How citizens use devices and AI: what government needs to know

For 16 years, Deloitte’s Digital Consumer Trends has been reporting on how citizens use devices and the services they access on them. That’s hugely important insight for government in its push for digital transformation, so in this article we explore what the latest edition of this research means for the UK’s public sector technologists. Let’s start with the survey’s findings on Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The trouble with robots

This year’s Digital Consumer Trends sees a substantial uplift in the use of Gen AI . Our 2025 report finds that almost half the public (47%) has proactively used a Gen AI tool, up from a quarter two years ago (26%). And the number of people using it daily and weekly has reached 21%. That’s an encouraging pace of adoption given that government is clear AI could drive up the UK’s pedestrian productivity levels.

But it does come with risks, and the most obvious is data security. Our survey finds that one in five (21%) of the 11 million UK workers using Gen AI are paying for it themselves to use at work. That’s around two million people accessing AI platforms, quite possibly without knowledge, agreement or sanction from their employer. The potential for breaches of data or confidentiality are self-evident, especially if employees are uploading material for analysis.

Clear rules for employees and IT barriers are important ways to mitigate this risk, but it does raise the question: why are people willing to spend their own money on Gen AI for use at work? The quality of the tool could be part of the answer. According to our survey, just 16% are currently using their employer’s own Gen AI. It seems likely that inferior in-house platforms are driving workers elsewhere, so the ideal solution has got to include investment in AI that meets your peoples’ needs.

Another risk that comes with the rise of AI is overconfidence in its accuracy. Some 40% of people who use Gen AI at work told us that it ‘always produces factually accurate responses’. Alas, it does not. Current Gen AI hallucinates. Or more accurately, its ‘probabilistic’ model guesses the likelihood of words in a sequence based on its original training. In practice, that means inaccurate Gen AI responses can masquerade as correct with a cavalier level of confidence. The risk here is that inaccuracies could find their way into any analysis, and even inadvertently misinform material decisions. In the public sector, that is a risk too far. At best, it could lead to questions no minister would want to answer at the despatch box.

Risks aside, AI has extraordinary potential for the interface between citizens and the state. We are already seeing an increase in AI-driven chatbots, and citizen-facing staff will increasingly have access to AI-powered intel to help them support members of the public in real time. Another possibility are AI assistants that can converse naturally on a phone or video call. Our survey tested the public’s appetite for that and found the majority – some 59% – less inclined to use customer services if they were talking to AI. That should not dishearten developers and evangelists. Almost a quarter (23%) were ambivalent and 16% told us they were happy to talk to a robot. As we get more and more used to AI in our lives, we expect the number of people open to AI’s use in citizen interaction to go up. It will go up faster if the public sector shows people how good it can be. 

Left to their own devices

Digital Consumer Trends has been tracking the rise of the smartphone for more than a decade, and this year’s edition shows just how pervasive they have become. As the chart shows, 95% of the UK population uses a smartphone, and that only dips to 93% among the older 60-75 age group. Smartphones span the generations.

The chart also shows how device ownership has remained at a plateau for some years. Given that no new mainstream devices are on the horizon, we can say with some certainty that plans for citizen engagement should focus on smartphones. Over-enthusiastic forecasts about virtual reality environments have mercifully calmed down but should continue to be treated with caution.

For the public sector, digital inclusion is of course vital. Digital Consumer Trends offers insight into device ownership by demographics and confirms that smartphones are largely accessible for people on lower incomes. The nature of mobile contracts and a thriving second hard market make handsets available to more people than outright purchase, although higher earners are significantly more likely to have upgraded their handset last year. Access to laptops and tablets appears to be waning, and it’s likely they could become the preserve of higher-income and knowledge-worker groups.

Digital Consumer Trends has also tracked the growth of smart home devices. Overall, adoption of devices like voice assisted speakers, robot vacuums and video doorbells continue to grow slowly. We conclude that price is not the more important factor, but perceived utility – people won’t invest in devices unless they will make a difference to their lives.

There’s an important takeaway here for the future of health and social care. Personal alarms already play a huge role in helping vulnerable people stay securely in their own home. It’s widely acknowledged that much more can be done with technology to support independent living, and our research suggests substantial market potential in the next 25 years. If 37% of boomers (aged 60-75) have already got some form of connected home device, that suggests a level of comfort with such technology that could be built on as they grow older.

Fake news and social media bans

While smartphones are ubiquitous across all adult ages, there is of course one group in society who don’t (always) have smartphones: children. The optimal age for kids to get their first phone is a common topic of debate in many households, and our survey finds 50% of the public feel between ten and thirteen is about right. Curiously, many seem to believe that owning a smartphone is fine for pre-teens but access to social media is not. As the chart shows, 64% of us say that somewhere between fourteen and sixteen or older is most appropriate to start accessing social platforms.

There is a significant generational shift when it comes to social media that is highly relevant to government: access to news. The chart shows how older generations rely on TV news while younger groups get their news from social media. We also found that 76% of the public believe they have seen misinformation online in the last year.. The implications for this channel shift and the misinformation that can accompany it are arguably yet to play out in full. But we have seen glimpses of how irresponsible commentary on social media can play out in real life.

Conclusions

We draw three conclusions for the public sector from the latest Digital Consumer Trends:

Citizen interaction needs to major on mobile – but app quality matters. Smartphones are not only pervasive across all adult age groups, they are accessed by people on lower incomes and other factors associated with marginalisation. For accessibility and inclusion, smartphones are the only show in town and that’s likely to be the case for the foreseeable future. But a word of caution: the calibre of phone apps varies wildly. While government has its own guidelines to underpin quality, it needs to be sure that apps developed by partners meet their expectations of user experience.

Gen AI is in an explosive, risky and brilliant phase of its evolution. As use of Gen AI continues to grow at pace, public bodies need to acknowledge the risks of employees using external platforms, and the prospect of inaccurate responses. Never before has a technology iterated before our eyes, and that’s exciting and dangerous in equal measure. While the risks in Gen AI are clear, the potential is huge – and managing both is government’s current challenge.

News is a generational issue. We are seeing a generational shift in how people consume news. While boomers remain wedded to TV bulletins, Gen Z is opting to keep up with current affairs via social media. Government needs to remain alert to this trend for at least three reasons: to inform its own communications with younger age groups; to understand the media’s evolving role in democracy and scrutiny; and to track how unregulated news from bad actors could be used to manipulate.

Deloitte’s Digital Consumer Trends is available in full here, or please contact us for more information.