How Trust Drives AI Adoption in Customer Experience

Summary: Customers may be willing to use AI, but only if they trust the organisation behind it. In our second article drawing on our 2026 CX Global Insights study, we explore why emotional connection is the foundation of successful AI adoption. Read part one here.

Many AI roadmaps reply on one key assumption – deploy the technology, demonstrate its capability and customers will use it. Our 2026 CX Global Insights study, spanning 23 markets, suggests that logic may be flawed.

Why customer trust is the biggest barrier to AI adoption

The basis for this assertion is how customers view AI and who it is really for. Asked who benefits from AI, 38% of respondents believe companies will benefit most and only 12% believe customers will. Customers see AI as built more for the corporate bottom line than for them and that scepticism shapes how willing they are to engage with it. 

This AI-trust deficit shows up again in how much control customers are prepared to give up to AI. While 61% would accept some form of AI involvement in their experience, only 7% are willing to let AI act on their behalf without any human intervention. The clear preference is for AI to be kept under human control – advise, suggest, and wait for approval, but not to act alone.  

These findings indicate that the constraint on AI in CX is less about what the technology can do and more about what the customer will trust it to do. 

Why emotional connection drives AI adoption in customer experience 

If the technology itself is not the deciding factor, what is? Our data points back to humans and more specifically emotional attachment. Our study's critical finding is that customers who are emotionally attached to an organisation accept AI the most and refuse it the least. 

Among emotionally attached customers, only 25% decline to use AI, compared with 33% of those who are merely functionally satisfied. Emotionally attached customers are also the most willing to grant full autonomy, with 9% prepared to let AI act alone, against 5% among the satisfied but unattached. 

The implication is clear – it is not the technology that unlocks a customer's willingness to use AI, it is the emotional connection with a brand. This ultimately sets a standard for AI experience delivery: organisations cannot use AI to build trust – they must build trust to earn the right to use AI.  

The use of AI being conditional on emotional attachment is likely the opposite of how many AI roadmaps are written today. Organisations racing to deploy AI in the hope it will make them feel modern, responsive and trusted have the sequence reversed. 

The importance of designing AI customer experiences that build emotional connection

If emotional connection is the pre-condition, the design question changes. AI investment has largely been justified on speed and cost – faster handling, lower cost-to-serve, fewer humans in the loop. Those benefits are real, but built on speed and cost alone, AI misses the human connection and tends to drive organisations towards the average.

The alternative is to design, execute and monitor AI-enabled experiences through Ipsos’ Forces of CX, asking not only "will this be faster?" but "what will this do to the customer's sense of Control, Certainty, Fair Treatment, Status, Enjoyment and Belonging?"  

AI needs to be held to a higher standard than removing friction. It needs to create a human connection, or at minimum know when to step aside so a human can. 

Building trust before AI: A better customer experience strategy

The conclusion for organisations is less about technology and more about sequence. AI does not earn trust; it draws on the trust an organisation has already worked to build. Deployed into an organisation where customers feel a strong emotional connection, it has the licence to do more. Deployed into an organisation where customers feel no connection, or just have a functional connection, and even the most capable technology meets hesitation and refusal.  

For CX leaders, the priority is not to move faster on AI than competitors, but to do the human work first – building the emotional connection and trust that gives technology the permission to participate. Those who build that foundation will find AI amplifies the relationship, those who skip it will keep investing in capabilities customer never use.

• Read part one: Why AI Efficiency Alone Isn’t Enough for Great Customer Experience