Australian consumers are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to research brands and products, but few are ready to let the technology make purchasing decisions on their behalf, according to new research from the Australian Centre for AI in Marketing (ACAM).
The report, ‘Chosen Twice: The Customer Journey Of The Future’, supported by Adobe with research support from The Navigators, explores how generative AI is changing the way consumers discover, compare and ultimately choose brands.
The Navigators’ AI Brandscape 2026 study, which surveyed 1,736 Australians, found 39 per cent had used generative AI to help choose a brand, product or service. However, just 11 per cent said they would allow AI to make a purchase decision for them, even in low-stakes categories.
The findings suggest consumers are becoming more comfortable using AI as a research tool, but remain reluctant to hand over control of the entire customer journey.
For marketers, this creates a new challenge: brands must first be considered by the AI systems consumers use to research their options, before winning the customer’s trust and securing the final purchase.
ACAM CEO and co-founder Louise Cummins said brands were increasingly having to win customers twice, with AI potentially determining which businesses make it onto a consumer’s shortlist before the customer makes their own decision.
“When customers use AI to research a purchase, brands have to be chosen twice. First by the customer’s AI, which you can influence but not control, and then by the customer. If a brand does not make the AI’s shortlist, it may never get the chance to make the case,” Cummins said.
“The implication for marketers is significant. We need to understand what information AI uses to make recommendations, how our brands appear in those recommendations and what ultimately earns the customer’s trust.”
The report also points to a gap between the growing use of AI and consumer satisfaction with the experiences it delivers.
Research from Twilio and YouGov found 78 per cent of people had used AI-powered customer service, but only 39 per cent were satisfied with the experience. Meanwhile, 84 per cent wanted an easy way to transfer to a human representative.
Cummins said consumers were more likely to delegate individual tasks to AI than surrender control over an entire experience.
“Customers hand AI a task, not a journey, and they set the limits. Successful brands will understand where customers welcome AI, where they want to stay in control and when they need a person,” she said.
“That means designing the hand-back to a human as carefully as the automated experience. If the customer has to start again when they move from AI to a person, the brand has failed to connect the experience.”
To help marketers understand these boundaries, ACAM has introduced its Customer Delegation Framework, which identifies four questions influencing how willing consumers are to let AI act on their behalf: can it do the job, is it worth it, am I still in charge, and is it normal yet?
The framework suggests consumers are more willing to delegate when AI demonstrates clear capability and value, while concerns around trust, control and social acceptance can limit adoption.
The findings also arrive as marketing teams continue to develop their own AI capabilities.
ACAM’s 2026 AI in Marketing Benchmark, conducted with Kantar, found 83 per cent of participating Australian organisations were at levels one to three on the organisation’s six-level AI marketing maturity scale, with none reaching levels five or six.
ACAM argues that marketing teams must now move beyond experimenting with individual AI tools and begin redesigning customer journeys around the specific tasks consumers are willing to delegate.
The report outlines a 90-day plan for marketing leaders, focusing on customer tasks rather than technology alone. It also features Australian examples from Budget Direct, ANZ, Telstra and Woolworths, alongside interviews with marketing leaders including ANZ’s Sian Chadwick and SBS’s Uma Oldham.
Adobe vice president of enterprise marketing, Asia Pacific and Japan, Duncan Egan, said the shift required marketers to consider both human customers and the AI systems increasingly involved in their purchasing decisions.
“Now that marketing teams have two audiences to win, the focus needs to shift from simply creating campaigns to orchestrating connected experiences,” Egan said.
“This means creating content that is emotionally resonant for people, structured and trusted for AI, and activated in real time across the right touchpoints.”
Egan added that AI could help connect content, data and customer journeys at scale, while people remained in control of strategy, brand and customer relationships.
‘Chosen Twice: The Customer Journey Of The Future’ is the third publication in ACAM’s research programme, following ‘Marketing Team Of The Future’, published in October 2025, and the ‘2026 AI In Marketing Benchmark Report’, produced with Kantar and published in July 2026.
