Half of consumers across Asia Pacific ‘would rather do anything else than contact customer service,’ according to the fifth edition of Genesys’ “State of Customer Experience” report, with the sentiment rising sharply in Singapore (63%) — the highest among APAC markets included in the study.
Across APAC, 86% of consumers say poor service has caused them to spend less or stop doing business with a brand altogether. The impact is especially pronounced in markets such as the Philippines and Thailand, where the figure rises to 91%, while Japan stands out as a lower outlier at 67%.
The research found consumers across APAC are increasingly open to AI when it delivers better outcomes. Eighty-four percent expect AI to improve the quality and speed of customer service, while 82% believe it will improve personalization — both figures exceeding the global averages.
Across APAC, 80% do not particularly care whether their issue is solved by a person or AI, as long as it is resolved quickly and completely. At the same time, 93% value efficient customer service as much as empathetic treatment.
While 96% of APAC consumers expect information to be remembered across channels, nearly half (46%) of organizations do not automatically pass information between virtual and human agents. Managing data for AI, AI readiness, and keeping pace with AI innovation rank among the top challenges for CX leaders, according to the report.
“Across APAC, consumers are increasingly confident in AI’s ability to improve customer experiences. But they also expect organizations to remember context, connect every interaction and resolve issues with minimal effort,” said Albert Nel, Senior Vice President and Regional Sales Leader for Genesys Asia Pacific.
“As agentic AI becomes part of everyday customer engagement, organizations need to use it to reduce customer effort –not just automate interactions. The businesses that succeed will be those that connect AI, people and customer context to deliver faster resolutions and more seamless experiences.”
Highlights from the report include:
Customer expectations have never been higher.
91% of APAC consumers want every organization to deliver experiences on par with the best experience they have ever had, while an equal percentage (91%) judge a company by the quality of its customer service.
Consumers are embracing AI – but expect it to deliver.
Forty-nine percent of APAC consumers are comfortable with AI making decisions on their behalf if it improves speed and resolution. Comfort is highest in South Korea at 56%, suggesting stronger consumer openness as AI becomes more embedded across the customer experience. But patience is limited when AI falls short: 82% of APAC consumers will give a virtual agent three attempts or fewer to resolve an issue.
Poor experiences have real business consequences.
Sixty-one percent of APAC consumers would switch to a competitor after three or fewer bad experiences with a brand they favor. For 17%, it only takes one bad experience before they switch.
Organizations see agentic AI and orchestration as key to closing the experience gap.
86% of APAC CX leaders expect autonomous AI agents to orchestrate customer experiences within three years, while they plan to spend an average of 32% of their customer service or experience budget on AI-powered CX technologies over the next 12 months.
Genesys worked with an independent research firm to survey 5,811 consumers and 1,560 CX and business leaders in more than 20 countries. The study includes responses from 1,426 (24%) consumers and 508 (14%) CX leader respondents across Asia Pacific (APAC), including Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand. The survey was conducted in March and April of 2026.
Learn more about the “State of Customer Experience” by downloading the report here.
