Will customers trust my business less if an AI answers the phone?
Some will — if the AI hides what it is, gets things wrong, or traps them. Many won’t, if it’s honest, competent and lets them reach a person. In a survey of 2,501 shoppers by Sinch, a messaging and voice platform, 52% said they’re open to voice AI as long as they can reach a person, while 48% said they’d trust a human over a voice AI agent to resolve an issue. Trust isn’t settled by whether software answers. It’s settled by how the call goes.
What the surveys say — and who paid for them
Every number on this topic comes from someone with a stake in it, so read them side by side:
- AnswerConnect, which sells human answering, reported in May 2026 that 57% of people would trust a business less if it relies mostly on AI for service. Note the word “mostly” — and who’s selling.
- Upfirst, which sells AI answering, asked 262 owners and managers what worried them most. The top answer, at 51%, was callers being annoyed or preferring a person — well ahead of accuracy, at 17%.
- Sinch, a messaging and voice platform, found the split above: openness depends on reaching a person.
Read together, nobody’s data says callers love AI on the phone, and nobody’s says they refuse it. They say the conditions decide it.
Trust comes from three things
- Honesty. The assistant says it’s automated in the greeting and never claims to be a person, even when asked playfully. A caller who discovers a trick feels fooled; a caller told up front just gets on with it.
- An exit. A person is one step away — a transfer when someone’s free, a specific callback promise when no one is. The 52% in Sinch’s survey are open on that condition.
- Competence. The right hours, the right service, the right day, a message that’s actually complete. A confident wrong answer costs trust whether a person or a machine gives it.
The real comparison is often voicemail
The surveys pit AI against a person. On your phone, the calls in question usually aren’t choosing between an AI and a person — they’re the ones that would have rung out or gone to a beep because your people were busy. CallRail’s September 2025 survey of 1,000 US consumers found only 42% leave a voicemail when a business doesn’t answer; more on that in do customers leave a voicemail. If your people answer whenever they’re free and the AI catches only the overflow, the caller who reaches an honest assistant got further than the one who reached nothing.
And if your people already answer nearly every call, adding AI may not win you much trust or business. Keep doing what’s working.