Half of APAC Consumers Would Rather Do Anything Else Than Contact Customer Service, Genesys Research Finds

As their expectations rise, APAC consumers embrace AI’s potential to improve service, while organizations face growing pressure to connect AI, data, channels and human support

Genesys®, a global cloud leader in AI-Powered Experience Orchestration, today released  findings from the fifth edition of its “State of Customer Experience” report, revealing that customer experience (CX) has become an increasingly decisive factor in consumer loyalty and spending decisions across APAC Half of APAC consumers say they would rather do anything else than contact customer service, with the sentiment rising sharply in Singapore( 63% ) – the highest among APAC markets covered in the research.

Poor service is also hitting the bottom line. Across APAC, 86% of consumers say poor service has caused them to spend less or stop doing business with a brand altogether. The impact is especially pronounced in markets such as the Philippines and Thailand, where the figure rises to 91%, while Japan stands out as a lower outlier at 67%.

The research found consumers across APAC are increasingly open to AI when it delivers better outcomes. Eighty-four percent expect AI to improve the quality and speed of customer service, while 82% believe it will improve personalization – both above the global averages.

Consumers increasingly care more about outcomes than whether AI or a person provides the service. Across APAC, 80% do not particularly care whether their issue is solved by a person or AI, as long as it is solved quickly and completely. At the same time, 93% value efficient customer service as much as being treated empathetically, reinforcing the need to orchestrate AI and human agents to deliver the right support at the right moment.

As customer expectations rise and patience for poor experiences declines, organizations face growing pressure to use AI to strengthen customer relationships and improve service outcomes at scale. Meeting those expectations remains a challenge for many organizations. While 96% of APAC consumers expect information to be remembered across channels, nearly half (46%) of organizations do not automatically pass information between virtual and human agents. At the same time, managing data for AI, AI readiness and keeping pace with AI innovation rank among the top challenges for CX leaders, hindering efforts to connect customer data, channels and interactions – leading to customer frustration and eroded loyalty.

“Across APAC, consumers are increasingly confident in AI’s ability to improve customer experiences. But they also expect organizations to remember context, connect every interaction and resolve issues with minimal effort,” said Albert Nel, Senior Vice President and Regional Sales Leader for Genesys Asia Pacific. “As agentic AI becomes part of everyday customer engagement, organizations need to use it to reduce customer effort—not just automate interactions. The businesses that succeed will be those that connect AI, people and customer context to deliver faster resolutions and more seamless experiences.”

Key findings from the report include:

• Customer expectations have never been higher. 91% consumers want every organization to deliver experiences on par with the best experience they have ever had, while an equal percentage (91%) judge a company by the quality of its customer service.
• Consumers are embracing AI — but expect it to deliver. Forty-nine percent of APAC consumers are comfortable with AI making decisions on their behalf if it improves speed and resolution. Comfort is highest in South Korea at 56%, suggesting stronger consumer openness as AI becomes more embedded across the customer experience. But patience is limited when AI falls short: 82% of APAC consumers will give a virtual agent three attempts or fewer to resolve an issue.
• Poor experiences have real business consequences. percent of APAC consumers would switch to a competitor after three or fewer bad experiences with their most favorite companies or brands. Fo it only takes one bad experience before they switch.
• Organizations see agentic AI and orchestration as key to closing the experience gap. 86% of APAC CX leaders expect autonomous AI agents to orchestrate customer experiences within three years, while they plan to spend an average of 32% of their customer service or experience budget on AI-powered CX technologies over the next 12 months.

The findings suggest the future of customer experience depends not only on agentic AI adoption, but on how effectively organizations connect AI, human interactions, data and systems across the customer journey.

Methodology: Genesys worked with an independent research firm to survey 5,811 consumers and 1,560 CX and business leaders in more than 20 countries.  The study includes responses from 1,426 (24%) consumers and 508 (14%) CX leader respondents across Asia Pacific (APAC), including Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand. The survey was conducted in March and April of 2026. Among the business respondents, the industries represented were airlines, automotive, banking, government, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, media and entertainment, professional services, retail, travel and hospitality, technology, telecommunications and utilities

Learn more about the “State of Customer Experience” by downloading the report here.

About Genesys  

Genesys^® empowers more than 8,000 organizations worldwide to create the best customer and employee experiences. With agentic AI at its core, Genesys Cloud™ is the AI-Powered Experience Orchestration platform that connects people, systems, data and AI across the enterprise. As a result, organizations can drive customer loyalty, growth and retention while increasing operational efficiency and teamwork across human and AI workforces. To learn more, visit www.Genesys.AI.

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Media Contacts

Manali Pattnaik

Senior Director APAC Communications, Genesys

Manali.Pattnaik@genesys.com

+65-83217924