This article was originally published by The Drum.

AI is already shaping CX for brands and consumers. But are brands ready for AI-curated experiences? And do customers even want them? Acxiom’s Tom Zawacki unpacks 4 key insights from the 2026 CX Trends Report as AI’s impact accelerates.

“I’ll let Spotify know you like that song.”

That was Siri’s reply when I told it I enjoyed its music recommendation. And hearing that reply was the moment I suddenly became aware that there’s already an entire web of AI-to-AI interactions quietly taking place behind our seemingly mundane daily experiences.

People today use AI to help with everything from seeking financial advice and booking vacations to understanding medical issues and comparing broadband deals. Brands are integrating AI into their customer engagement strategies, opening up new growth opportunities, enabling better personalization, and facilitating attribution. 

This means there are AI assistants, agents, and algorithms making decisions and taking action on both sides of the customer experience. AI is rapidly rewriting the CX rulebook, so are brands prepared for this, and how do their customers feel about it?

These are the questions we aimed to answer in the 2026 edition of Acxiom’s annual CX Trends Report. Focusing on five AI-powered trends we expect to transform customer experience in the year ahead, we surveyed 4,000 US and UK consumers, as well as 600 business leaders from diverse industries. Here are four of the key insights we discovered:

1. Brands are pushing ahead with AI-driven CX

Brands are making measurable progress in AI adoption. More than half already use AI to actively suggest customer actions at various stages of the purchase journey, and around 90% have documented plans to do so in the near future. Six in 10 are testing AI-powered conversational interfaces — either text or voice — in real customer journeys, and a similar proportion are using AI to orchestrate customer interactions across fragmented platforms or partners.

But brands say they do see challenges and risks with using AI, and the perception of these varies by industry. When using AI to guide customer decisions, for example, banks, insurers, and healthcare brands all see integrating AI with their existing platforms as the biggest challenge. Telcos, on the other hand, say their most significant issue is aligning AI decisions with their brand, while travel and hospitality brands say their greatest challenge is uncertainty around whether their customers will accept AI’s influence.

We see similar variations when brands describe the pitfalls of using emotionally intelligent AI to respond to their customers’ feelings. While healthcare providers are the most likely to express uncertainty about customer comfort with AI reading their emotions, banks are more likely to be concerned about the risk of AI responding inappropriately. And insurance companies see challenges in aligning emotional AI with their brand voice and values.

2. Consumer acceptance of AI varies by context

On the surface, people seem surprisingly accepting of AI’s influence. Only 17% say they don’t think brands should be using AI to steer their decisions. But their comfort varies according to multiple factors. Age is perhaps the biggest differentiator, with younger people far more accepting of AI’s guiding touch than older generations. But context is also a consideration. People are more comfortable with AI alerting them to potential fraud or making personalized product recommendations than helping them apply for a large loan or making payments on their behalf.

Familiarity with AI also has a documented impact on people’s acceptance. A striking 67% of people who describe themselves as inexperienced with AI say they don’t want the technology to read their emotions. But this drops to just 8% for people who use AI regularly — perhaps as part of their daily work — indicating that understanding and exposure breed AI acceptance.

The strongest message from people is that they want AI to bring ease and simplicity. Over 40% say they’ve switched providers, stopped using a brand, or abandoned a transaction in the last 12 months due to friction in the experience. Around three-quarters (73%) say it’s frustrating when they have to jump between apps or platforms to accomplish one task. If AI could be used to streamline activities across these different platforms and reduce the need to switch, people would want it to help them accomplish tasks more quickly and simply.

3. Brand and consumer priorities don’t always align

Interestingly, the report reveals several disconnects between brand and consumer views on the application of AI to CX, and this desire for effortless experiences on the consumer side is one such conflict. Almost three-quarters (73%) of people say a standout experience requires minimal effort from them. But a similar proportion (74%) of brands think making an experience entirely friction-free may introduce the risk of that experience (and the brand associated with it) becoming forgettable. It seems brands need to consider how they deliver the effortless experiences their customers crave without losing their distinct characters.

The guiding principle that should be applied when AI is used to recommend people’s decisions is another area of disagreement. Brands prioritize transparency, saying people should understand how AI is influencing them. But consumers put transparency as their lowest priority. In fact, 45% say that if AI makes the right choices for them, they don’t need to know how it works. Instead, they cite control as their top priority, valuing the ability to easily change or reject AI’s suggestions.

4. AI needs a sound data foundation

As we get ready to head into 2026, it’s clear that AI is rapidly reshaping CX. Half of brands say AI-curated experiences are already transforming their sector, and 79% say they will in the next 12 months.

But our findings indicate that successful brands won’t be those that adopt AI the fastest, but those that do so with an in-depth understanding of what their customers want. This understanding requires a sound data foundation and clear ethical principles, with artificial and human intelligence working together.

It may seem that AI is rewriting the rules on CX, but the basics remain the same. That web of AI assistants, agents, and algorithms I mentioned earlier must still be fueled by data that is ethically sourced, permissioned, clean, and connected to enable it to make better decisions for the brand and the individual. With a strong data foundation, AI can make each customer interaction smarter, faster, and more cost-efficient, while also orchestrating experiences with care, precision, and humanity.

This article was originally published by The Drum.