One in five Australians will switch to a competitor after a slow automated experience. Twilio’s Nicholas Kontopoulos breaks down practical ways SMEs can use AI without destroying trust.
What’s happening: New research from Twilio reveals a sharp divide between how patient Australians think they are and how they actually behave when dealing with AI-powered customer service.
Why this matters: While 96% of Australians believe they are expected to remain patient and polite in customer service interactions, only 64% report actually maintaining patience when interacting online with brands.
Australians have long traded on the ‘no worries’ reputation. But according to new research, that goodwill evaporates the moment a chatbot enters the room.
Half of Australian consumers say that the use of AI in customer service is making them less patient, and they are more likely to lose patience when interacting with AI agents than with human agents. 53% of those surveyed said they are patient with AI-powered chatbots and 54% with automated voice menus, while the figures were significantly higher for human interactions, at 88% for live chat with a human and 90% for phone calls with a human agent.
The stakes are not just reputational. One in five Australians say they would stop using a product or service or switch to a competitor if service interactions through automated systems take longer than expected. Australian consumers are also more likely than others in the Asia Pacific region to downgrade their opinion of a brand following poor customer service, at 34% compared to 29% regionally.
For SMEs that are automating more of their customer interactions, the clear message is that automation alone is not enough.
Trust buys time
The research found that frustration does not simply come from slow response times. It comes from a breakdown in trust. Top frustrations for consumers when interacting with AI-powered customer service include not understanding their question, at 52%, having to repeat themselves multiple times, at 48%, and scripted or robotic answers, at 46%.
But the data also contains a practical upside for business owners. Consumers are willing to wait longer, if they feel protected. According to the report, consumers would accept some delays in digital experiences, such as longer wait times or extra verification steps, if it means better security or data protection, with 66% agreeing to this trade-off, or better or more accurate customer support, at 59%.
A prominent concern for consumers interacting through digital or automated channels was feeling that their personal data is safe and secure, cited by 38%, and that brands are transparent about what is happening with their information, cited by 28%. SMEs that communicate clearly about data handling are, in effect, extending the patience of their customers before frustration sets in.
Nicholas Kontopoulos, Vice President of Marketing for Asia Pacific and Japan at Twilio, said the challenge for brands is not just technical. “Brands must recognise that to realise AI’s potential in optimising interactions and increasing efficiency in customer service, the technology needs high-quality, contextual data underpinned by trust and transparency. With the right foundations, AI can be a tool to ease friction, but should not be a substitute for empathy,” he said.
Keep the human door open
Even where AI performs well, customers want to know a human is available. More than four in five Australians, at 84%, say being able to quickly escalate from an AI agent to a human is essential. Nearly half prefer to start their enquiry directly with a human agent, even when it takes longer.
That preference extends to how AI itself should feel. Scripted or robotic responses were among the leading complaints from surveyed Australians. Consumers want to be able to interrupt, to be spoken to naturally, and to hold a conversation in their preferred language. Advanced voice AI tools now make this possible, though adoption among smaller businesses remains uneven.
Australian property financing company Lendi Group was cited in the research as an example of a hybrid model working in practice. The company uses “always on” AI agents to handle administrative and routine tasks, freeing human brokers to focus on complex conversations and relationship-building.
Experts across the industry have consistently pointed to hybrid approaches as the most effective model, with AI managing volume and humans managing nuance.
Data makes it personal
The final piece of the puzzle is personalisation. The top concern for close to half of local consumers when dealing with agentic AI was that it would not understand their needs or context.
When AI agents are equipped with quality first-party data, they can speak to customers with full knowledge of past interactions and preferences, and take actions that reflect that context. Rather than retrieving information for a customer to act on themselves, an agentic AI can perform tasks on their behalf, such as rebooking a flight and updating a travel itinerary automatically.
Kontopoulos summed it up plainly. “Australian consumers certainly see themselves as more patient than the average respondent across the rest of the APJ region. But that patience evaporates quickly when service lacks the human touch. The real differentiator will be how well brands strike that fine balance between efficiency with genuine, human connections that build enduring trust, loyalty and long-term competitive advantage,” he said.
For SMEs, the path forward is not about pulling back from AI. It is about deploying it in a way that keeps customers informed, protected, and never more than one click away from a real person.
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