Companies are moving quickly to add artificial intelligence to customer service, but many consumers still prefer human help. In Five9’s 2026 Consumer CX Report, 92% of respondents said they give an AI customer-service interaction less than 10 minutes before asking to speak with a person.
The survey included 3,000 consumers and 600 business decision-makers in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. While 99% of business respondents said their contact centers were piloting AI or had already introduced it, only 20% of consumers said they use AI most of the time or always when seeking customer service.
More than half of consumers, 54%, described AI customer service as frustrating, and 48% said they try to avoid it as much as possible. Repeatedly misunderstanding a request was the most common reason for switching to a human, cited by 46%. Another 44% said the AI could not find an answer, while 42% preferred human assistance for complex issues. Even after a handoff, 35% of consumers who had moved from AI to a person said they often or always had to repeat information.
Consumers were more willing to let AI manage routine tasks than sensitive or complex ones. In the survey, 38% said AI could handle password resets without human involvement, and 35% said the same for order or account-status checks. The figures fell to 15% for refunds or financial adjustments, 13% for charge disputes and 10% for high-stakes escalations.
Transparency also mattered: 71% said it was very or extremely important to know whether they were speaking with an AI bot or a person. Satisfaction ratings were higher for human support, with 68% rating their most recent phone-support experience positively, compared with 46% for an AI or chatbot interaction.
The report found that customer service has increasingly involved AI and less human contact. Fifty-four percent of consumers said that shift had occurred over the previous two years, while 27% said the balance had moved in the opposite direction.
AI adoption is also appearing in sectors used by cord cutters. The report points to broadband providers, wireless carriers and streaming companies as businesses bringing AI into customer support and other routine operations. Comcast has expanded AI use in customer experience, while Verizon has introduced AI-powered support for tasks including billing questions, account management and plan changes. These developments illustrate the broader shift, but the survey’s findings suggest that consumers still expect access to a human when automated support falls short.
Sources: Cord Cutters News.