While consumers are always looking for more efficient ways to shop and engage with brands, they aren't always ready to trade that efficiency for relinquished control. Marketers seeking to enhance engagement with AI have an evolving tightrope to walk.

• 83% of companies said they are now actively integrating AI into their customer experience programs, per SupportNinja’s 2025 report.
• That said, preference for human connection is the top reason US consumers prefer to deal with real people than AI search, per a December Pearl.com survey.

“AI is just making the customer journey more efficient for consumers,” said our analyst Suzy Davidkhanian in a recent “Behind the Numbers” episode, “but it comes at the price of losing the treasure hunt and impulse purchases.”

With the right guardrails, marketers and retailers can implement AI chatbots into their customer service strategy while maintaining sales and driving customer loyalty.

Consumers still want to be active shoppers

Chatbots are the most popular use case for AI in the digital experience for marketers worldwide, per a September survey from Advanis and Sitecore.

However, when it comes to chatbot implementation, consumers aren’t sold on speed alone. Some 86% said empathy and human connection matter more than a quick response, per Five9’s 2025 Customer Experience Report.

• 72% of consumers are open to AI-powered interactions as long as they can escalate to a human if needed, per the report.

An important element of AI is its ability to understand the context of a consumer’s query. The chatbot should approach the conversation differently depending on whether the user is looking for a quick fix or has time to browse, said Davidkanian.

“Because AI is supposed to be smarter and more human-like, it might be able to understand some of those nuances and move you in the right direction,” she said.

What it means for advertisers: When seeking to offer customers more impactful engagement, advertisers should consider leaning on first-party data to anticipate consumer needs and incorporate them into chatbot model training to provide the best service possible.

Considering a mutual learning curve

As marketers try to build chatbot trust with consumers, they're also having to keep in mind that these chatbots will likely have to interact with other AI agents as well. This machine-to-machine marketing (M2M) can make it challenging to dial in messaging both tuned for AI and conversational for customers.

• Almost three-quarters of US executives (74%) see a role for AI agents in their businesses in 2025, according to December 2024 data from Boston Consulting Group.

“Brands are now optimizing for an AI audience in addition to a traditional human audience,” said our analyst Jacob Bourne in a “Behind the Numbers” episode. "It's going to be a learning curve and a balancing act, but I think AI is going to be the biggest shakeup in digital commerce since social media.”

What it means for advertisers: Walking this messaging tight rope will likely take a great deal of testing before best practices emerge. Experimentation, A/B testing, focus groups, and robust measurement will be vital to advertisers in this mission.

Challenging the chatbot reputation

Marketers and retailers are eager to embrace chatbots, but not all consumers feel the same way.

• 43% of US adults said AI chatbots are rarely or never helpful in answering their question or concern about a purchase or service, per an October 2024 EMARKETER and CivicScience survey.

70% of consumers feel emotionally manipulated by AI shopping assistants, per Chadix.

Breaking through this disdain can only come from heightened education on the utility of chat bots, said Davidkhanian.

“When consumers start to see how [AI shopping assistants] reduce mundane tasks, I think that [resistance] will go down significantly,” she said.

What it means for advertisers: Instead of boasting flashy AI integrations, advertisers can focus on building consumer trust around chatbots while sharing how these bots are used to improve the consumer experience.

This was originally featured in the EMARKETER Daily newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.