The AI Backlash Isn't Really About AI

Companies are moving quickly to add AI to customer service, marketing and digital products.

Customers are moving quickly, too. But not always in the direction companies expect.

The AI backlash is easy to misunderstand. Most customers aren't rejecting AI itself. They're rejecting companies that use AI to make the experience better for the company while making it worse for the customer.

That's an important distinction.

Customers are open to AI, when it helps

Recent research from BCG found that 31% of consumers already use AI somewhere in their purchasing journey, roughly three times the percentage from 18 months ago. Among regular AI users, 70% ultimately buy products that AI recommends.

Consumers can see the value AI brings. It can reduce complexity, provide faster answers, and introduce people to useful products and services.

But customers accept the use of AI under certain conditions. Adding AI is not, by itself, an improvement.

A friendly bot that doesn't understand you is still a bad experience

Qualtrics studied 7,001 consumers across seven countries and found that AI customer-service agents performed relatively well on friendliness but struggled most with understanding.

And understanding was the quality most closely associated with actually resolving the customer's problem.

Most teams track containment: whether the bot handled the situation without a human. But you need to track resolution, whether it actually solved the customer's problem.

Even loyal customers have limits

This is a service-design problem

AI changes more than an interface. It changes the relationship among the customer, employees and the organization.

Before implementing customer-facing AI, teams should ask:

1. 1What customer evidence tells us that AI belongs in this moment?
2. 2What will improve for the customer, not only for the company?
3. 3Where do customers welcome AI, and where do they need human judgment?
4. 4Can customers easily correct, override, or bypass the AI?
5. 5Are we measuring resolution, trust, and customer effort, or simply automation?

These questions cannot be answered reliably through internal assumptions or technology demonstrations. They require customer research, mapping journeys, blueprinting your service, prototyping, and real-world testing.

The emerging competitive advantage

Soon, nearly every organization will have access to capable AI. Simply having the technology will not make a company different.

The advantage will belong to organizations that understand people well enough to know where AI belongs.

That is what Stratos brings together:

Research establishes what people need. Strategy decides where AI belongs, interaction design makes it usable, and service design ensures the complete system delivers the intended experience.

AI can accelerate an experience. But it cannot tell you which experience your customers actually need.

That still requires doing the human homework.

Where should AI fit in your customer experience?

If your team is considering a customer-facing AI solution, or has already launched one, we can help you identify the opportunities, assumptions, and experience risks that deserve attention.

Schedule a complimentary 15-minute call to get some clarity and let's talk. We can talk about your customer-facing AI opportunity and help you identify the most important question your team should answer before investing further.