Data Privacy Challenges in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: A Study of Privacy Awareness and AI Regulation

The rapid adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has increased the collection, processing and automated use of personal data. While AI supports innovation, personalization and efficiency, data-intensive AI systems create concerns relating to privacy, consent, transparency, profiling, security, surveillance and individual control. In India, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 provides a statutory framework for digital personal data, while the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 provide the implementation framework. This study examines privacy awareness and stakeholder perceptions of data-protection regulation in an AI-driven environment using secondary empirical evidence obtained from an existing published research/data source. The analysis focuses on privacy awareness, awareness of selected rights under the DPDP Act, perceived regulatory effectiveness, privacy-business balance and grievance redressal. Reported statistical evidence indicates higher privacy-awareness scores for professional stakeholders than laypersons, while organizational communication is associated with stronger awareness of privacy rights.