Hype cycles inevitably breed polarization, regardless of the product, service, or personality in question. The more space that anything occupies in print and digital media, the more fans and critics emerge. Recent polling out of Ontario (Canada’s largest and most commercially diverse province) suggests this polarizing effect is now playing out clearly between customers and enterprises in their attitudes toward artificial intelligence (AI). In today’s climate of AI “white noise” permeating the CX landscape, leaders need to weigh these diverging opinions carefully.
This was encapsulated by recent polling conducted by Liaison Strategies which considered the views of 800 consumers and 500 business leaders in Ontario regarding their use and perceptions of AI. The extracted results should be of concern to vendors of this technology as well as enterprises choosing to deploy AI solutions.
Among the most striking trends identified within the scope of this research is the limited extent to which Ontario businesses have grown AI investment over the past year across their operations – with only 23% increasing this line item over the reporting period. Roughly a same proportion of Ontario businesses indicate that AI is currently being used as part of their sales / CX functionality. Given these relatively tepid numbers of Ontario enterprises taking on AI at a both broad and customer management level, the question of ‘why?’ needs to be posed.
There is no easy answer to this. Certainly, confusion around what these solutions can actually do versus how they have, in many cases, been oversold is likely a factor in this hesitance. Interestingly, the Liaison Strategies numbers indicate a similar enterprise AI investment trend-line as the most recent Ryan Strategic Advisory 2026 CX Technologies and Global Services Survey, which showed a drop-off in how organizations across major demand markets plan to procure these offerings over the coming year, relative to 2024.
On the consumer side, perceptions of how AI is being deployed is murky at best, especially from a CX angle. The Liaison Strategies research shows that over half of Ontarians feel that AI has had a negative impact on all matters sales and customer experience related. In a curious development, this contrasts sharply with the 85% of business respondents that feel these same technologies are having a positive impact within their own customer management and commercial operations.
This chasm in perception between customers and enterprises is huge and cannot be ignored by CX executives. Poor automated front-line experiences across voice and digital channels are a likely cause of end-user skepticism, and companies (as well as their outsourcing partners) need to take note of the extent to which cost-cutting via half-baked AI-powered solutions could lead to lost end-user loyalty.
And, at a broader level no one should underestimate how skepticism of AI in the general population is growing, a trend clearly identified in the Liaison Strategies research. The survey indicates widespread concern around the possible negative effects this technology could have across different sectors / institutions, most notably journalism, insurance, higher education and film production. Consumer worries are also widespread when it comes to how customer data is managed when being analyzed by AI tools.
The upshot from this research is that business leaders need to be careful not only in how they deploy, but also position AI as part of their ecosystem. Ontario consumers are showing notable levels of doubt when it comes to AI, reinforcing that enterprises’ AI-powered offerings need to be both functional and commercially friendly. There is also a lesson for providers of AI tools and solutions in these survey numbers. Businesses in Ontario have been loath to grow their investments into AI and are stagnating in their use of this technology in CX. Something clearly needs to change in commercial positioning / messaging.
It is noted that this research was conducted within one Canadian jurisdiction, and it would be wrong to think that the results would be identical across other CX demand markets. But it is not unrealistic to assume that some similar disparities between businesses and customers exist in the rest of North America, Western Europe and Asia-Pacific. In this sense, Ontario could be a proverbial canary in the coalmine when it comes to how AI is perceived by different stakeholders.
Growing Disconnect Between Consumers and Businesses Around AI in CX
By Ryan Strategic Advisory
Hype cycles inevitably breed polarization, regardless of the product, service, or personality in question. The more space that anything occupies in print and digital media, the more fans and critics emerge. Recent polling out of Ontario (Canada’s largest and most commercially diverse province) suggests this polarizing effect is now playing out clearly between customers and enterprises in their attitudes toward artificial intelligence (AI). In today’s climate of AI “white noise” permeating the CX landscape, leaders need to weigh these diverging opinions carefully.
This was encapsulated by recent polling conducted by Liaison Strategies which considered the views of 800 consumers and 500 business leaders in Ontario regarding their use and perceptions of AI. The extracted results should be of concern to vendors of this technology as well as enterprises choosing to deploy AI solutions.
Among the most striking trends identified within the scope of this research is the limited extent to which Ontario businesses have grown AI investment over the past year across their operations – with only 23% increasing this line item over the reporting period. Roughly a same proportion of Ontario businesses indicate that AI is currently being used as part of their sales / CX functionality. Given these relatively tepid numbers of Ontario enterprises taking on AI at a both broad and customer management level, the question of ‘why?’ needs to be posed.
There is no easy answer to this. Certainly, confusion around what these solutions can actually do versus how they have, in many cases, been oversold is likely a factor in this hesitance. Interestingly, the Liaison Strategies numbers indicate a similar enterprise AI investment trend-line as the most recent Ryan Strategic Advisory 2026 CX Technologies and Global Services Survey, which showed a drop-off in how organizations across major demand markets plan to procure these offerings over the coming year, relative to 2024.
On the consumer side, perceptions of how AI is being deployed is murky at best, especially from a CX angle. The Liaison Strategies research shows that over half of Ontarians feel that AI has had a negative impact on all matters sales and customer experience related. In a curious development, this contrasts sharply with the 85% of business respondents that feel these same technologies are having a positive impact within their own customer management and commercial operations.
This chasm in perception between customers and enterprises is huge and cannot be ignored by CX executives. Poor automated front-line experiences across voice and digital channels are a likely cause of end-user skepticism, and companies (as well as their outsourcing partners) need to take note of the extent to which cost-cutting via half-baked AI-powered solutions could lead to lost end-user loyalty.
And, at a broader level no one should underestimate how skepticism of AI in the general population is growing, a trend clearly identified in the Liaison Strategies research. The survey indicates widespread concern around the possible negative effects this technology could have across different sectors / institutions, most notably journalism, insurance, higher education and film production. Consumer worries are also widespread when it comes to how customer data is managed when being analyzed by AI tools.
The upshot from this research is that business leaders need to be careful not only in how they deploy, but also position AI as part of their ecosystem. Ontario consumers are showing notable levels of doubt when it comes to AI, reinforcing that enterprises’ AI-powered offerings need to be both functional and commercially friendly. There is also a lesson for providers of AI tools and solutions in these survey numbers. Businesses in Ontario have been loath to grow their investments into AI and are stagnating in their use of this technology in CX. Something clearly needs to change in commercial positioning / messaging.
It is noted that this research was conducted within one Canadian jurisdiction, and it would be wrong to think that the results would be identical across other CX demand markets. But it is not unrealistic to assume that some similar disparities between businesses and customers exist in the rest of North America, Western Europe and Asia-Pacific. In this sense, Ontario could be a proverbial canary in the coalmine when it comes to how AI is perceived by different stakeholders.