Originally posted on The Drum.
AI is moving from advising customers to acting on their behalf. Sean Muzzy, Acxiom’s president, shares new research into how brands and consumers view AI-managed experiences and where growing ambition is beginning to outpace consumer readiness.
AI has come a long way from merely sourcing information for brands and consumers.
Today, brands are asking AI to respond to complaints, complete forms, coordinate activity across platforms and influence or make purchasing decisions. Consumers, meanwhile, are using AI to research products, evaluate options and simplify everyday tasks.
This shift creates significant opportunities, but it also raises important questions about trust, control and human judgment.
Acxiom surveyed hundreds of brands and thousands of consumers worldwide to understand where they agree, and where brands are moving faster than people are ready to go. The findings, explored in Acxiom’s 2027 CX Trends report, reveal five areas where ambition and expectation converge and diverge.
1. AI should reduce unnecessary effort – not eliminate every safeguard
Eighty-six percent of brands believe customer loyalty will soon be defined by effortless experiences. AI could help deliver lower-effort interactions by automating routine tasks, streamlining journeys, and removing avoidable obstacles.
But brands are especially concerned that removing too much friction could lead customers to make important decisions too quickly. They also worry about losing the distinctiveness, trust and emotional connection that differentiate one brand from another.
Brands need to distinguish between unnecessary effort and useful safeguards. Customers may welcome AI handling a routine task, but they expect greater involvement when the consequences are more significant.
2. Brands are more comfortable than consumers with AI using customer data
AI can help brands deliver more relevant and empathetic experiences. To do that, however, it may draw on information such as support history, previous behavior, recent life events and real-time context.
Across every category studied, brands were more comfortable than consumers with AI using customer data. If brands are to build up trust, they’ll need to consider not just what data AI can access when personalizing experiences, but whether that data is accurate, appropriately governed and used in ways their customers understand. Consumer comfort will also increase where they see clear benefits of AI-driven personalization and are given meaningful choices regarding how their own data is used.
3. Consumers welcome provider-spanning AI, while brands see new risks
People often see one continuous task (planning a trip or buying a product) where businesses see several separate systems and providers. Sixty-seven percent say this creates frustration and 57% would welcome AI managing activity across multiple brands if it made life simpler.
Brands, however, are more cautious. Eighty-four percent believe brands could become interchangeable players in third-party ecosystems, while 48% say establishing accountability when something goes wrong will be a challenge.
4. Brands are more comfortable with autonomous AI than consumers
Within two or three years, brands expect to trust AI with more complex activities, including renewing subscriptions and completing purchases or payments.
Consumers, though, are more divided. Exactly half are comfortable with AI making more decisions on their behalf if it consistently delivers the best outcome. Yet most remain uncomfortable with AI making purchases or completing forms without their involvement.
The brands that move fastest will not necessarily be those that earn the most trust. They must identify where automation is helpful, where explanation is necessary, and where human control should remain. AI-driven decisions should also be easy to review, change or override.
5. Consumers see AI as one starting point among many
Many brands expect AI assistants to become important starting points for customer discovery. Eighty-five percent say influencing those assistants will become as important as influencing customers directly and 84% believe brands that fail to adapt risk becoming invisible.
Consumers are more measured. Up to a quarter currently use an AI assistant when beginning certain journeys: most likely when researching a product; least likely when choosing a healthcare provider. Only 54% agree that brands that aren’t visible through AI assistants will become easier to ignore.
Brands should treat AI discovery as an increasingly important channel, not a universal replacement for search, direct relationships or other forms of engagement. Visibility in AI-generated recommendations may matter more over time, but it must be supported by experiences that are useful, credible and relevant.
Brands must recognize when consumers are not ready
Brands and consumers both see AI’s potential to reduce unnecessary effort, connect fragmented journeys and deliver faster, more consistent service. But consumers are more cautious about the data AI uses, less comfortable with AI making important decisions and more likely to want the ability to influence or override its actions.
The question is not simply how quickly organizations can introduce autonomous AI but whether they can do so in ways that feel useful, transparent and proportionate to customer expectations.
That will require more than capable models. It demands accurate data, responsible identity practices, clear governance and experiences designed around the customer.
AI is changing the customer journey. But people will continue to decide how far and how quickly it evolves.