Study Finds 2 in 3 Consumers Would Choose A Brand That Offers AI Agent Customer Service Over One That Doesn’t

Survey commissioned by SoundHound AI also found that participants selecting “very satisfied” jumped from 26% to 57% for AI Agent customer experience

Santa Clara, CA, June 5, 2025 – SoundHound AI, Inc. (Nasdaq: SOUN), a global leader in voice artificial intelligence, today released a study which reveals that modern consumers are ready for businesses to offer customer service via AI agents. 

The survey of US consumers found:

  • Currently only 1 in 4 (26%) reported they were “very satisfied” with the quality of customer service experiences
  • That number more than doubled – from 26% to 57% – when the same consumers had the opportunity to experience an interaction with an AI agent*
  • Almost three quarters (73%) said the AI agent* experience was superior to current customer service experiences with chatbots and virtual assistants.
  • More than 2 in 3 (71%) indicated that they would choose a company that offers AI agents over a competitor that didn’t 
  • More respondents (44%) said they have a preference for the AI agent* experience vs. a human experience (41%)

The results indicate that AI agents – sophisticated software capable of conversing with customers and executing complex tasks as part of natural, humanlike interactions – will soon be table stakes for businesses looking to provide customer service fit for a new generation of consumers that want AI-driven responses and interactions. 

A recent study by Bain showed that 80% of consumers are now using generative AI platforms for frictionless information retrieval, revealing newly habituated behaviors and expectations among general public audiences.

“Two trends are now plain to see: consumers want seamless, conversational AI responses from customer service representatives, and they also want the option to talk rather than type,” said Michael Anderson, Executive Vice President of Enterprise AI at SoundHound AI. “This isn’t unexpected. There has been an observable shift in behavior driven by the generative AI explosion, and it has big implications for consumer facing businesses. Decision-makers that ignore the pace and direction of change – i.e. towards AI agents – will undoubtedly regret it.” 

*Survey respondents experienced video demonstrations of customers interacting with the AI agents deployed on the SoundHound’s Amelia 7.0 platform. 

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SoundHound AI’s new white paper AI Takes The Call: Signs of a Customer Service Revolution is available starting today, and includes a full run through of this third party research, conducted with over 1k US consumers. 

SoundHound also recently announced updates to its AI agent platform, Amelia 7.0 – the only agent platform to equip enterprise-ready autonomous AI agents with category leading voice AI. Amelia 7.0 can handle even complex user queries by orchestrating AI agents to answer questions and resolve problems without the need for human intervention. 

The result is a responsive system that allows companies to automate their own business-specific customer interactions in the familiar and popular conversational style that generative AI facilitates. 

At the same time, being able to refer a multitude of consumer queries and transactions to AI agents promises to reduce the burden on employees, allowing them the time to deal with more challenging tasks. 

AI Agents manage complex queries & execute multiple intent queries within Amelia 7.0. Some examples include:

  • Patient:I’d like to reorder my prescription, pay my outstanding bill, and schedule a new appointment about another issue.” 
  • Customer: I want to exchange an item for an order I just received and cancel a subsequent order I made yesterday.” 
  • Employee: Could you please help me with an email issue, and let me know the process for submitting a PTO request?”

On a larger scale, Amelia 7.0 can be used to build end-to-end agentic experiences. For example, a hotel that handles guest interactions — from marketing and reservations to on-property concierge services like event information, dining, and in-room requests — across phone, web, text, and messaging apps for a seamless, personalized experience.

Learn more about the SoundHound’s Amelia 7.0 AI Agent Platform here: https://www.soundhound.com/voice-ai-products/amelia/ 

Watch an AI agent case study video here: https://vimeo.com/1085945810 

Big Village Methodology 

This survey was conducted from April 24-29, 2025 among 1070 U.S. Adults aged 21-65 who have engaged in customer service interactions in the last 3 months and engaged in a customer service interaction that involved a virtual assistant or chatbot in the past year.

Big Village is a research and analytics business that helps brands and agencies to better understand customer behavior, intentions, and attitudes to drive effective marketing and innovation. With over 80 years of experience in delivering high-quality data and insights, we design, build, and manage consumer insights solutions that enable always on learning and generate growth for brands. Find out more at https://big-village.com/.  

About SoundHound AI
SoundHound AI (Nasdaq: SOUN), a global leader in voice and conversational intelligence, delivers  AI solutions that allow businesses to offer superior experiences to their customers. Built on proprietary technology, SoundHound’s voice AI delivers best-in-class speed and accuracy in numerous languages to product creators and service providers across retail, financial services, healthcare, automotive, smart devices, and restaurants. The company’s various groundbreaking AI-driven products include Smart Answering, Smart Ordering, Dynamic Drive-Thru, and the Amelia Platform, which powers AI Agents for enterprise. In addition, SoundHound Chat AI, a powerful voice assistant with integrated Generative AI, and Autonomics, a category-leading operations platform that automates IT processes, have allowed SoundHound to power millions of products and services, and processes billions of interactions each year for world class businesses. www.soundhound.com