Introducing The 2026 Delight AI Index: U.S. Consumers Reach a Tipping Point With Autonomous Service and Hold Brands Accountable for Failures

New research finds reversibility and memory as the primary drivers for building trust in AI agents

Women will set the ceiling for how far AI in CX can go: 40% say they may never feel comfortable with fully autonomous AI

SAN FRANCISCO, May 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Delight.ai, the branded AI concierge powered by Sendbird Inc., today released its first annual 2026 Delight AI Index, a comprehensive study of U.S. consumer sentiment toward AI in customer service. While the majority of Americans (71%) have interacted with AI-powered customer service in the last year, trust is not keeping pace with adoption. Consumers say their goodwill has a ceiling, and brands are squarely on the hook when interactions go wrong. The report also includes the introduction of a proprietary benchmark that measures the health of AI-driven customer relationships.

The Accountability Mandate
When AI faces the customer, most U.S. consumers judge the brand for its functionality and not the technology itself: 83% agree that the brand should be held accountable if an AI-powered interaction goes wrong, and 82% expect AI to meet the same standard as a human representative. Notably, nearly two-thirds (64%) say AI must actually outperform humans to maintain their confidence. When an AI interaction results in a broken flow, such as a hallucination, repetitive loop, or a clumsy handoff, the brand bears the reputational damage. In contrast, companies that provide a seamless and autonomous experience use AI as a strong proof point, indicating to customers that the brand is modern, capable and values their time.

"AI has moved from novelty to expectation and with that shift comes full brand ownership," said John Kim, co-founder and CEO of Sendbird. "Consumers aren't separating AI from the company behind it. They overwhelmingly hold the brand accountable when AI gets it wrong. That should be a wake-up call for every person responsible for delivering a delightful customer experience. Brands that build AI experiences with reversibility, memory and human oversight baked in won't just avoid risk – they'll build the kind of trust that turns a routine customer service interaction into one that makes people feel valued."

The Anatomy of Trust and the Delight AI Index Scores
With the introduction of the Delight AI Index scores, consumer sentiment was measured across five pillars – trust and confidence, resolution effectiveness, brand alignment, comfort with autonomy and emotional resonance. The U.S. currently holds an overall Delight AI score of 51 out of 100, but the data reveals a stark contrast between functional success and emotional connection:

• The single most important factor for building customer trust is the ability for AI agents to correct mistakes or reverse decisions (57%); and,
• Nearly three-quarters (72%) place mistakes or wrong decisions among their top three concerns about autonomous AI in customer service, and 56% say the same for lack of control.

By pillar, brand alignment emerged as the highest performing with a score of 57, suggesting that companies are successfully training AI on their brand voice. Emotional resonance, however, remains the lowest scoring (46) and the data is clear on why: Only a third (33%) of U.S. consumers agree that AI-powered customer service makes them feel valued as a customer. But the data points to a specific fix: more memory, not more empathy. Nearly three-quarters (70%) of consumers say they would feel more delighted if AI simply remembered their prior interactions so they did not have to repeat themselves.

The Index scores track with perceived risk by industry. Tech and media (60) and retail (59) are successfully meeting consumer expectations where the stakes are largely informational or transactional. Meanwhile, financial services (50) and healthcare (47) scored significantly lower as consumers remain wary of AI handling sensitive data or medical symptoms without a human safety net. U.S. consumers indicated they want escalation to a human when money is involved (53%), health is affected (48%), the issue is urgent (55%), or they feel frustrated (52%).

Who Will Drive the Future of AI in CX?
Overall, consumers draw a firm line between AI as an assistant and AI as an independent operator, with only 16% already comfortable with AI fully handling service without routine approval, while 32% say they may never be comfortable with that. And just 34% are comfortable with AI agents taking action on their behalf at all. The report also specifically looked at the demographics of the consumers who will shape the future of the customer experience, especially as it relates to the use of AI. More than half of consumers surveyed use AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI assistants a few times a week, and a third use them once a day.

Other key findings include:

• While men are the current power users with 43% using AI daily, women's behavior will likely shape the future of AI in customer experience;
• Women express deeper skepticism regarding data privacy and the loss of human oversight, with 40% stating they may never feel comfortable with a fully independent AI agent; and,
• Millennials have emerged as the AI-native demographic, with 45% using AI tools at least once a day, 80% having interacted with AI-powered customer service in the last year, and 68% describing their experience as positive.

The key findings of the 2026 AI Customer Experience Trust Index will be shared on Thursday, May 7, at the 2026 Delight Spark Conference taking place here. To access the full report, please visit http://delight.ai/ai-index.

Methodology
An online survey was conducted with a panel of potential respondents from March 17, 2026, to March 23, 2026. The survey was completed by a total of 1,000 respondents from the United States who are 18 years and older and have interacted with customer service in the past 12 months. The sample was provided by Sago, a research panel company. All respondents were invited to take the survey via an email invitation. Panel respondents were incentivized to participate via the panel's established points program, regardless of positive or negative feedback.

About delight.ai
delight.ai offers the industry's first branded AI concierge built for customer experience. Businesses across retail, travel, B2B SaaS and on-demand services can deliver hyper-personalized customer interactions that feel less like automation and more like a trusted relationship. The world's most forward-thinking brands choose delight.ai for its unique combination of long-term conversational memory, omnichannel presence and its proprietary TrustOS governance that keeps every AI interaction accurate, observable and on-brand.

As a result, companies gain the speed, intelligence and confidence to turn every customer touchpoint into a moment of connection to drive retention, loyalty and lifetime value at scale. Built on Sendbird's proven infrastructure that's been trusted to power billions of conversations each month, delight.ai gives enterprises the foundation to innovate boldly without sacrificing reliability or control. For more information: www.delight.ai

About Sendbird
Sendbird is the AI customer experience company. We provide the infrastructure that powers delight.ai – the branded AI concierge, and the Sendbird Communication Suite, the world's #1 communication API platform. Together, they enable brands to deepen connection and deliver personal, trusted, and unforgettable customer experiences. Trusted by 4,000+ leading apps—including DoorDash, Match Group, Noom, and Yahoo Sports—Sendbird powers over 7 billion conversations every month, offering exceptional reliability, security, and compliance that meet enterprise-level demands. Founded in 2013, Sendbird is backed by ICONIQ, SoftBank, Tiger Global and Y Combinator.

SOURCE Sendbird