42% of holiday shoppers say AI has made service less helpful
There’s been an 11 per cent jump in the number of consumers who say brands’ use of generative and agentic artificial intelligence (AI) has made accessing customer service amid the holidays worse instead of better, according to research published by Forethought.
Based in San Francisco where it provides AI agents to enhance customer experiences (CX), Forethought surveyed more than 1,000 U.S. adults to produce its 2025 State of AI in CX Holiday Report.
While the research also showed 42 per cent of shoppers find AI helpful, that number has dropped from 48 per cent when Forethought fielded the same survey last year.
Brands’ success with AI in CX may be limited by the degree to which consumers willingly share their information. Forethought’s report found 38 per cent refuse outright to let their personal data train AI models, while 24 per cent were willing provided security and privacy was properly addressed.
The AI challenges are coming at a time when overall consumer expectations are higher than ever. Forethought found, for instance, that 57 per cent of shopper refuse to wait more than 10 minutes for customer service. That’s up from 50 per cent last year.
Forethought suggested that in some instances, AI has been deployed in such as way that it operates with failings common to the worst human support reps:
“Consumers aren’t frustrated with AI itself. They’re frustrated with AI that traps them in loops, forces them to explain their problem multiple times, or bounces them between departments without resolution,” the report says. “Other persistent complaints include limited support hours, being forced to call instead of resolving issues through their preferred channel, and simply taking too long to reach a resolution.”
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Forethought’s report is not gated or rendered as a downloadable PDF but more like a blog post. This should make it easy to share data that is well worth discussing among CX leaders and other business functional leaders trying to get AI right.
Beyond the overall satisfaction levels captured in the survey, the report also offers an interesting check-in on the finer nuances of AI-powered experiences.
Over the past year, for instance, the proportion of consumers who say they know when they’re interacting with AI for service has risen from 47 per cent to 55 per cent.
As that awareness grows, there appears to be less interest in AI that replicates human traits. In fact, 61 per cent said they want AI chatbots and agents to skip traditional greetings or attempt to make small talk.
This has implications for the many companies that have given their AI chat tools names, faces and personalities in an attempt to align with their branding. It may be that consumers see a more pared-down AI experience as more authentic (or less condescending).
Forethought did note that there was a big difference among younger generations, 41 per cent of whom wanted a human-like tone from AI. When you’ve grown up digital, and where even many friendships exist purely via social media, perhaps this makes sense. Brands (and their tech vendors) may need to think about how they can personalize AI experiences based on demographic trends.
Towards the end of its report, Forethought argued that generative AI may be failing to impress holiday shoppers but that agentic AI is in high demand. Yet there were no stats offered to support this. All most consumers probably want this Christmas — or amid any holiday — is a quality experience. Whether it’s delivered via AI or a person is just one of the issues.
