AI Rift: Consumers Are Less Likely Than Brands To Expect A Positive Impact: Study

Consumers and brands do not see eye to eye on AI, or topics such as personalization, judging by The State Of CX: Emerging Trends, Challenges and Opportunities, a study by SurveyMonkey.

For instance, 63% of CX and digital professionals say AI will positively affect the customer experience, and 82% add it is a priority for their company. 

But only 25% of consumers feel AI will have a positive impact. Rather, 32% expect that it will have a negative effect.

Perhaps worse, 86% of CX pros claim their customers now receive a personal experience all or most of the time throughout the customer journey.

Only 8% of consumers agree with that. And 10% say they have never received a personalized experience.

What’s the cause of the disconnect?

“The experience gap we’re seeing stems from limited knowledge across the entire customer journey,” says Marci Kirkpatrick, customer experience program director at SurveyMonkey. 

Kirkpatrick adds, “This presents a significant opportunity for CX teams to further invest in initiatives that bring them closer to a deeper understanding of how customers perceive experiences throughout their entire journey with a brand or company and explore best practices to optimize those experiences.”

That said, CX workers expect to face these challenges this year:

  • Meeting and exceeding customer expectations — 48%
  • Increased performance expectations — 44%
  • Changing economic landscape — 38%
  • Reduced budget — 33%
  • Lack of customer insight — 31%
  • Layoffs — 19%
But they have set these priorities:
  • Collecting and acting on customer feedback — 41%
  • Cultivating a customer-centric culture — 35%
  • Increasing expansion revenue — 34%
  • Taking more strategic action on CX data — 34%
  • Implementing new CX tools — 32%
  • Growing CX teams — 29%

Here’s how they will do all that:

  • Multi- or omnichannel communication with customers (e.g., chatbot, email) — 44%
  • Increase frequency of communication with customers — 41%
  • Integrating customer feedback into company initiatives and strategy — 39%
  • Implement advanced data analysis techniques for CX insights — 35%
  • Upsell/cross-sell opportunities — 35%
  • AI and automation workflows — 33%

It’s unclear if they have the money to achieve all of the above. Of the firms polled, 22% have increased their budgets a lot and 44% a little. Another 29% have kept them as is. Only 6% have decreased them.

SurveyMonkey surveyed 1,000 consumers and 600 CX and digital marketing professionals.

 

 

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