Nearly Two in Five Enterprise Decision-Makers Say AI-Driven Decisions Have Caused Customer Experience Problems

Research reveals a “decision-confidence gap”: 68% say AI has made decisions faster and more confident, yet 38% report unintended customer experience issues.

AUSTIN, TX, UNITED STATES, September 9, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — AI is helping organizations make decisions faster and with greater confidence, but many still lack the context needed to understand what those decisions mean for customers.

A global survey of 1,000 business decision-makers across five countries, commissioned by TheyDo, the experience context platform for enterprise teams, and conducted by Sapio Research, found that 68% believe decision-making has become faster and more confident since AI tools became widely available in their organization. Yet nearly two in five (38%) say their organization has experienced at least one unintended customer experience issue linked to an AI-driven decision.

Among those reporting an issue, 51% saw increased complaints or support queries, while 42% reported customers losing trust in the brand or experience. Other consequences included inconsistent experiences, delays and friction, and customers abandoning journeys before completing them.

The findings also show an association between broader AI adoption and greater decision confidence and customer journey visibility. Almost three-quarters (73%) of respondents at organizations where AI is widely embedded say they are very confident in the important decisions they make, compared with 43% where AI remains confined to individual teams or use cases. Those with widely embedded AI are also 3.5 times as likely to report full visibility into how decisions affect the customer journey (43% versus 12%). The survey does not establish that wider AI deployment causes these outcomes.

For many organizations, the information behind decisions remains fragmented. More than three-quarters (77%) say dashboards, CRM data, and customer feedback tell conflicting stories at least sometimes, rising to 91% among those reporting a negative AI-driven outcome. When these sources sit across different teams and systems, a decision that improves one part of the organization can create friction elsewhere in the customer journey.

Many respondents are also under pressure to act quickly: 77% say they are expected to make decisions faster than they can fully assess the consequences. TheyDo describes the tension between this pressure and the context needed to act confidently as the “decision-confidence gap.”

Jochem van der Veer, co-founder and CEO of TheyDo, said: “AI has compressed the time between question and answer, but it has not removed responsibility for what happens next. Moving faster is only useful if leaders understand what a decision will mean for the customer. When evidence is scattered across teams and systems, AI can provide an answer without the full context. That is the decision-confidence gap. Leaders need to question recommendations, weigh the trade-offs, and understand the wider consequences before they act.”

The research also found that 86% would trust an AI-generated recommendation more if it included the underlying data supporting it. The same proportion said including relevant customer journey context would increase their trust. The findings suggest that decision-makers want to see both the evidence behind a recommendation and its potential impact across the customer journey.

Offering a customer perspective, Lauren Pleydell-Pearce, chief creative officer at PwC UK, said: “AI can make every decision smarter and still make the experience dumber. The next frontier is not just better decision-making; it is creating a coherent and continuous relationship people can trust.”

Drawing on the findings, the report recommends four changes to enterprise decision-making:

• Connect customer context at the point of decision: bring customer feedback, operational metrics, and behavioral signals together so people and AI can work from the same evidence. Some 77% say dashboards, CRM data, and customer feedback tell conflicting stories about the same issue at least sometimes.

• Make AI-generated recommendations fully traceable: give decision-makers access to the supporting evidence so they can question and validate recommendations before acting. Some 86% say seeing and understanding the underlying data would increase their trust in AI-generated recommendations.

• Assess outcomes across the entire customer journey: consider how a decision could affect other teams, customer segments, and later stages of the relationship. The same proportion (86%) say seeing the relevant customer journey context would increase their trust in an AI-generated recommendation.

• Establish cross-functional ownership: create shared accountability for understanding wider consequences and coordinating action. Nearly two in five (38%) say their organization has experienced an unintended customer experience issue linked to an AI-driven decision, underscoring the need for responsibility to extend beyond the team making the initial decision.

The full report, “The decision-confidence gap: Why trustworthy AI demands connected customer context”, is available at https://www.theydo.com/resources/decision-confidence-gap-report.

About the research
TheyDo commissioned Sapio Research to survey 1,000 business decision-makers with direct influence over budget allocation at enterprises with at least 1,000 employees. Respondents were based in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States, across financial services, utilities, retail, healthcare, manufacturing, and telecommunications. The research was conducted in June 2026.

About TheyDo
TheyDo is the experience context platform for enterprise teams. It connects customer feedback, operational data, and journey insights into one shared context, so people and AI can make decisions grounded in customer reality.

Tim Cox
Tyto PR for TheyDo
tim.cox@tytopr.com
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