Companies have spent the past few years adding AI to support, surveys and review responses. Customers noticed. Most of them noticed the downsides first.
According to Alchemer’s 2026 AI & Customer Expectations Report, 89% of consumers say AI has hurt their experience with a company in some way. Ask the reverse question, whether AI has made anything better, and 27% say no. That’s a tough scorecard for a technology most companies adopted to improve the customer experience (CX).
TL;DR — key takeaways
- 89% of consumers say AI has hurt their experience with a company, according to Alchemer’s 2026 AI & Customer Expectations Report.
- 27% say AI has delivered no tangible benefit to their experience at all.
- The top complaint is difficulty reaching a person (44%), followed by responses that miss the question (37%).
- Only 17% of consumers want AI out of their customer experience entirely.
- The complaints are familiar service failures, which makes them fixable.
How many consumers say AI has hurt their customer experience?
89%. According to Alchemer’s 2026 AI & Customer Expectations Report, just 11.1% of consumers report no negative effects from the AI companies use. Nearly everyone has hit at least one problem. The report draws on a survey of 2,009 U.S. consumers.
| Measure | % of consumers |
|---|---|
| Say AI has hurt their experience in some way | 89% |
| Report no negative effects from company AI | 11.1% |
| Say AI has made nothing better | 27% |
| Don’t want AI involved in their customer experience | 17% |
| Would pay more for guaranteed human support | 43% |
The first two numbers describe different failures. Harm means AI did something that made the experience worse. Absence means AI showed up and nothing changed. Plenty of customers report both.
What are customers complaining about?
Service basics. The four most common negative effects in the study are:
- Difficulty reaching a person: 44.0% of consumers
- Responses that don’t understand the question or need: 37.3%
- Responses that feel impersonal: 31.7%
- Having to repeat information: 29.7%
Read that list again. Trouble reaching someone. Misunderstood questions. Impersonal replies. Repetition. None of these is an objection to AI as a concept. Each is a classic customer service failure, now delivered at machine speed.
The headline worries about AI come further down. Incorrect information lands at 26.0%, concerns about personal data at 13.2%, and not knowing when they’re talking to AI at 12.4%. Customers care more about whether the company solved the problem than about how the answer got generated.
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What does the 27% “no benefit” number tell us?
A gap between adoption and outcomes. Automation built mainly to reduce contact volume can leave customers with an extra layer to get through, rather than a faster path to an answer. When AI shows up without making anything quicker, clearer or easier, customers register it as absence.
The fix starts with the jobs customers named: resolve the issue faster, respond sooner and understand the request. Measure AI on those outcomes, and the 27% has room to shrink.
Do customers want AI out of the customer experience?
No. Only 17% say they don’t want AI involved at all. The rest have specific jobs in mind. According to Alchemer’s research, the top requests are faster issue resolution (38%), faster responses (34%) and better understanding of their needs (29%).
Customers have a clear picture of where AI belongs: analysis, feedback routing and always-on responses. They also want a person reachable when one is needed. That last part carries real weight. 43% say they would pay more for a product or service that guarantees access to human support.
Why does this matter for CX teams?
Because the 89% works as a to-do list, not a verdict. Every complaint in the data traces back to a workflow a team controls. Three moves follow directly from the findings:
- Keep the human path visible. Escalate sensitive, complex, low-confidence or repeated issues to a person.
- Judge automation on outcomes. Customer effort, repeat contacts and resolution tell a truer story than containment alone.
- Connect the records. When survey responses, reviews and support cases live in separate systems, every interaction starts from zero.
The optimistic read is the right one. Customers have told companies exactly what to fix, in order. Teams that act on that list can turn a 27% “no benefit” into a visible win.
Want the full report? Read the complete 2026 AI & Customer Expectations Report for every breakdown, the full list of improvements customers want and five practical priorities for CX leaders.
Methodology: Alchemer’s Research Solutions team surveyed 2,009 U.S. consumers for the 2026 AI & Customer Expectations Study.
FAQ
Q: What percentage of consumers say AI has hurt their customer experience?
A: 89% of consumers say AI has hurt their experience with a company in some way, according to Alchemer’s 2026 AI & Customer Expectations Report.
Q: Has AI improved the customer experience?
A: Not for everyone. 27% of consumers say AI has delivered no tangible benefit to their experience, per Alchemer’s 2026 AI & Customer Expectations Study of 2,009 U.S. consumers.
Q: What is the biggest complaint about AI in customer service?
A: Difficulty reaching a person, named by 44% of consumers. Misunderstood questions (37%) and impersonal responses (32%) follow.
Q: Do consumers want companies to stop using AI?
A: Mostly no. Only 17% don’t want AI involved in their customer experience. Most want AI to deliver faster resolution, quicker responses and better understanding, with a person available when needed.