A significant chasm has opened up between the perception of customer experience within corporate boardrooms and the reality lived by consumers, according to a new research report that highlights a critical “confidence disconnect.” The study, a collaborative effort from customer experience platform Sprinklr and research firm Metric Sherpa, reveals that while business leaders are highly confident in the trust and consistency of their brands, consumers often feel the exact opposite, a gap that could jeopardize performance and hinder the adoption of artificial intelligence.
The report, titled “The CX Confidence Disconnect: Why Customers Struggle to Believe What Brands Promise,” is based on parallel surveys of over 2,600 business leaders and consumers. The findings expose a profound divide across every point of the customer journey. While an overwhelming 91% of business leaders believe that their brand’s intended message and experience are being received by customers, the consumer side of the survey paints a starkly different picture. Only 36% of consumers report that their experiences with brands are consistent across various channels like websites, mobile apps, and in-person stores. Furthermore, a telling 79% of customers state they frequently feel unrecognized or even forgotten by companies they have engaged with on multiple occasions, suggesting a deep-seated operational blind spot within many organizations.
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“This report makes it clear that many enterprises are leading with confidence built on false assumptions,” said Justin Robbins, Founder & Principal Analyst at Metric Sherpa. “Executives may believe their brands are trusted and consistent, yet customers describe fragmented and forgettable experiences. Closing this gap demands decisive action: measure trust with the same rigor as revenue, unify data and teams so promises match delivery, and redesign recovery around speed and accountability. Brands that take these steps will earn durable trust in an era where skepticism is high and switching is easy.”
This disconnect is particularly evident when it comes to brand promises. An impressive 86% of business leaders, nearly half of whom are in executive roles, feel that customers trust them to follow through on their commitments. However, among consumers, almost half say that brands overpromise and underdeliver sometimes, often, or always. This climate of skepticism is costly; the research found that nearly six in ten consumers have abandoned a brand entirely after just a single poor experience.
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This pre-existing trust deficit casts a long shadow over the corporate world’s rush to implement AI in customer-facing roles. The study serves as an important early warning, showing that while leaders believe customers are ready to use AI for basic support, only a meager 17% of consumers are actually “very comfortable” with the idea. A significant 43% of consumers do not trust AI to make decisions involving their personal or financial data, and a commanding 72% expect to be explicitly notified every time they are interacting with an AI system rather than a human. These figures point to a fragile foundation for AI acceptance, where transparency and the option for human intervention remain paramount.
The research also identified service recovery as a critical, yet often missed, moment of truth. Following a brand failure, the number one driver of consumer loyalty isn’t a discount or an apology, but a fast and honest resolution. Despite this, only 36% of business leaders reported that their organizations consistently follow up with customers to confirm that a problem has been resolved. This failure to close the loop is where reputations are often irreparably damaged.
“Extraordinary customer experience don’t happen by accident they’re built through intentional, omni-channel listening and action,” said Sprinklr CMO, Arun Pattabhiraman. “Sprinklr helps brands unify the channels, signals, and teams surrounding the customer. Our AI-native platform isn’t just built to automate it’s built to understand and offer insight. When brands move from fragmented efforts to connected intelligence, they aren’t just able to improve experiences they gain the power to make them extraordinary.”
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