SurveyMonkey polled 2,017 US adults on December 10 and 11, 2025. 79 percent said they strongly prefer interacting with a human over an AI agent. Gartner's December 2023 survey of 5,728 customers found that 64 percent would prefer companies did not use AI in customer service, and 53 percent would consider switching to a competitor if they found out a company was going to.
- Strongly prefer a human over an AI agent: 79 percent (SurveyMonkey, 2,017 US adults, December 2025)
- Would prefer companies did not use AI in customer service: 64 percent (Gartner, 5,728 customers, December 2023)
- Would consider switching if a company adopted AI for service: 53 percent (same Gartner survey)
These are stated preferences, not what happened on any one call, and neither survey asked about the phone specifically. They still say where an AI receptionist belongs and where it does not.
It does not belong between a customer and a person who was going to answer. It belongs on the calls that would otherwise have reached voicemail: after hours, on a Sunday, while every tech is on a job. It says it is automated in the first sentence, books the visit, and hands off to a person the moment the caller asks or the rule says so. Measured against voicemail, not against a receptionist, it is the better of the two things that were actually going to happen.
What ProxMedia does about it: the phone answered and booked on the calls you could not take, in your words, with a person one handoff away.
Sources: SurveyMonkey, "Customer service trends and statistics for 2026", February 19, 2026 (2,017 US adults, December 10 to 11, 2025); Gartner press release, July 9, 2024 (5,728 customers surveyed December 2023).