Twilio published a survey on 9 November that puts numbers on a gap I keep seeing on webshops. 86% of companies believe customers are satisfied with their AI-powered customer service. Only 51% of consumers say their AI interactions with businesses are satisfactory, and 78% say they have tried to get past an AI agent to reach a human.
I build selling agents for webshops, so these numbers are about my own work. The survey covers customer service, not selling. But I still think it says a lot about what shoppers will accept from an AI assistant on a product page.
What Twilio found
Twilio surveyed 7,652 consumers in 18 markets who had bought something online in the previous six months, plus 660 business leaders. The survey ran from 9 April to 1 May 2026. These findings stood out to me:
- 86% of companies think customers are satisfied with their AI customer service. 51% of consumers agree.
- 78% of consumers have tried to bypass an AI agent to speak with a human, and 63% want a quick, easy way to reach a live person at any time.
- 76% of consumers think an AI agent should say it is an AI at the start of a conversation. Only 32% of businesses say they actively prioritize that transparency.
- 91% of consumers say personalized AI interactions feel more real. The top driver of authenticity is a brand acknowledging the person's specific need or problem.
- 55% of consumers feel valued by a company that uses AI, as long as the AI is smart enough to help them.
- 64% of consumers say the chatbots they have used improved over the past year, and 34% are more likely to pick a chatbot over a human than they were a year ago.
Twilio also reports that AI agents now handle half of all customer service interactions.
What it means for webshops
Twilio's own reading of the data is that businesses measure AI on speed and efficiency, while customers want to feel recognized, understood and helped. Most webshop chatbots I see were built to deflect tickets. They answer "where is my order" and count the conversations they closed. Customers score them on whether the AI understood their problem.
In skincare this is easy to picture. A shopper writes that her skin feels tight and red after cleansing and that her last moisturizer stung. A bot that replies with the three best sellers has ignored everything she said. A good advisor first asks whether she uses retinol or acids, how her skin feels by the evening, and what she wants to spend. Then it suggests a product. That is the kind of acknowledgement consumers in the survey rewarded.
The 78% figure worries me most for selling. In customer service, a frustrated customer goes looking for a human. On a webshop late in the evening there is often no human to find, so the shopper closes the tab and the sale is gone.
What to do now
- Let your assistant say what it is. 76% of consumers in the survey want an AI agent to identify itself at the start. It costs one line in the greeting and you could say that it adds to trust.
- Ask before you recommend. Two or three questions about skin type, current routine and what went wrong before tell the shopper you heard them. They also stop the wrong product from shipping and coming back as a return.
- Give people a way out. Show a contact option, an email form or your opening hours inside the conversation. 63% of consumers want a quick route to a person, and hiding it does not make that need go away. In Europe, this might become a requirement, with a new Digital Fairness Act being proposed that explicitly mentions it.
- Read what shoppers asked. In the survey, 99% of companies say major challenges keep them from fully understanding their customers. On a webshop, the questions shoppers type into an assistant are a direct record of what they need and what your product pages fail to answer. Review them every week.
We take this into account when building CAIDEL. Our assistant asks the questions a good shop advisor would ask before it recommends anything, and it gives the merchant the record of what buyers asked. The same answers also help the AI shopping agents that read your store on behalf of their users.
Want to try it out? Install CAIDEL for WooCommerce today and enjoy a free trial.
Frequently asked questions
What did Twilio's 2026 Customer Insights Series find?
Twilio surveyed 7,652 online shoppers and 660 business leaders in 18 markets. 86% of companies believe customers are satisfied with their AI customer service, while 51% of consumers say their AI interactions with businesses are satisfactory.
Do shoppers want to talk to an AI agent?
Not always. In Twilio's survey, 78% of consumers have tried to bypass an AI agent to reach a human, 63% want a quick way to reach a live person, and 76% want an AI agent to identify itself at the start. Still, 55% feel valued by companies that use AI when it shows it understood what they needed.
How should a WooCommerce shop set up an AI shopping assistant?
Have it say it is an AI, ask about the shopper's needs before it recommends a product, show a route to a human, and review the questions shoppers ask so you can fix the gaps on your product pages.
Sources
Twilio press release. "The AI Expectations Gap: Twilio's Report Finds Businesses Are Measuring AI Success on Metrics Customers Don't Care About", Business Wire, 9 November 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261109879402/en/
Twilio Customer Insights Series 2026. Full report and methodology. https://www.twilio.com/en-us/report/customer-insights-series
