The rapid growth of digital platforms, spanning mobile banking and e-commerce to health and agricultural technologies, has driven the shift towards a more connected, inclusive economy.
Yet, despite the enthusiasm, one key question continues to puzzle developers, governments, and businesses alike: What determines whether people will accept and use these new systems?
To address this question, we must first understand what influences consumers’ attitudes toward technology. Scholars have invested in numerous research to explain what drives consumers to accept and use a new technology. They use various theoretical frameworks to explain factors thatdetermine acceptance and use a given technology.
Two key factors stand out: how useful the technology appears to them, and how easy it seems to use. These perceptions, referred to as "perceived usefulness" and "perceived ease of use," form the basis of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), a widely used framework to explain why people accept or reject new technology.
As part of my doctoral work, I led a study across Kenya and published in 2023 where we set out to explore how demographic factors such as education, age, income, and gender moderate the relationship between consumer attitude and actual technology usage.
We asked once someone believes a technology is useful and easy to use, what other factors moderate these attitude and drive them to actual usage?
We used mobile banking as the specific context, but the lessons go far beyond banking. The findings can help inform the rollout of any consumer-facing technology; whether it’s a wearable health device, a smart farming tool, or a digital learning platform and many more.
In analysing data from over 1,700 respondents across Kenya, we tested how demographic factors moderate consumers’ perception towards actual usage of technology. We found that the perceived usefulness and ease of use of mobile technology and convenience have increasingly reduced the role of demographics in moderating consumers’ attitude to technology and actual usage.
Our data revealed that age did not matter significantly, older people were just as likely to use technology as younger ones, if they had the right knowledge. Similarly, income didn’t predict behaviour, once tech was affordable, earnings didn’t shape usage significantly. Equally, gender was not a barrier – women were just as likely as men to embrace technology.
Another study carried out in 2024 by Financial Sector Deepening in Kenya highlighted the narrowing gender gap in financial services usage, particularly in mobile money, where the gap reduced to 1.8 percent, down from 5.2 percent in 2021.
Once people had a positive attitude toward the usefulness and ease of a technology, only one factor influenced whether they used it: their level of education. Those with education beyond secondary school were 44 percent more likely to move from “I believe this tool is useful” to actually using it regularly.
Our findings were similar to those of FSD study in 2024, which found that education influenced access to information thereby increasing capacity to make financial decisions. For instance, according to the FSD study, In 2024, 98.5 percent of the respondents with tertiary education had access to formal financial services compared with 75.4 percent of those with no education.
Why did education emerge a great influencer of technology acceptance and usage? We were persuaded that education plays a key role in how consumers interpret, trust, and navigate technology. It enhances digital confidence, curiosity, and problem-solving skills. While affordability and access remain important, education is the real bridge between good intentions and sustained usage.
This consumer behaviour trend serves as an insight for product developers, innovators, marketers and policy makers: To optimise on this insight, businesses should consider investing heavily on consumer education to drive more digital confidence and usage.
Additionally, if your innovation is aimed at bringing convenience of access to daily relevant services such as payments, logistics, health access among others, demographic factors may not be a key segmentation approach in your design and go-to-market strategies. Instead, consumer education is a critical success driver in adoption and usage.
We see some important implications from these findings. A farmer may download a weather app, but without digital literacy, they may not optimise on the benefits of such as technology. A patient may receive a health app link, but without basic tech skills, they’ll likely to ignore it. A parent may be excited about e-learning, but if they lack tech fluency, they won’t help their child use it effectively.
What this means for businesses is that they must build for digital learners, not just digital natives. Include in-app guidance, simple interfaces, and community training in your product rollout.
Governments and donors should invest in practical digital skills at all levels of education, including adult learning. Treat digital literacy as a public good, just like roads or water.
The success of our digital economy will not be driven by gadgets or apps alone. It will be driven by people’s capacity to use them.
Researchers and Innovators should share findings in ways that decision-makers can act on. The should collaborate to translate data into clear insights that drive application in the daily lives of consumers.
The writer is the Group Director, Business Excellence at CIC Group and an enthusiast of applied technology for advancement of society.
