Emerging Technology Sentiment Analysis, Q3 2021 - Thematic Research

This report contains analysis of polls designed to help us understand the current sentiment of the business community towards emerging technologies and ESG (environmental, social, and governance).

Key Highlights

• Artificial intelligence (AI) was the technology perceived as most disruptive in Q3 2021, regaining its position from augmented reality (AR), which held the top spot in Q2 2021.
• Perceptions of the disruptive potential of AI and AR are more volatile than those of other emerging technologies. For example, perceptions of cybersecurity and cloud computing have been stable in recent quarters.
• Respondents remained skeptical about corporate commitments to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues.
• The share of respondents that believed that most companies are fully committed to ESG remained relatively low (27%), even though it is now at its highest level since the publisher started asking the question in Q1 2021.

Scope

• Our sentiment polls ran between July and September 2021 on the publisher's Verdict network of B2B websites, which have 59 million unique visitors a year. In total, 2,128 respondents participated in the survey.
• The survey focused on seven emerging technologies: 5G, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, blockchain, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and the Internet of Things.
• It also looked at attitudes towards ESG, the most important theme impacting businesses over the next decade.

Reasons to Buy

• This survey gives a unique insight into the views of the business community on emerging technology and ESG.
• The responses reveal which technologies executives view as most disruptive, which they believe to be over-hyped, and how their opinion of them has changed over time.
• They also provide insight into attitudes towards ESG, including whether companies have changed their behavior to meet ESG targets.