Consumers Warm Up To AI, Will Trust Follow?

InnovationEnterprise TechConsumers Warm Up To AI, Will Trust Follow?ByJoe McKendrick,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Joe McKendrick covers how technology moves markets and careersFollow AuthorApr 22, 2026, 10:04pm EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.Can AI handle it?gettyMake way for unattended, autonomous systems, right? Actually they have been with us for a long time, and we’ve gotten quite use to them because they are invisible. Utilities have had self-healing and automatic re-routing capabilities in place for decades now. Manufacturers have had mechanical feedback loops within their equipment. Servers and PCs have long had automatic failover capabilities.Now, artificial intelligence takes autonomous systems to a whole new level, and in the process, becoming more obvious to customers. We’re entering an era of hyper-autonomy, in which AI agents will interact with other agents to fulfill customer needs. The catch is ensuring that these human-free transactions or services are trustworthy. The challenge for organizations is “AI use is racing ahead of people’s confidence in how it is governed, controlled and accounted for,” states a new study out of EY. Consumers are beginning to see AI’s potential in their shopping and purchasing habits, and are willing to give some control for the convenience of letting AI deliver actions. At this point, 16% of people have used AI that acts on their behalf in the past six months, the EY survey of 18,000 people worldwide finds. At least 11% let AI automatically refill shopping carts and make purchases, and another 11% allow AI to manage their finances and carry out banking tasks without intervention. Nine percent have used a self-driving vehicle or taxi. While these numbers are still in the minority, it’s enough to cause business leaders to sit up and pay attention. The driving factor isn’t in...