State of the AI Connected Customer (Salesforce)

Summary:

This report from Salesforce, a software vendor that sells CRM and AI tools, looks at how customers feel about AI, trust, privacy, personalization and AI agents when they deal with brands. It covers both consumers and business buyers. The goal is to show how attitudes are shifting and what brands should do to earn trust as AI spreads.

The study is a double-blind survey run by Salesforce Research with third-party panelists. It covered 16,585 people: 15,015 consumers and 1,570 business buyers in 18 countries. Fieldwork ran from 26 July to 20 August 2024.

Key findings:
• Personalization is up, but the data trade-off feels unfair. 73% of customers say brands treat them as unique individuals, up from 39% in 2023. Only 49% feel companies use their data in a way that benefits them, down from 60% in 2022. 71% say they are becoming more protective of their personal information.
• Price drives switching, and service comes next. High prices are the top reason customers left a brand (66%). Poor service is second (43%).
• Trust in companies has dropped sharply. 71% trust companies less than a year ago, compared with 52% in 2023. 64% think companies are reckless with customer data.
• Trust in ethical AI is falling. Only 42% trust businesses to use AI ethically, down from 58% in 2023. 61% say AI advances make trustworthiness more important.
• No single fix builds trust in AI. Transparency about how AI is used leads at 42%, followed by human validation of outputs (35%) and user control (32%). No option reached a majority. 19% say nothing would make them trust AI more.
• Business buyers are far more open to AI agents than consumers. For example, 47% of buyers would use an agent to avoid repeating themselves, compared with 34% of consumers.
• Comfort with agents falls as stakes rise. Scheduling appointments is the most accepted task (40% comfortable). Making financial decisions on someone’s behalf is the least accepted (58% uncomfortable).
• Disclosure is the clearest trust signal. 72% say it is important to know when they are talking to an AI agent.

Margin notes:
This is a vendor report from a company that sells AI agents, and its recommendations promote Salesforce’s own Agentforce product. All figures are self-reported attitudes from panel respondents, not observed behaviour. The expert sections and references to other Salesforce studies are commentary, not data from this survey. Some of the report’s own text claims more than its charts show; for example, it says “most customers” are uncomfortable with AI giving financial or health advice, but the charts show 38% and 44%.