AI applications are new standard

More than half of customers (54 percent internationally) have AI-based interactions with organizations on a daily basis - a significant increase from the 21 percent in 2018. "The breakthrough from AI-based technologies has led to an increasing digitization of relationships between companies and customers.

We are currently experiencing a socially distanced world in which health and safety aspects have become an additional argument to invest in the digitization of customer interactions," says Hellmuth Leinfellner, digital customer experience expert at Capgemini in Austria.

The study highlights the factors that have contributed significantly to customer adoption of AI. These include, for example, more intensive use in companies, the further development of AI technologies towards human-like interaction and increasing customer confidence.

Covid-19 has accelerated customer adoption of contactless AI-based systems, such as voice assistants and facial recognition. More than three-quarters of customers (77 percent) expect to increase their use of contactless interfaces during the corona pandemic to avoid direct interactions with humans or touchscreens.

62 percent will continue to do so after Covid-19, according to the study, and even more in Germany (73 percent) and Brazil (71 percent). The fact that contactless interfaces are becoming an integral part of the customer experience in a health- and safety-conscious world is also recognized by organizations: 75 percent believe that customers' growing interest in contactless offerings will continue in the post-pandemic world.

Trust in technology had room for improvement in the 2018 study. The latest research shows that organizations have made great strides since then. More than two-thirds (67 percent) of customers trust the personalized recommendations and suggestions provided by AI-powered interactions.

In addition, nearly half of customers (46 percent) consider AI-enabled interactions trustworthy compared to 30 percent in 2018. At the same time, the percentage of customers who say they do not trust machines to keep their personal data safe and secure dropped to 36 percent from 49 percent in 2018.

Customers continued to want more human-like interactions, and companies made progress as well: Overall, 64 percent of respondents believe their AI interactions are more human-like (up from 48 percent in 2018). China (74 percent), Australia (72 percent) and the U.S. (70 percent) lead the way on this issue.