers have a positive perception about the use of IAs, with an interesting limitation – people, in Portugal and in Spain do not believe robots will ever have emotions. We also conclude that the producers have a rather optimistic view about the use of robots, namely they believe AI and robots will simplify the hard tasks and create more spice for real creative actions by the workers. Put together, these results show that in Iberia the basic forces on the AI market have an optimistic view about the phenomena. This idea, which is a bit at odds with some discourse served by the media, which may be therefore as alarmist, is a sign of hope and should be taken into account by the public powers, particularly in these Covid-19 times. This study is small in size and should be repeated in a larger scale soon, preferably in 2021.