New research from Genesys shows that Australian and New Zealand organisations are facing mounting pressure to transform their customer experience strategies as consumer expectations continue to climb.

The fifth edition of the Genesys State of Customer Experience report found that 90% of consumers in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) expect every organisation they interact with to deliver experiences comparable to the best they have ever had. At the same time, 95% believe a company is only as good as its customer service, highlighting the growing importance of delivering fast, seamless and personalised support.

The findings suggest that AI has moved beyond experimentation to become a strategic priority for organisations looking to meet rising customer expectations. According to the research, 85% of CX leaders say AI investments are critical or highly influential to achieving their customer experience goals. Nearly half (48%) of organisations in ANZ have already deployed agentic AI-powered virtual agents to manage customer interactions, while businesses expect AI-powered CX technologies to account for 30% of their customer experience budgets over the next year.

Consumers appear increasingly focused on outcomes rather than whether they are interacting with a person or AI. Nearly two-thirds (62%) said they do not mind who resolves their issue, provided it is handled quickly and completely. Almost all respondents (97%) rated efficiency as equally important as empathy, reinforcing the value of combining AI automation with human expertise to deliver more effective service.

Despite growing investment, many organisations continue to struggle with fragmented customer journeys. While 96% of consumers expect companies to remember information across channels, 39% of organisations said they do not automatically transfer customer information between virtual and human agents. As a result, 41% of consumers reported having to repeat information to different human agents, while 23% said they had to repeat conversations already held with a virtual agent after being transferred to a human representative.

These disconnected experiences are contributing to growing customer frustration. More than half (57%) of consumers said they would rather do almost anything else than contact customer service, and 21% reported waiting more than an hour to speak with a human support representative—more than four times the global average of 5%.

According to Mark Buckley, Vice President for Australia and New Zealand at Genesys, organisations now have an opportunity to fundamentally rethink how they deliver customer experiences.

"Customer expectations are rising rapidly across Australia and New Zealand, creating an opportunity for organisations to rethink how they deliver customer experiences," said Mark Buckley, Vice President, Australia & New Zealand, Genesys. "As agentic AI becomes more deeply embedded in customer engagement, organisations that can orchestrate AI, human expertise, customer data and enterprise systems around a single customer journey will be best positioned to reduce customer effort, deliver more seamless and personalised experiences, and build stronger customer trust and loyalty."

The research also found growing consumer acceptance of AI, provided it delivers meaningful results. One in three consumers (33%) said they are comfortable with AI making decisions on their behalf if it leads to faster issue resolution. However, consumers still expect human support to remain available, with 61% saying they would react negatively if they could not connect with a human agent after interacting with a chatbot or virtual assistant.

The business impact of poor customer experiences remains significant. Nearly seven in ten consumers (69%) said they would switch to a competitor after three or fewer negative experiences with a brand, while almost one in five (19%) would leave after just a single poor interaction.

For many organisations, modernising customer experience is also being held back by internal challenges. CX leaders identified maintaining service quality while managing ageing infrastructure as their biggest operational hurdle, with legacy systems and budget constraints limiting their ability to scale AI initiatives and create more connected customer journeys.