AI chatbots gain consumer trust for tasks; healthcare lags: Sinch
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN — A new report conducted by Sinch shows that consumers are becoming more accepting of AI chatbots when it comes to everyday activities such as delivery tracking and appointment booking, but are still wary when it comes to the medical field.
Multichannel strategy becomes essential
The comprehensive study surveyed 2,800 consumers globally and over 1,600 business leaders across healthcare, financial services, retail, and technology sectors.
Findings showed that 58% of consumers want to choose their preferred communication channel when opting into business communications.
Email remains the dominant channel for promotional messages, with 77% of consumers preferring it, while text messaging comes in second at 30%. However, the data shows clear generational differences, with Generation Z consumers showing the highest preference for text messaging at 41%.
AI chatbots thrive in routine customer service
The report indicates that more than 95% of surveyed businesses are either using or planning to implement AI in customer communications soon.
Laurinda Pang, CEO of Sinch, emphasized the growing importance of AI: “Consumers have become more and more demanding. Generative AI in communications enables companies to leverage their insights and information to instantaneously answer customers. I think compared to where we are today, in terms of customer care and customer service use cases, we’re going to start to see AI handle 10 times the volume that it’s already handling today.”
A growing number of businesses are deploying AI chatbots to handle basic customer interactions, with 63% of companies using text-based AI agents and 48.7% using voice agents, according to a recently published No Jitter article by Metrigy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Robin Gareiss.
Consumers are most comfortable with AI for straightforward tasks, such as order status inquiries, where 52% trust it, and appointment rescheduling, where speed and efficiency outweigh the need for human interaction.
“Consumers want to use the method that saves them the most time: 57.4% of consumers opt to use text AI agents because they save them time,” said Gareiss, highlighting the trend toward automation in customer service.
The retail, banking, and tech support sectors are leading this shift, as AI proves reliable for handling transactional queries while reducing operational costs.
Healthcare AI faces trust barriers despite potential benefits
While AI adoption grows in other sectors, healthcare chatbots struggle with consumer skepticism, with 64% distrusting accuracy, 40% worrying about privacy, and 43% finding them too impersonal.
Only about a third of respondents would use a medical provider’s AI bot, primarily for appointment scheduling or non-emergency questions.
However, willingness increases when AI can reduce “time to care”—41% would describe symptoms to a bot if it sped up treatment, a 6% jump from general acceptance rates. This suggests that efficiency gains could gradually ease resistance.
As Gareiss observes, time-saving functionality may be the key to broader healthcare AI adoption, as health services should be delivered as quickly as possible to those in need.
