Australian consumers ditch AI chats over memory gaps

Twilio has released Australian findings from its 2026 Customer Insights Series showing that poor AI memory is driving consumers to abandon customer service interactions. Nearly seven in 10 Australian consumers said they had walked away from an AI service exchange when the system did not remember them or earlier conversations.

The research highlights a gap between how businesses assess their AI tools and how customers experience them. While 85% of Australian business leaders surveyed said their AI recognises returning customers and can access their history, 77% of consumers said they are still forced to repeat basic information they have already provided.

The disconnect appears to continue when an automated interaction is handed over to a person. More than two-thirds of Australian consumers, or 67%, said they had to repeat themselves or fill in missing information after an AI bot transferred them to a human agent.

Memory gap

The findings suggest many companies are overestimating how well their AI systems handle customer context. The issue is not just the quality of the AI response, but whether the system can draw on earlier exchanges and customer records.

Christopher Connolly, Director, Solutions Engineering, Asia Pacific & Japan at Twilio, said the research showed brands may be overestimating their AI agents' ability to use customer memory to create seamless and efficient interactions.

"As with human agents, AI agents need to have context. Any investments into AI must go hand-in-hand with connected data, which is now the cornerstone of good customer experience," Connolly said.

The Australian results also point to weaker performance than elsewhere in the region on measures of AI efficiency. Only 47% of local consumers said the AI bots they interacted with had improved over the past year, compared with 70% in Singapore.

Australian consumers also reported the lowest average time saved per AI interaction across the Asia Pacific markets covered by the study. The average was 63 seconds, below the regional average of 84 seconds and well behind India, where consumers said they saved an average of 101 seconds.

Regional lag

The findings suggest speed alone is not enough to satisfy users. Just over half of Australian consumers, or 51%, said it is equally frustrating when AI is quick but lacks context as when it has the right information but responds too slowly.

That balance between speed and relevance has become more important as companies move more customer contact into automated channels. The survey suggests consumers want interactions that feel continuous across channels rather than restarting at each step.

Even so, the data also showed some openness to AI support when it works well. Forty-five per cent of consumers said they still feel appreciated by a brand if its AI is smart enough to help them, while 34% said a company's use of AI does not affect how valued they feel as customers.

Connolly said businesses need to align their use of AI with what customers actually experience.

"Consumers are becoming more receptive to AI agents - as long as they are helpful and efficient. The priority for brands now is to put connected data to work to align good intent with what consumers are actually experiencing in their AI interactions. Context-aware AI agents that can save time without forcing customers to repeat themselves is what will help close this gap," he said.

The study covered 7,652 consumers and 660 business leaders across 18 markets, including Australia. In Asia Pacific and Japan, it included Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore, and surveyed consumers and business leaders responsible for customer experience, marketing technology and customer data strategy.