Salesforce's latest survey report shows that global consumers are becoming increasingly positive about AI agents, but trust remains the main challenge. Based on more than 15,000 respondents, the report explores consumers' views, expectations and concerns about AI agents, revealing the opportunities and challenges facing enterprises in AI applications. The survey results cover many aspects such as consumer trust in the company, concerns about data privacy, and service experience expectations, providing a valuable reference for enterprises to improve their AI agent application strategies.
With the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, more and more consumers are willing to communicate with AI agents in order to obtain faster services. According to a new survey report by tech company Salesforce, more than 15,000 respondents worldwide show that consumers are increasingly positive about AI agents, although there are still challenges in trust.
The survey found that 72% of consumers believe their trust in the company has declined in the past year. And 60% of respondents believe that advances in AI technology make companies’ responsibilities in building trust more important. Meanwhile, 54% of AI users expressed doubts about the data used to train these systems, showing consumer concerns about data privacy and security. In addition, 80% of consumers believe that a good customer experience is as important as the product itself, while 65% of respondents believe that companies are too hasty when processing customer data.
There are also some key findings in the survey that 69% of consumers expect consistent interactions across departments, and more than one-third of respondents said cumbersome returns or inconvenient buying experiences can lead to brands losing loyal customers. Consumers have a maximum waiting time of nine hours when solving a single customer service problem, and in the past six months, nearly one-third of customers have failed to get the solutions they need after interacting with customer service.
Despite many problems, 54% of consumers say they don’t care about how they interact with the company and just hope that the problem can be solved quickly. It is worth noting that about one-third of consumers are willing to choose automated or digital ways to buy products, while 34% of respondents are willing to communicate with AI agents to avoid repeated descriptions of the problem.
Transparency is particularly important in this process, with 45% of consumers saying that if they can clearly understand the channels for problem escalation, they will be more inclined to use AI agents. At the same time, 44% of consumers also hope that the logic of AI agents can be clearly explained. Although younger generations (such as Gen Z and Millennials) have relatively low acceptance of AI agents, overall, consumers' expectations and acceptance of AI agents are gradually increasing.
In short, building trust, increasing response speed and ensuring personalized services will be the key to future success of enterprises in AI proxy applications.
Key points:
72% of consumers say their trust in the company has declined and the trust problem needs to be solved urgently.
More than one-third of consumers are willing to choose to interact with AI agents for faster service.
Transparency and clear upgrade channels will enhance consumers' willingness to use AI agents.
All in all, the report clearly points to the challenges and opportunities that businesses face when leveraging AI agents to enhance their customer experience. Only by improving transparency, paying attention to data security and personalized services can we win the trust of consumers and ultimately realize the successful application of AI agents.