New research from agentic AI developers Ada finds that more than half of customers prefer using 24/7 AI support chatbots — but only if they can manage their query.
Interviewing 3,000 people across three continents, the survey examined how the agentic AI rollout is progressing. 59% of respondents said they would rather resolve their queries with a 24/7 AI support agent rather than waiting for a human operator. However, enthusiasm for AI is dependent on tech managing a issue successfully, which only occurs once in every four conversations.
A mere 24% of consumer surveyed said that their query was resolved entirely through AI. 22% achieved partial resolution, while 33% escalated to a human operator, 11% gave up, and 6% immediately bypassed AI.
These findings on the consumer side were mirrored by Ada’s survey of business leaders. Reduced costs and handling times were cited as the main advantages of AI for customer support, but 36% concede that their team do not have the right resources or skills to train AI agents effectively. The biggest barriers to AI maturity cited by these executives were AI accuracy (51%), system integration complexity (47%), and regulatory uncertainty (40%).
Together, these statistics highlight that airlines could see significant ROI on agentic AI investment. However, they need to be sure the tools they are implementing actually provide consumers with a complete product. Otherwise, travellers may end up even more dissatisfied than they would be with traditional CX support channels.
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