Research Report

What Consumers Actually Think of AI Customer Service

Businesses are racing to deploy AI voice agents. Consumers, according to the actual survey data, are not nearly as enthusiastic -- yet. A sourced look at five 2025-2026 studies on trust, frustration and what people actually want when they call a company for help.

Botnira Research · Reviewed by Kamaljeet Singh Sidhu, Founder & CEO of Botnira · Published September 6, 2026 · 8 min read

Key findings

What the surveys actually found

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84.9% prefer humans

Metrigy's Nov 2025 study of 503 US/Canada consumers found this share prefers human agents over AI, even when AI could resolve the issue equally well.

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78% try to bypass AI

Consumers who have tried to skip past an AI agent to reach a human, per Twilio's Customer Insights Series.

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76% want disclosure

Consumers who believe AI should identify itself at the start of a conversation, per Twilio -- though actual disclosure lags that expectation.

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Generational split

Millennials show the highest comfort with AI for complex tasks (41%); Gen Z is 3x more likely than Boomers to have used AI for high-stakes requests.

The trust gap is real, and it's bigger than most vendor messaging suggests

Metrigy's Customer Experience Optimization 2025-26 study, based on 503 US and Canadian adults surveyed in November 2025 and published February 18, 2026, found 84.9% of consumers prefer human agents over AI agents for customer service. Notably, that preference barely moves even when the AI's competence isn't in question: 80.1% still prefer a human even when assured the AI could resolve their issue equally well, suggesting the preference is less about doubting AI capability and more about the interaction itself. Metrigy's CEO specifically flagged consumers 45 and older as the least comfortable cohort with AI agents.

PwC's 2025 Customer Experience Survey -- 5,511 US consumers and 406 executives, fielded May 21-June 30, 2025 -- reinforces the pattern from a different angle: 86% say human interaction is moderately or very important to their brand experience, and 58% describe themselves as only somewhat or not at all comfortable using AI to engage with brands. Not every study lands the same way, though: Zendesk-published material puts the figure at 51% preferring bots specifically when speed matters most, though that stat's sample size and methodology weren't disclosed as clearly as the other studies cited here, so it's worth treating as directional rather than as rigorously sourced.

Sources: Metrigy, Feb 18, 2026; PwC 2025 Customer Experience Survey; Zendesk, AI customer service statistics.

What specifically frustrates consumers about AI customer service

Parloa's Consumer Patience Index, based on 1,001 US adults and published June 25, 2026, is the most granular breakdown available of what actually annoys people: the top complaint is a bot that doesn't understand the request (25.9%), followed by long hold times (22.8%) and repeated transfers between AI and human agents (13.4%). Only 13.6% of respondents said they trust AI with complex requests, and 30.4% reported no trust in AI systems at all -- with 43.9% admitting they've yelled "human" or "person" specifically to escape a bot, and 17% resorting to profanity to trigger an escalation.

Twilio's Customer Insights research adds a global figure to that picture: 78% of consumers have tried to bypass an AI agent to reach a human, 80% report a negative AI experience globally, and a failed AI interaction wastes an average of 81 seconds before escalating. Verint's State of Digital Customer Experience 2024 study (1,500 consumers, August 2024) found over two-thirds report a bad chatbot experience, most commonly an inability to understand the customer's need, with roughly three in five citing excessive IVR menu prompts specifically as a pain point.

Sources: Futurism, citing Parloa's Consumer Patience Index; Twilio, why customers bypass AI agents; CX Dive, citing Verint's 2024 study.

Disclosure: what consumers want vs. what they say they're getting

On whether people want to know they're talking to an AI, the data is one of the clearer consensus points across studies: Twilio found 76% of consumers believe AI should identify itself at the start of a conversation. The same research surfaces a gap worth noting -- brands claim 81% disclose immediately, but consumers report actual disclosure happens only around 22% of the time. That's a stated perception gap between what businesses report doing and what customers say they experience, not an independently audited measurement of either side, so it should be read as two competing self-reports rather than a verified fact about disclosure rates.

Disclosure preference also varies meaningfully by generation, per Ada and NewtonX's Agentic CX in 2026 study (2,000 global consumers, published April 2, 2026): 54% of Baby Boomers and 66% of the oldest "Post-War" cohort want disclosure before an interaction even begins, while Gen Z is more flexible on timing -- though even there, only 11% say they're fine with disclosure "only if asked," meaning most Gen Z respondents still want to be told, just with somewhat less insistence on it being immediate. The same study found 57% of consumers across all generations would stop using a company's AI entirely if it couldn't hand off to a human when needed -- a data point that argues for human hand-off as a baseline requirement, not a nice-to-have.

Sources: Twilio, Customer Insights Series; Ada/NewtonX, "Agentic CX in 2026," Apr 2, 2026.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Do most consumers prefer human agents over AI for customer service?

Yes, by a wide margin in most surveys. Metrigy's late-2025 study found 84.9% of consumers prefer human agents over AI agents, and 80.1% still prefer humans even when assured an AI could resolve the issue equally well.

What frustrates consumers most about AI customer service?

Parloa's 2026 Consumer Patience Index found the top complaint is talking to a bot that doesn't understand the request (25.9%), ahead of long hold times (22.8%) and being repeatedly transferred (13.4%). Twilio found 78% of consumers have tried to bypass an AI agent to reach a human.

Do consumers want to be told they're talking to an AI?

Yes, strongly. Twilio found 76% of consumers believe AI should identify itself at the start of a conversation, though consumers report actual disclosure happens far less often than businesses claim. Disclosure preference is strongest among older consumers -- Ada/NewtonX found 54-66% of Baby Boomers and older cohorts want disclosure upfront.

Kamaljeet Singh Sidhu

Founder & CEO of Botnira and CEO of The DigiSparrow. Reviews the independent industry research published on this hub.

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