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AI is changing how companies interpret customer information and how people discover and compare products. But it does not automatically make customers feel understood: in Twilio’s 2025 survey, 83% of business leaders said they deeply understood customers, while 45% of consumers said brands they interacted with made them feel understood. Those are survey responses, not proof that AI caused the gap.
How does AI help companies understand their customers?
AI can help organizations synthesize large volumes of customer interactions and other information, making it possible to identify patterns across touchpoints rather than consider each comment or service exchange in isolation. That is a capability, not a guarantee of accurate insight: results depend on whether relevant information is available, current, and connected to the systems where teams can use it.
That integration is far from universal. In the UK Business Data Survey 2026, 21% of businesses using AI said their tools were integrated with existing business systems; among large businesses, the figure was 57%. The survey also reported that 5% of AI-using businesses used automated decision-making systems. These measures apply to the survey’s UK population, definitions, and question routing—not to businesses everywhere.
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Not necessarily. Company confidence in its customer understanding can be much higher than customers’ own sense of being understood. Twilio’s 2025 State of Customer Engagement survey found that 83% of business leaders said they deeply understood their customers, compared with 45% of consumers who said they felt understood by brands they interacted with. Twilio surveyed 7,640 consumers and 637 business leaders across 18 countries from January 3 to February 17, 2025. The contrast illustrates a perception gap; it does not establish its cause.
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Personalization may be more visible to customers while concerns about data also grow. Salesforce’s State of the AI Connected Customer page reports that 73% of customers said companies treat them like individuals, up from 39% in 2023. The same page reports that 71% felt increasingly protective of their personal information, 64% believed companies were reckless with customer data, and 72% wanted to know when they were communicating with an AI agent. The accessible page does not provide a publication date or full methodology, so these figures should be read as Salesforce-reported survey findings, not universal rates.
The practical test is whether a tailored interaction helps with the customer’s actual need, rather than merely matching a company’s internal definition of personalization. Relevance and trust are separate outcomes: a message can be customized yet feel intrusive, or useful without making clear how it was generated.
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How is AI changing the customer journey?
AI-assisted tools are becoming another way for people to explore choices. They can help consumers evaluate options, compare products, find prices or discounts, and narrow a shortlist. NielsenIQ described this influence in a May 5, 2026 release, drawing on an ongoing monthly sample of approximately 500 U.S. consumers in early 2026. Its account presents AI as influencing evaluation while consumers remain in control—not as taking over the purchase decision.
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchAI summaries can also extend rather than end research. Gartner’s survey of 377 U.S. consumers, conducted in June and July 2025 and reported in 2026, found 31% said AI summaries made them spend more time searching, while 16% said they spent less. In the same survey, 31% said Google AI Overviews led them to consider more products, compared with 7% who considered fewer. These responses suggest that a summary may prompt people to investigate further or broaden their options.
AI discovery should not be treated as a replacement for traditional search, social platforms, or retail channels. Gartner reported that only about one-third of consumers considered generative AI chatbots as effective as search engines for learning new information. The same survey found that consumers affected by generative AI changed queries toward more specific, question-based, and conversational phrasing. Together, these findings point to an evolving research journey, not a single new route that everyone follows.
Can companies use customer data for AI without losing trust?
There is no automatic trade-off-free version of personalization. Customers may value relevant experiences while also wanting care with their information and clarity about when AI is involved. Salesforce’s reported findings on data protectiveness and AI-agent disclosure make those expectations visible, while Twilio’s 2025 results support treating trust and customer control as part of the exchange.
For organizations choosing or evaluating an AI approach, the useful questions are operational:
- Coverage and integration: Does the system draw on relevant, sufficiently current information across the tools teams already use?
- Perceived relevance: Does the interaction help the customer’s need, and is that measured from the customer’s point of view?
- Transparency and control: Can customers recognize when AI is involved and manage personalization or data preferences?
- Human support: Is a person available when the customer’s situation needs judgment, explanation, or empathy? AI can assist without being the only route to help.
- Journey-wide measurement: Do measurements account for discovery and comparison outside a company’s own channels, as well as actions that happen there?
These are evaluation criteria, not a claim that any particular system or vendor performs best. Survey evidence does not establish a universal measure of customer understanding or a single best implementation.
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What should businesses measure instead of AI adoption alone?
Counting AI deployments or personalized messages says little on its own about whether customers are better understood. A stronger assessment distinguishes the organization’s technical capability from the customer’s experience: whether information is integrated, whether an interaction is relevant, whether customers understand AI’s role, and whether they can reach human help when needed.
That distinction matters because adoption and integration are not the same. The UK survey’s finding that just 21% of AI-using businesses reported integration with existing systems shows why a company can use AI without having the connected view of customer information that broader claims about understanding may imply. Likewise, a customer who sees more tailored content may still have concerns about how personal data is handled.
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