• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, February 25, 2026

Marketers think they’ve got the hang of artificial intelligence—93% say AI enables them to understand their customers’ preferences.

But consumers don’t agree: only 53% say brands accurately gauge their wants and needs, according to Global Customer Review, a study by Braze.  

And brands concede they have their own issues with AI. For instance, 63% say AI intermediation has “weakened their ability to connect with customers and maintain a direct relationship,” the study says. 

That’s quite a statement, given that a mere 19% of consumers now use AI intermediaries or go-betweens in their interaction with brands. But when you add it up, 46% of shoppers are using AI intermediaries or plan to by the end of the year, a 1.4X increase YoY, the study notes.  

What marketers need to make AI work is data.  

Of the consumers surveyed, 27% refuse to share any data at all with AI agents to support a better brand experience. That presumably includes email addresses and phone numbers. And only 14% are willing to provide location data.

Yet 21% accept that their browsing data is being used. And, 26% are willing to share demographic or purchase data. 

Millennials and Gen Z are most likely to share personal data in return for a tailored experience.  

For their part, marketers quoted in the report seem high on AI.  

“We’re creating messages, we’re creating human experiences, we’re trying to achieve metrics like conversions, increased revenue, increased adoption of certain features within our own enterprise,” says John-Paul Beeghly, director of martech at  Sonos. 

He adds, “AI is another piece of the toolset to do that. What’s different about it over other tools is that AI works on both sides of the fence. It can create efficiencies on our side to develop that work faster—iterate, test, and create customer experiences—but also generate really great content and really great experiences for the customer.”

Andrew Luxem, formerly senior director of CRM at Bed Bath & Beyond comments that “AI’s predictive capabilities have helped us to identify high-value segments as well as what a customer’s lifecycle could potentially be. So instead of being reactive, we’re able to anticipate what a customer’s interests are and be able to retain them much better than we have in the past.”

Wakefield Research surveyed 2,200 marketing executives with the minimum title of VP at companies with at least $10 million per year, in 17 countries. In addition, OnePoll surveyed 4,000 adult consumers in the UK and US during roughly the same time period. Braze also examined anonymized and aggregated behavioral data from 779 of its clients running from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2025.