AI must earn trust through governance & infrastructure

Technology executives are using AI Appreciation Day to argue that artificial intelligence will gain lasting public support only if companies pair rapid deployment with trusted infrastructure, stronger governance and customer experience improvements that work quietly in the background.

This focus on AI's social and technical foundations comes as businesses race to integrate generative tools into products and operations across sectors.

Thales research points to a widening trust gap between businesses building AI and the consumers affected by it. Its Digital Trust Index shows near-universal adoption plans among IT and security leaders, yet relatively low public confidence in how organisations handle AI and data.

Chris Harris, EMEA Technical Director for Data and Application Security at Thales, said AI has already moved from experimentation into mainstream deployment. He argued that the next phase of adoption will depend less on model sophistication than on how organisations manage transparency and control.

"AI has won the innovation race. Now it has to earn confidence.

Organisations are moving quickly to deploy AI, but public confidence hasn't kept pace. Our latest Thales Digital Trust Index found that 93% of IT and security leaders are already deploying or planning generative AI, yet only 23% of consumers trust companies to use AI responsibly with their data. Businesses that give equal weight to transparency, security and governance alongside innovation will be the ones that turn AI investment into lasting customer confidence and, ultimately, appreciation.

Consumers aren't rejecting AI wholesale; they're drawing a clear line between AI that helps and AI that decides. Our research shows that 63% are comfortable with AI supporting everyday online tasks, but 77% say a company's use of generative AI would not increase their trust in it. Confidence is high when AI augments people, but it drops when AI starts acting autonomously. That's where robust security, human oversight and clear accountability become essential.

The organisations that succeed with AI will be those that communicate clearly, embed security and responsible governance from the outset, and ensure people remain in control," Harris said.

While Thales stresses governance and oversight, Twilio highlights AI's behind-the-scenes role in customer engagement and digital services. Peter Bell, Vice President of EMEA Marketing at Twilio, said the most valuable systems often sit beneath the surface rather than at the visible interface.

He cited projects such as the Guinness Price Index, which uses AI to track the cost of a pint, as an example of how data and automation can address specific but tangible consumer needs.

"The best AI is the AI you barely notice. It's technology working quietly in the background to remove everyday friction, reduce small moments of stress, and help people get on with their day. One of my favourite recent examples is the Guinness Price Index. On the surface, it's a fun project that uses AI to track the cost of a pint. But it demonstrates something much bigger: how AI can take a real-world problem, combine data, communications and automation, and turn it into something genuinely useful and accessible.

It's a reminder that innovation doesn't always have to solve the world's biggest challenges to have a meaningful impact; it can simply make everyday life a little better and a good-value pint easier to find.

As AI becomes more embedded in the products and services we use every day, we'll increasingly appreciate it not for the technology itself, but for the experiences it enables. The future isn't about replacing human interaction; it's about removing unnecessary complexity so that when people do connect, those interactions are faster, more relevant, more personal and ultimately more human.

That's what AI Appreciation Day is really about: not celebrating AI for its own sake, but recognising the builders, developers and innovators applying it thoughtfully to solve real problems. The most successful AI won't be the loudest or the flashiest. It will be the AI that quietly earns our trust by making everyday experiences simpler, smoother and just a little less stressful," Bell said.

Network providers are also using the occasion to emphasise AI's dependence on digital infrastructure, arguing that compute, data flows and edge locations now sit at the centre of AI strategy rather than in the background.

"Artificial Intelligence Appreciation Day shouldn't just be about appreciating AI. It should be about appreciating the digital infrastructure that makes AI possible. Around the world, organisations are discovering that AI is only as intelligent as the networks, edge environments and data ecosystems supporting it.

The next wave of AI innovation won't be won by whoever builds the biggest model. It will be won by whoever can move data faster, process intelligence closer to where it's created, and deliver secure, real-time insights at global scale. That is why network technology and edge computing have become strategic enablers of AI rather than background infrastructure.

As AI moves from centralised cloud environments to factories, hospitals, retail locations, financial institutions and smart cities, intelligence must move closer to the edge, where milliseconds can determine outcomes and resilience becomes a competitive advantage.

AI Appreciation Day is also a reminder that innovation carries responsibility. Building trustworthy AI requires secure networks, transparent governance, resilient infrastructure, and human oversight at every stage. The future of AI won't be defined by algorithms alone. It will be defined by the quality of the digital foundation beneath them and by our ability to combine human expertise with intelligent systems to solve global challenges responsibly," said Richard Boudria Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BCN.