Genesys Research Finds AI Becomes a Strategic Imperative as Customer Expectations Rise in Australia and New Zealand
customer experience management artificial intelligence
MTE
Published on : Jul 16, 2026
SYDNEY, 16 July, 2026 – New research from Genesys®, a global cloud leader in AI-Powered Experience Orchestration, found that customer expectations continue to rise across Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), placing increasing pressure on organisations to rethink how they deliver customer experiences. The fifth edition of the State of Customer Experience report found that 90% of ANZ consumers want every organisation to deliver experiences on par with the best experience they have ever had, while 95% say a company is only as good as its customer service. The findings reflect a growing expectation among consumers for faster, more seamless experiences.
AI investment accelerates as expectations rise
As customer expectations rise and patience for poor experiences declines, AI has become central to CX strategy. The research found that 85% of CX leaders view AI investments as critical or very influential to achieving their strategic CX goals, with nearly half (48%) of ANZ organisations reporting that they’re already using agentic AI virtual agents for customer interactions. Further, in the next 12 months, businesses in ANZ plan to spend 30% of their CX budget on AI-powered CX technologies.
The opportunity for AI extends beyond operational efficiency. Consumers are increasingly focused on outcomes rather than who delivers them. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of ANZ customers don’t care who resolves their issue as long as it’s solved quickly and completely, while 97% value efficiency as much as empathy. Together, this reinforces the opportunity for organisations to combine AI with human expertise to deliver seamless, personalised experiences at scale.
Despite strong momentum, organisations still have work to do to deliver the connected experiences customers expect. While 96% of consumers expect information to be remembered across channels, over a quarter (39%) of organisations do not automatically pass information between virtual and human agents. Nearly 41% consumers in ANZ mentioned having to repeat themselves to different human agents and nearly a quarter (23%) also said they had to repeat a conversation they’ve had with a virtual agent to a human agent in the past 12 months.
This disconnect has tangible consequences. More than half (57%) of consumers say they would rather do anything else than contact customer service, while 21% have waited more than an hour to speak with a human customer support representative – more than four times the global average (5%). The findings reinforce that delivering seamless experiences requires more than faster service – it requires connecting AI, people, customer data and enterprise systems to reduce customer effort and create more connected customer journeys.
At the same time, maintaining service quality with aging infrastructure has become the top internal operational challenge for CX leaders. Combined with budget constraints, these legacy systems make it difficult for organisations to scale AI and deliver the seamless experiences customers expect.
“Customer expectations are rising rapidly across Australia and New Zealand, creating an opportunity for organisations to rethink how they deliver customer experiences,” said Mark Buckley, Vice President, Australia & New Zealand, Genesys. “As agentic AI becomes more deeply embedded in customer engagement, organisations that can orchestrate AI, human expertise, customer data and enterprise systems around a single customer journey will be best positioned to reduce customer effort, deliver more seamless and personalised experiences, and build stronger customer trust and loyalty.”
Additional key findings for ANZ
- Consumers are embracing AI — but expect it to deliver. One-third (33%) are comfortable with AI making decisions on their behalf if it improves speed and resolution.
- Consumers expect AI and human support to work together. More than three in five (61%) ANZ consumers say they would react negatively if they couldn’t connect with a human agent after interacting with a virtual agent or chatbot.
- Poor experiences have real business consequences. Sixty-nine per cent of consumers would switch to a competitor after three or fewer bad experiences with a brand. For 19% of consumers, it only takes one bad experience before they switch, lower than the global average (21%).
Together, the results show that the future of customer experience depends not only on agentic AI adoption, but on how effectively organisations 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), providing regional insights alongside the global findings. 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.
About Genesys
Genesys® empowers more than 8,000 organisations 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, organisations can drive customer loyalty, growth and retention while increasing operational efficiency and teamwork across human and AI workforces.
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