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Trend
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AI transparency and decisioning are now the rule, not the exception
With the rapid changes being brought on by AI, it’s no surprise that companies and consumers have made transparency a key priority. Because the technology affects data collection and the customer experience as a whole, consumers now rank transparency as a factor in brand selection.
That focus has real-world implications for businesses as they ramp up their AI capabilities. Going forward, being transparent about the data that drives AI models and decisioning will be a defining element in building and maintaining trust with customers.
75% of organizations believe that a lack of transparency could lead to increased customer churn in the future
Considering that 48 percent of customers report increased difficulty telling the difference between AI and humans, there’s an urgent need for businesses to treat AI transparency as an essential element in communicating with consumers. Those who fail to heed this call will find themselves on the outside looking in, since consumers will decide who they can trust with their data and their dollars.
![](./assets/images/zendesk-trends-transparent-04.23283c14a916.png)
Trend 4
![](./assets/images/pill_headers-2.d7adf2abb66a.png)
AI transparency and decisioning are now the rule, not the exception
With the rapid changes being brought on by AI, it’s no surprise that companies and consumers have made transparency a key priority. Because the technology affects data collection and the customer experience as a whole, consumers now rank transparency as a factor in brand selection.
That focus has real-world implications for businesses as they ramp up their AI capabilities. Going forward, being transparent about the data that drives AI models and decisioning will be a defining element in building and maintaining trust with customers.
75% of organizations believe that a lack of transparency could lead to increased customer churn in the future
Considering that 48 percent of customers report increased difficulty telling the difference between AI and humans, there’s an urgent need for businesses to treat AI transparency as an essential element in communicating with consumers. Those who fail to heed this call will find themselves on the outside looking in, since consumers will decide who they can trust with their data and their dollars.
That need for trust through transparency becomes especially important when dealing with sensitive information that reveals a person’s identity, their health history, and their financial status. No customer wants to feel like AI is snooping on them or making their data available to bad actors. And as 58 percent of consumers told Zendesk, knowing how their data is collected, stored, and used plays an outsize role in whether they’ll purchase a product or service from a company.
In other words, transparency in AI is simply non-negotiable. Companies must be clear about the customer data they use, their commitment to preventing inherent biases, and their approach to comparing AI performance versus controls. It’s not that customers need highly complex details about AI models, but they do need a high-level understanding of what’s being used and how. If your AI recommends something to a customer, that end user needs to know how that decision came to be.
22% of consumers say AI and bots do an excellent job of explaining why a suggestion was made
Since AI is trained on large sets of data— information created by humans with all of their frailties and flaws—there’s a very real danger of tools exhibiting bias or discrimination. There have already been widely publicized incidents of AI veering into racism and misogyny, and consumers have taken notice. As 63 percent of consumers told Zendesk, they are concerned about potential bias and discrimination in AI algorithms and decision making. It behooves companies to be clear about what data is included and excluded in their AI models so customers feel safe.