Consumer resistance to AI customer service is a myth: NTT DATA
- NTT DATA surveyed 1,600 consumers and 560 business professionals in the UK and Ireland.
- Consumers still prefer phone, email and live chat for urgent or complex issues.
- Banks overestimate customer satisfaction by about 16%, the research found.
- 52% of businesses struggle to integrate AI with legacy systems.
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM — Customers are not turning their backs on AI in customer service, but they will not trade away human contact when a problem is urgent or complex, new NTT DATA research shows. The findings suggest that what holds companies back is their own fragmented systems and data, not consumer resistance.
Open to AI, loyal to humans
NTT DATA surveyed 1,600 consumers and 560 business professionals across the UK and Ireland, Sashen Naidu, head of global CX practice, cloud and security at NTT DATA, told CX Today. “The consumer anxiety isn’t about AI itself, it’s more about the soft factors like trust, human empathy,” he said.
Consumers are giving businesses a green light to modernize, Naidu said, as long as new tools deliver real benefits rather than just cost savings. They still strongly prefer channels with direct human contact, such as phone, email and live chat, especially when they need reassurance.
Some sectors are misreading how happy their customers are. “In banking and financial services, we’ve seen that they’ve been overestimating satisfaction by about 16%,” Naidu said.
The real barrier is the foundation
“It certainly can accelerate things, but just as much as it accelerates the good, it also accelerates the bad,” Naidu said of AI layered on top of siloed systems. When customer data is scattered across disconnected CRM, billing and legacy platforms, AI simply exposes those problems faster, he said.
The research found that 52% of businesses struggle to integrate AI with legacy systems, followed by data privacy and security concerns at 40%. Internal skills were also cited as a top challenge.
Naidu expects a shift toward AI-native operations with humans in the loop within the next 18 months, with contact centers switching between automated and live support without friction. AI should handle simple, predictable queries and support human agents on the complex ones, he said.
When customers still choose human channels for complex issues, offshore outsourcing and business process outsourcing (BPO) teams remain a core part of the service model rather than a cost to be automated away. When legacy data slows AI rollouts, buyers comparing the top BPO companies worldwide can ask providers how they connect AI tools to existing systems.
NTT DATA’s research confirms that customers accept AI but still expect a person when it matters. For enterprise buyers planning AI in the contact center, a hybrid model protects satisfaction while systems are modernized. BPO operators that pair trained agents with well-integrated AI are positioned to deliver the experience customers say they want.
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Disclosure: Outsource Accelerator uses AI tools in the backend of its editorial workflow. Every article is reviewed and verified by a human editor before publication.
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