Ada Study Finds Consumers Prefer “Always-On” AI Customer Service, But Only When It Can Successfully Resolve Their Issue
Ada, the trusted AI-native customer experience company and creator of the Agentic Customer Experience (ACX) Operating Model, today released a dual-sided primary research study exploring consumer sentiment toward AI customer service as well as trends and obstacles in enterprise ACX adoption. The study reveals that most enterprises are falling short when it comes to issue resolution – the factor that matters most to consumers – instead optimizing for factors such as cost reduction and deflection.
Conducted in partnership with NewtonX, the study surveyed 2,000 consumers and 500 enterprise CX and AI-decision makers across North America, Europe, and Asia, and identified a growing gap between businesses’ AI ambitions and the real, day-to-day experiences of their customers.
The findings challenge the common assumption that consumers are skeptical of AI in customer service. Instead, the research validates that consumers are welcoming of the technology and, in many cases, prefer it, as long as it addresses their needs.
Key Findings:
- 59% of consumers prefer instant, 24/7 AI customer service over waiting for a human, but only when the technology can actually resolve their issue.
- Yet only 24% of consumers say their most recent AI customer service interaction was fully resolved by AI alone. The remaining 76% either required escalation to a human agent, received only partial resolution, or abandoned the interaction entirely.
- Most AI agents aren’t fully resolving consumer issues, yet businesses aren’t operationally mature enough to realize it. 55% of businesses lack visibility into AI agent performance, making it difficult to determine when and where AI is working, limiting the ability to assess long-term ROI and business impact.
Consumers Value Accuracy, Capability Over Empathy
The survey asked consumers to rank the most important attributes of customer service and found that accuracy and problem-solving ability were their top priorities, well ahead of empathy. Common reasons consumers reported for failed AI experiences included: comprehension failures where AI did not understand the request (74%), capability gaps where AI could not handle the complexity (56%), and the AI repeating the same unhelpful response (50%).
Despite AI Enthusiasm, Enterprise Gaps Remain
Businesses across verticals are rapidly deploying AI in customer service, but the study finds a significant misalignment between what enterprises prioritize and what consumers actually value. Organizations most often cited benefits such as reduced wait times, lower cost per interaction, and increased ticket deflection. Yet, consumers value resolution most, an outcome that ranked seventh among the top outcomes for businesses.
More than half of businesses lack an effective measurement infrastructure
A key contributor to this misalignment is that most businesses don’t have enough visibility to isolate AI agent performance. 55% of businesses surveyed are measuring and reporting on AI and human agent interactions together, making it even more difficult to isolate AI performance or connect it to downstream influence on metrics such as customer loyalty or revenue growth. Without that separation, businesses can’t pinpoint where AI is falling short, establish a credible ROI baseline, or identify how to improve agent performance over time.
“Most businesses are still optimizing for the most familiar metrics: deflection, containment, and cost savings. But those are now table stakes,” said Mike Murchison, CEO of Ada. “What this new data reinforces is what these metrics don’t tell us: was the customer’s problem actually solved? CX leaders are now being asked to demonstrate that AI drives business outcomes beyond just efficiency and cost-cutting. Our ACX operating model is designed to do exactly that – help businesses architect a practical, scalable path to maturity that not only measures quality and depth of resolution, but connects AI performance to real commercial impact.”
“Our research shows that many companies are scaling AI without a clear view of how it’s affecting the customer experience. When businesses measure AI and human performance together, it becomes much harder to see where the technology is breaking down,” said Leon Mishkis, COO at NewtonX. “If an interaction fails because the system doesn’t understand the customer, that’s not just a technical problem. It’s a sign the business is losing touch with what customers need. In 2026, always-on service is only an advantage if it’s reliable. If it isn’t, AI becomes a much faster way to damage brand trust.”
Enterprises must scale ACX maturity in tandem with investment
Despite these challenges, enterprises continue to invest aggressively in AI-driven customer experience: 92% of organizations say they plan to increase AI investment in CX over the next year. As businesses look to close the gap between AI ambition and operational reality, the report highlights the need for stronger measurement, enterprise-wide governance frameworks, and talent equipped with emerging AI-specific skills, including agent dialogue design, integration engineering, and knowledge management. 36% of CX leaders say their internal team is not adequately resourced and skilled to manage, audit, and coach AI agents effectively.
To access an executive summary of the survey findings and download a copy of the full report, visit https://ada.cx/research/agentic-cx-in-2026.
Methodology
This research was conducted by NewtonX in partnership with Ada between December 2025 and February 2026. The dual-sided study surveyed 2,000 global consumers who had interacted with AI-driven customer service in the past 12 months. This was paired with a quantitative survey of 500 enterprise CX and AI decision-makers across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific who hold direct responsibility for technology investment and deployment. The findings were further validated through in-depth qualitative interviews with senior CX leaders in the financial services, retail, technology, and travel sectors.
About Ada
With more than 550 AI Agents deployed globally, Ada is the trusted leader in agentic customer experience, transforming how enterprises engage with customers. Activated by our ACX Operating Model—a combination of technology, methodology, and expertise—enterprises can easily create and manage high-performing AI agents that deliver personalized interactions across channels.
Since 2016, Ada has powered more than 6.4 billion interactions for global brands like Ancestry, Cebu Pacific, IPSY, monday.com, Pinterest, Square, and Sky, delivering extraordinary experiences at scale.
With enterprise-grade security and compliance (SOC 2, GDPR, PCI, HIPAA, AIUC-1), Ada helps organizations reduce cost-to-serve, elevate CSAT, and increase lifetime customer value. Learn more at ada.cx.
About NewtonX
NewtonX is your end-to-end market research partner, built to answer your toughest B2B questions with confidence. We access a proprietary community of the world’s most elusive and verified professionals. Our unique platform and dedicated business consultants provide rapid, AI-enabled insights to eliminate uncertainty and power mission-critical decisions. Visit newtonx.com to learn more.
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