Should you use AI to answer your customers?
Use AI to answer customers only if it answers from your real information, tells customers it is automated, and makes reaching a person easy, since a harder path to a person and wrong answers were among the top worries in a Gartner survey published in 2024. Don't use it if it would guess, hide that it is a bot, or handle complaints and sensitive questions on its own.
What customers say about AI in customer service
Start with the hard numbers. In Gartner's survey of 5,728 customers in December 2023, 64% said they would prefer that companies didn't use AI in their customer service. 53% said they would consider switching to a competitor if they found out a company was going to use AI for customer service.
The wider mood is cautious too. Pew Research Center's June 2026 survey of 3,488 U.S. adults found 52% more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in daily life, up from 37% in 2021. That question is about AI in general, not customer service.
At the same time, expectations are moving. Zendesk's CX Trends 2026 research, from 6,182 consumers in 22 countries, found 74% of consumers now expect 24/7 service because of AI.
Both can be true at once. Many customers expect answers at any hour, and many don't want to be stuck with a machine that can't help them.
What customers worry about, in their own order
Gartner asked what concerns customers most about AI in customer service. In order:
- That it will get more difficult to reach a person.
- That AI will displace jobs.
- That AI will give the wrong answers.
Two of those three are in your control: how easy it is to reach a person, and whether the answers are right. See what AI should and shouldn't handle in how AI customer service drives revenue.
Tell customers it's AI
Telling customers they are talking to AI is a simple trust decision, and in some places the law deals with it directly.
California's bot disclosure law, Business and Professions Code section 17941, in force since July 1, 2019, makes it unlawful to use a bot to communicate with a person in California online with the intent to mislead them about its artificial identity in order to incentivize a sale. It also says a person using a bot is not liable under that section if they disclose that it is a bot, and that the disclosure must be clear and conspicuous.
In the European Union, Article 50 of the AI Act requires providers of AI systems meant to interact directly with people to make sure those people are informed they are interacting with an AI system, unless it is obvious. The information must be clear and given at the latest at the first interaction. That article applies from 2 August 2026.
This is a summary, not legal advice. If you have questions about your own situation, ask a lawyer.
How to disclose well
DM DESK does this by default. Its website chat opens with "Hello, you're chatting with the AI assistant for" the business, and on Instagram its first automated reply says it is the business's automated assistant, again after a person on the team had the chat.
- Say it in the first message, in plain words: "You're chatting with our AI assistant."
- Say it again if a person had the chat and the AI picks it back up.
- Answer honestly if a customer asks whether they are talking to a bot.
- Explain where an answer came from when it matters, like "our menu lists it at $12." In Zendesk's 2026 research, 95% of consumers said they expect an explanation for AI-made decisions.
Make reaching a person easy
The top worry in Gartner's survey has a direct fix: a person should be one message away. Decide which topics always go to your team, and make sure the AI hands them over with the conversation attached.
- Anyone who asks for a person.
- Complaints, refunds and anything about an order that went wrong.
- Allergy and health questions.
- Final quotes, custom jobs and anything you haven't written down.
- Emergencies, with safety information first.
When AI is a good fit, and when it isn't
AI fits questions with a written answer: hours, prices, the menu or services, where you are, how ordering works. It fits building an order from your real menu, or collecting the details of a job for you to quote.
It is a poor fit for anything that needs judgment, care or authority you haven't given it. If most of your messages are like that, a person should answer them.
To weigh it in dollars, start with the missed message cost calculator and your own numbers.
Examples
A restaurant can let AI answer "are you open" and build a pickup order, and send every allergy question to the kitchen team. A plumber can let AI give listed prices and collect the job details, and keep every final quote and every emergency call for a person.
See how contractors answer DMs and capture leads while on a job.
Questions owners ask.
Do customers mind talking to AI?
Many do. In a Gartner survey published in 2024, 64% of customers said they would prefer companies didn't use AI in customer service. Their top worry was that reaching a person would get harder.
Do I have to tell customers they're talking to AI?
In some places, yes. California's bot law (section 17941) and Article 50 of the EU AI Act both deal with it. Telling customers in the first message is also the simplest way to keep their trust. This is not legal advice.
What should AI never answer for my business?
Complaints, refunds, allergy and health questions, final quotes, emergencies and anything you haven't written down. Those go to a person.
Will using AI make customers leave?
In Gartner's survey, 53% said they would consider switching if they found out a company was going to use AI for customer service. Disclosure, accurate answers and an easy way to reach a person address the worries customers named most.
How do I start small?
Let AI answer only questions with a written answer, like hours and prices, and hand everything else to your team. Add more once you have read a few weeks of its conversations.
Sources
- Gartner, Gartner Survey Finds 64% of Customers Would Prefer That Companies Didn't Use AI For Customer Service, 2024.
- Pew Research Center, Young US adults are increasingly wary of AI, concerned it will take jobs, 2026.
- Zendesk, Contextual Intelligence Becomes the New Standard for Exceptional Customer Experience in 2026 (CX Trends 2026), 2025.
- California Legislative Information, Business and Professions Code, Division 7, Part 3, Chapter 6: Bots (sections 17940 to 17943, SB 1001), 2018.
- European Commission, AI Act Service Desk, AI Act, Article 50: Transparency obligations, 2024.
- European Commission, AI Act Service Desk, AI Act, Article 113: Entry into force and application, 2024.
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