Verizon has launched its latest CX Annual Insights Report, revealing that while artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming customer experience (CX) efficiency, a gap remains between operational gains and consumer satisfaction. While brands are celebrating AI-driven efficiency gains in customer experience (CX), a significant gap exists between their internal benefits and the often-underwhelming service that consumers are actually experiencing. According to Verizon’s CX Annual Insights report, the future of CX is not just about implementing AI, but about strategically integrating it to amplify human connections and address core customer frustrations.

The report, based on a survey of 5,000 consumers and 500 senior executives across seven countries, reveals a critical disconnect:

  • Human touch still reigns supreme: A striking 88 per cent of consumers are satisfied with interactions handled mostly or fully by human agents, while only 60 per cent feel the same about interactions driven by AI. This preference highlights a fundamental truth: AI’s efficiency cannot replace the empathy and trust that a human provides.
  • The biggest frustration: The Human Hand-Off: The single biggest source of consumer frustration with automated interactions is the inability to speak or chat with a live human agent when needed. Nearly half of all consumers (47 per cent) cited this as their top annoyance. Brands themselves recognise this, with a similar percentage of executives reporting this as the main complaint they receive about AI-enabled interactions.
  • The personalisation paradox: Despite personalisation being a top AI use case for brands, most consumers aren’t seeing the benefits. In fact, more consumers said personalisation has detracted from their overall experience (30 per cent) than improved it (26 per cent). A significant factor is data privacy, with 65 per cent of executives stating that data privacy rules limit their ability to use AI for personalisation. This is a critical issue as 54 per cent of consumers report a decline in their trust in companies to use their personal data properly.

Commenting on the report, Daniel Lawson, senior vice president (SVP), Global Solutions, Verizon Business, “The future of CX is not about AI replacing humans; it is about using AI to make human interactions better. Businesses that use AI to preempt customer needs, empower their employees, and enhance personalisation while respecting privacy will be the market leaders of tomorrow.”

AI is being successfully leveraged by companies to enhance team capabilities and improve customer experience, rather than to replace human input.

  • The power of proactive help: As outlined in the Insights Report, energy utility company Exelon is a prime example. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, the company used AI and predictive analytics to identify middle-income households that might have trouble paying their energy bills. This enabled them to proactively reach out with personalised recommendations for assistance programs, earning customer appreciation and proving that AI can solve real-world problems with a human-centric approach.
  • AI as an agent’s assistant: Instead of being used to replace human agents, AI is being used to make them more effective. Exelon is piloting generative AI to help its customer service representatives handle calls more efficiently by providing the right data at the right time and summarising calls, which eases the agent’s burden. This aligns with the report’s finding that companies are now equally prioritising investments in both human and AI-driven CX improvements.