UK consumers more frustrated by AI customer service

Five9 has published research showing that UK consumers are more frustrated by AI in customer service than those in the US and Germany. The survey found that six in 10 UK respondents described AI customer service as frustrating.

The findings suggest a gap between broader improvements in customer service and the experience many British consumers report when AI tools are involved. Across the UK, US and Germany, 57% of consumers said customer service had improved over the past decade. However, the UK recorded the highest level of dissatisfaction with AI-led interactions.

Among UK respondents, 42% said they often or always had to repeat themselves when moving from an AI agent to a human. That compared with 36% in the US and 29% in Germany, suggesting that the transfer between automated and human support remains a weak point for many British customers.

Transparency also emerged as a bigger concern in the UK than in the other two markets surveyed. Some 76% of UK consumers said it was very or extremely important for companies to tell them when they were dealing with AI rather than a person, compared with 69% in the US and 67% in Germany.

The survey also found that 23% of UK consumers saw no benefit in AI for customer service. In Germany, the equivalent figure was 9%, indicating a markedly more sceptical view among British respondents.

Human option

Despite that, attitudes towards AI appeared more positive when customers knew they could reach a person if needed. Across the three countries, 55% of consumers said they trusted AI to resolve a customer service issue when a human option was available, compared with 26% when no human option was offered.

This suggests that resistance may be shaped less by the use of AI itself than by how companies structure the overall support journey. Businesses that reduce friction in handovers and maintain a clear path to staff support may have more success in winning customer trust.

The research was based on a survey of 3,000 consumers across the UK, US and Germany, including 1,000 in the UK. Respondents were adults who had interacted with customer service in sectors including healthcare, financial services, travel, hospitality, retail, higher education, sales, telemarketing, customer service and outsourcing.

The results add to a wider debate over how businesses should apply AI to customer-facing operations without creating new points of frustration. For contact centres and service teams, the findings suggest the issue is not simply the volume of enquiries handled by automated systems, but whether those systems preserve context and hand customers smoothly to a human when required.

Differences between the three markets also suggest companies may need to adapt their approach by country rather than apply a single model across regions. UK consumers reported both higher frustration and more handoff problems than German respondents, which may influence how firms communicate the use of automation and design support processes for local audiences.

Amit Mathradas, Chief Executive Officer at Five9, said the data pointed to a combined model of automated and human support rather than a choice between the two.

"This research validates how we see CX evolving: consumers aren't asking companies to choose between AI and people; they're asking for both, done right," said Mathradas. "That's the core of Humantic CX, our vision for AI and human agents working as one system, where AI absorbs the routine, so a person is always there for the moments that need judgment and empathy. The data captures the impact of this approach clearly and shows that consumers trust AI to resolve their issue more than twice as often when that human option is visible than when it isn't. Every interaction where we get that handoff right builds more trust for the next one, and that's smarter CX with every interaction."