B
Evidence Grade B
Graded
accuracy verified by the review judge
Safe to Cite
Current
59%
59% -- share of customers preferring ai support as first point of contact for customers (2026)
59% of customers prefer AI-powered support as their first point of contact.
Attribution:
View source
Lighthouse Research Team
Last verified:
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Source verified
Evidence graded
Value
59%
Unit
Percentage
Data Vintage
2026
Entity
Evidence Quality
B
Strong, reliable evidence
Sourced from a well-regarded research firm or industry leader with transparent methodology and a reasonably large sample.
Single source - not yet corroborated
Score breakdown
Extraction
75
Source Trust
60
Citation Chain
20
Independence
30
Methodology
45
Freshness
95
Source
Gladly and Wakefield Research
Primary
Tier B
https://inspiro.com/insights/blog/human-ai-in-cx-who-ought-to-be-doing-what ↗
Source Article
AI Automation and Human Touch in CX | Inspiro
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming a cornerstone of modern business strategy, particularly within customer experience (CX). Most organizations are actively integrating AI to streamline operations and enhance service delivery. The momentum is undeniable, with industry reports forecastin…
Original Research
Gladly and Wakefield Research
· Original study ↗
Methodology
Gladly and Wakefield Research 2026 Customer Expectations Report, cited by Inspiro
Methodology documented
Segmentation
Industrymarketing
Cite this stat
Plain Text
customers: 59% share of customers preferring ai support as first point of contact. Source: Gladly and Wakefield Research (2026). Via Lighthouse Intelligence -- https://lighthousedata.io/data/ai-first-contact-preference-2026
HTML Embed
<blockquote cite="https://lighthousedata.io/data/ai-first-contact-preference-2026" style="border-left:3px solid #2563eb;padding:12px 16px;margin:16px 0;font-family:system-ui,sans-serif;background:#f0f4ff;"><strong>59%</strong> -- share of customers preferring ai support as first point of contact for customers<br><small>Source: Gladly and Wakefield Research (2026) · <a href="https://lighthousedata.io/data/ai-first-contact-preference-2026" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lighthouse Intelligence</a></small></blockquote>
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