57% Indian consumers prefer AI-enabled tools over human interactions, brands catching up on adoption: Adobe Study

• 53% of Indian brands are committed to improving their generative AI capabilities in the next 12 months
• 41% of Indian brands are seeing Customer Experience (CX) as a business priority today
• 59% of Indian consumers will stop or consider not buying from a brand that isn’t transparent about personal data use

In the rapidly evolving landscape of consumer preferences, Indian consumers have emerged as global frontrunners in embracing AI-driven interactions, however, Indian brands are trailing the world in harnessing the latest AI innovations, a new report shows.

According to the latest Adobe’s State of Digital Customer Experience report, more than half (57%) of Indian consumers, would choose an AI-enabled tool or service over human interaction, far more than the global and APAC average of 39% and 48% respectively. However, human interaction remains a top choice when considering aspects of decision-making, customer support, and returns or cancellations. Many (39%) want both options to be available, particularly when exploring new products and services.

Despite these preferences, and Indian consumers anticipating Customer Experience (CX) benefits from generative AI, Indian brands are falling behind global peers. Only 15% are leveraging generative AI to enhance CX initiatives compared to 18% globally. Brands in Europe and the US are also twice as likely to already have dedicated AI budgets and internal usage policies.

However, 41% of Indian brands are seeing CX as a business priority today and 87% of Indian brands are prioritising CX enhancements over other business goals. That puts it at the top of the strategic agenda, equal to integrating the CX technology stack while accelerating the adoption and integration of generative AI. Moreover, in the next 12 months, 53% of Indian brands are committed to improving their generative AI capabilities whereas 76% of brands already have or will pilot generative AI solutions to support experience delivery.

“Advances in generative AI have been already transformational for consumers, and they now expect brands too to also adopt the technology for better and personalised experiences. Our latest research shows that Indian brands are embracing the shift to GenAI and devising avenues for its responsible usage to enhance personalization at scale, and digital customer journeys.” said Anindita Veluri, Director Marketing, Adobe India.
Indian brands are world leaders in adopting customer data management (89%), and almost all have the data to balance personalisation and privacy (95%). While brands lead the world in customer data capabilities, they are currently lagging in the adoption of technologies and tools that support personalisation.

Both consumers and brands agree that data privacy and security concerns constrain personalisation. Brands say consumer reluctance to share data is a top barrier, but they underestimate the impact of data missteps. 59% of Indian consumers will stop or consider not buying from a brand that isn’t transparent about personal data use.

Indian consumers are most concerned for responsible and ethical usage of their personal data. 60% of them thinks that decision would be made about their data without consent, 65% believe that brands will collect too much data and 56% says that brands won’t be able to build ethical AI tools.

68% of respondents expect to be informed when content is AI-generated, whereas 64% would be more diligent about fact-checking content due to generative AI. Consumer concern for responsible and ethical usage

About the research

The State of Digital Customer Experience research is derived from a global survey of 4,000 consumers and 1,500 executives and direct reports (collectively referred to as ‘brands’). The survey, conducted by Oxford Economics, was in field between June and August 2023. The Asia Pacific analysis comprises a sample of 1,000 consumers and 375 executives from Japan, Singapore, India, Australia and New Zealand, Malaysia, and Thailand.

About Adobe

Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

To learn more about the current state of Digital Customer Experiences, consumer preferences and brands’ capabilities across the Asia Pacific Region, you can read the full report here.