Three Things To Know About Customer Resistance To AI
MIT Sloan Management Review, Monday, August 31st, 2026
Research explains when customers accept AI-delivered service and when they insist on a human.
This research summary distills three findings on why customers resist AI-mediated service. First, avoidance of chatbots combines gatekeeper aversion - uncertainty about the process - with algorithm aversion, distrust of the AI itself, though transparency mitigates both.
Second, people accept unfavorable news more readily from an AI than a human, because they do not attribute intent to a machine, but prefer good news delivered by a person.
Third, customers welcome AI when it is demonstrably more capable at impersonal tasks and prefer humans where personalization matters, making acceptance predictable from just two factors.