In the space of just a few years, AI has gone from being a relatively niche application to a front-line tool in customer service across the UK. Large language model (LLM) chatbots are now in use across a wide spectrum of businesses, from retail and banking to travel and telecoms. More and more business owners are turning to AI and chatbots to reduce their overhead, streamline their support process, and offer round-the-clock assistance to their customer base.
There’s just one problem: a lot of British customers aren’t going for it.
British Consumers and Chatbots
According to data from a recent Contact Centres report, the UK has some of the most AI-sceptical consumers in the entire EMEA region. A comfortable majority (68%) of UK consumers say AI chatbots have not met their expectations over the last five years, while an equal number feel that AI chatbots fail to understand emotional cues. Only about half of UK consumers believe AI will get any closer to bridging the gap between machine and human interactions.
So what do British customers actually want from their chatbots, and more importantly, how can you give it to them?
Why Trust in Chatbots Remains Low in the UK
First, let’s talk about exactly why confidence in chatbots is low amongst UK consumers. It’s no secret that AI and LLMs have ongoing issues with accuracy, but that’s not all there is to chatbot scepticism in the UK. Common complaints include:
- Robotic, scripted replies that can feel irrelevant or impersonal
- Inability to handle complex queries, leading to confusions or dead-end conversations
- Difficulty getting transferred to a human agent when the chatbot can’t help
- Lack of contextual understanding (goes hand in hand with the inability to handle complex questions)
- Repetitive, circular conversations that fail to move toward resolution
In many cases, these complaints are valid — many chatbot integrations are rushed or poorly integrated. Fortunately, there are strategies for resolving many of these issues.
Making Chatbots More ‘Human’—Without Pretending to Be
Customers don’t necessarily dislike chatbots. In fact, it can be the opposite — according to a report from Zendesk, 68% of consumers are more likely to engage with an AI chatbot if they exhibit human-like traits. The trick, however, is not to deceive customers into thinking they’re talking to a human. Here are some steps business owners can take to achieve the necessary transparency:
Use a natural, conversational tone
Awkward, robotic phrasing can be off-putting to customers. Crafting chatbot responses that mimic real, friendly conversation feel more human and will get a more positive response.
Implement intuitive, conversational AI
Some of the more advanced AI chatbot tools are better at detecting sentiment, intent and context, which means they can better understand why a customer is saying something instead of just what they’re saying.
Personalise the experience
Even the smallest touch of personalisation can “humanise” a chatbot and help build rapport with the customers. Using chatbot new software with CRM tools can make this process easier.
Be transparent about automation
It’s worth reiterating that it’s important to make it clear to customers that they’re talking to a chatbot — otherwise you risk seriously damaging their trust.
Balancing Bots and Humans in Customer Support
One of the big strengths of AI chatbots is its 24/7 availability and fast response time. It’s the 21st century, and everyone loves a quick answer to their questions. But chatbots historically struggle with nuance and empathy, leading many customers to prefer a human agent.
As a business owner concerned about customer service, your chatbot strategy should not be to replace human agents, but to enhance them. Integrating chatbots in the hopes of cutting loose your human support team is a mistake, for all the reasons given above and more. Some ways you can balance these factors include:
Provide seamless transitions
Sometimes a chatbot simply won’t be able to help with an issue. When that happens, make the transition process smooth and easy, complete with a conversation history so the customer doesn’t need to repeat their story to a human agent.
Make it easy to get human help
Under no circumstances should you bury or hide the “talk to a human” option from your customer. Giving them a clear path to escalate their issue and talk to a person will build trust and confidence in your customer, just as obscuring that path will damage that same trust.
Use bots for what they’re best at
Chatbots are not great at sophisticated and nuanced support tasks, and it’s possible they never will be. Chatbots are good at handling things like FAQs, appointment bookings, order tracking, and simple queries. Save the complex, emotional and high-stakes issues for your human agents, who are unequivocally more qualified to handle them.
British customers can be a cautious, sceptical bunch, and the current landscape of chatbot experiences is uneven, to say the least. But with a thoughtful integration strategy and proper transparency, you can overcome this caution and improve efficiency while you retain and build that all-important consumer trust.
I’m Adam Milne, a business writer and co-author at UKBusinessMag.co.uk. I’m passionate about simplifying complex topics—whether it’s tax, startup strategy, or digital marketing—so that entrepreneurs can take action with confidence. With years of experience in small business consultancy, I bring a practical perspective to every piece I write, helping readers turn ideas into results.
