New research has highlighted scepticism among UK consumers regarding artificial intelligence's ability to deliver emotionally intelligent customer service.
The ServiceNow Consumer Voice Report 2025 gathered insights from 17,000 adults across 13 countries within Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, with 2,000 respondents based in the UK. The findings indicate that UK consumers are among the most critical in the region when it comes to AI's potential to bridge the gap between human and machine empathy.
While 71% of respondents across EMEA believe artificial intelligence will eventually be able to recognise emotions, this figure drops to just 55% among those surveyed in the UK. The report highlights that, despite being adept at identifying when they are interacting with AI, UK consumers remain unconvinced about the technology's ability to understand emotional cues.
ServiceNow's research also shows that 69% of UK consumers view AI-powered chatbots as efficient but lacking in empathy, frequently failing to interpret nuances such as urgency, tone, and frustration. Only 16% said they would associate such emotionless exchanges with interactions involving human agents, underlining the demand for more emotionally sophisticated AI.
Cathy Mauzaize, President, EMEA at ServiceNow, commented: "Business leaders across EMEA risk being left behind if they fail to embrace the collaboration between AI and human expertise. Consumers are no longer satisfied with disconnected, inefficient service. They expect AI to streamline interactions, anticipate their needs, and complement human agents, not replace them. The companies that successfully integrate AI with human-driven customer service will not only improve efficiency but also build stronger, more trusted customer relationships."
The report also details a generational divide in perceptions of AI's emotional abilities. Among UK respondents aged 18–34, 27% believe AI will never understand emotions, a figure that rises significantly to 62% among those over 55. Fewer than half of British consumers (45%) expect AI chatbots to be capable of recognising emotions by the end of the year, while 46% express similar expectations for voice assistants.
Despite AI's advancements, 70% of UK consumers say they still count on human customer service representatives to recognise emotions during their interactions, reinforcing the continued value placed on human oversight and empathy in service environments.
Damian Stirrett, Group Vice President and General Manager at ServiceNow UK & Ireland, said: "Businesses in the UK who fail to integrate AI with human expertise will lose out fast. Used correctly, AI brings huge opportunities to not just level-up the service of human agents but establish the UK as a leading market for customer experience. But with the UK proving one of the most sceptical customer bases in EMEA, businesses must make the right investment to ensure positive returns on the customer experience they deliver."
The research identifies a clear "trust gap" in how AI is used. While many UK consumers are comfortable relying on AI for simpler, low-risk tasks such as scheduling a car service (13%) or tracking deliveries (15%), confidence drops for more sensitive or complex actions. Only 3% would trust AI to close a bank account after someone's death, 4% to dispute a suspicious transaction, and 5% to replace a lost passport – all below the EMEA averages.
However, the survey suggests that trust in AI could grow over time. Among UK respondents who do not currently trust AI for certain tasks, such as disputing a suspicious transaction, 24% say they could see themselves relying on AI for this within three years – a 20 percentage point increase from current levels. Notably, younger generations show more willingness to embrace AI in challenging scenarios in the near future.
Despite frustrations with traditional call centre issues such as long wait times (cited by 59%) and the need to repeat information (46%), a significant proportion of UK consumers continue to prefer human-led customer service, especially for nuanced conversations. More than a quarter say they are inclined to speak on the phone with a person regardless of their mood, except in cases when they are tired and would prefer to use email instead.
There is evidence of a paradox in consumer behaviour: while speed and efficiency are valued and associated with AI, many customers remain wary of AI's ability to handle complex, layered conversations. Some 61% view such struggles as an AI trait compared to 23% for human service agents, suggesting a disconnect between what consumers want and what they expect from AI solutions.
The research also reveals that while businesses have increased their investments in AI-powered customer service, most consumers feel these solutions have not met their expectations. Two-thirds (68%) of UK consumers think AI chatbots have fallen short over the past five years, and 67% report that AI-driven approaches have not delivered satisfactory results, highlighting the need for improved data quality and smarter systems capable of adapting to individual contexts.
