89% of consumers say AI has hurt their experience in some way
Challenges introduced by artificial intelligence (AI) have reached the point where 43 per cent of consumers say they would pay more for a product that guarantees access to human support, according to research published by Alchemer.
The Louisville, Colo-based provider of feedback intelligence software surveyed more than 2,000 U.S. consumers to produce its 2026 AI & Customer Expectations Study.
AI has not only damaged customer experiences (CX) for the vast majority of consumers: Alchemer also found more than a quarter of those surveyed (27 per cent) say the technology has not made anything better.
The biggest complaints about AI was how it made it difficult to reach a person when consumers needed one, and that it didn’t understand the question being asked. Consumers also said AI-assisted responses have felt impersonal and that they had to repeat themselves, similar to issues that have traditionally plagued contact centers.
You could argue that AI is still relatively new in CX and that impressions will improve as it becomes more commonplace. However Alchemer’s research suggested this could be a false and even dangerous assumption for CX professionals.
“One pattern runs through the whole study: familiarity with AI doesn’t produce comfort with it,” the report’s authors wrote. “The consumers who use AI everyday report more problems with it, worry more about what it gets wrong, and are the most willing to pay to keep human support within reach.”
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Beyond the damning statistics, Alchemer’s report is helpful in highlighting the increased expectations that come with AI. For example, 59 per cent of consumers expect a faster response once they know a brand is using the technology to analyze feedback, and 30 per cent said “much faster.”
It’s hard to point to a brand that actually does anything close to this. In most cases, AI chatbots are quietly introduced to websites with a sense that consumers are supposed to feel grateful for a self-service option. You can understand why brands might shy away from guarantees, but even some messaging that suggests what the intended benefits for consumers are could set the stage for a more constructive conversation.
Brands will no doubt work to improve the AI-powered experiences they offer, but those efforts could potentially have greater impact if they were accompanied with transparency about what they’ve heard (both good and bad) and how it has informed their strategy.
Instead, consumers tend to get AI forced upon them that is essentially a black box, where they’re unsure whether their personal data is involved, what kind of service level they should expect and no obvious way to escalate issues to an employee.
AI is being deployed across industries, which makes this approach so common it might seem acceptable. Yet Alchemer’s ungated report offers several key takeaways (and a plug for its latest product, Iris) that are worth further exploration before AI usage goes much further.
