Dive Brief:
- Customers have broad concerns about AI ahead of the holiday season, but their trust grows when the technology is limited to specific tasks, according to a Sinch survey of about 2,500 consumers in eight countries released last week.
- The survey found that 43% of consumers say they believe AI will make holiday shopping easier, down from 48% last year.
- Despite their overall caution, 4 in 5 consumers say they are confident an AI assistant is trustworthy regarding tracking and shipping updates, and another three-quarters say they would trust AI with pre-purchase questions.
Dive Insight:
Despite confidence in AI taking specific, limited actions, customers don't trust AI on the whole to make shopping easier. That gap may come down to how shoppers are comfortable using the technology.
AI is still in its early years, and customer habits are still evolving as customers acclimate to the possibilities the technology represents, according to Dominick Miserandino, CEO of RTM Nexus.
Customers are comfortable with basic use cases like making lists, Miserandino said. Options like using AI to personalize gifts exist, but they are just now gaining mainstream attention and have yet to earn customers’ full trust.
As a result, it’s unclear how newer or less common AI features will impact the overall holiday season until they become more popular.
“I've noticed articles saying more and more people are getting alerts of when their items are on sale,” Miserandino told CX Dive. “Does that change Black Friday? We’re going to see a little bit of the answer this year as we work toward it.”
The most common use cases for AI are order tracking and product research, according to the Sinch survey. These were also the areas where customers find AI assistants most trustworthy.
While unfamiliarity plays a role in distrust, the desire to protect personal data plays a role, too. More than 2 in 5 consumers say privacy is their biggest reservation, topping the list for the second year in a row.
