Industry surveyGartner, 2 Sep 2026

Only 27% of customers would be willing to try a chatbot again after a negative experience

Onboarding & activation

27%

of customers would be willing to try a chatbot again after a negative experience

Reader Note:: This is stated willingness after a past negative experience, not observed return behaviour. Gartner's analyst calls it a leaky bucket: one unsuccessful interaction discourages future use even as the chatbot improves, which is why the report argues for reliability on a narrow set of issues rather than coverage of many.
Evidence:: Stated intention
Vendor interest:: Moderate — This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
Sample:: Survey of 3,566 B2B and B2C customers, conducted in February and March 2026. Sampling method not disclosed in this press release.

Good for

Reading the mood, and deciding what to test yourself.

Not for

Predicting what people will actually do. Intentions and behaviour come apart.
This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
The source says how much it looked at, but not how any of it was chosen.

87%

of customers say it's essential to offer an option to reach a human agent when using AI

53%

of customers would consider switching to a competitor if a company uses AI for customer service

14%

of users say they do not want brands on Reddit at all

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Among customers unwilling to use AI in service, the most common thing that would change their mind is being able to switch to a human, named by 33%, ahead of accurate information at 20%

Factors that would make customers willing to engage with GenAI
Factor	Share of customers (%)
The ability to switch to a human representative if needed	33%
Accurate and reliable information	20%
Made tasks easier to accomplish	18%
Improved the speed of customer service	18%
24/7 availability	16%
Provided me with personalized responses	14%
Assurance my personal data is protected	12%
Educated me about a product or service	7%

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49% of customers say they would have been willing to use a chatbot if the company had offered one, but only 7% used one in their most recent service interaction

52%

of consumers say Facebook is their top network for building community

Only 27% of customers would be willing to try a chatbot again after a negative experience

Good for

Not for

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