By: Elizabeth Trombino, Senior Director of Marketing at Suzy

Last weekend, I opened my Oura app to check my readiness score when something new caught my eye. A friendly message popped up: “Hi, I’m your Oura Advisor.” It wasn’t just a help menu—it was a proactive agent, offering to guide me through advice to improve my well-being. Not long after, while searching for restaurant availability on Google, the Google Assistant offered to call for me and text me back with the wait time. It struck me: AI agents aren’t on the way—they’re already here, quietly reshaping how we interact with brands.

So, I began to wonder—how do consumers feel about these AI-powered sidekicks? And how can brands ensure these digital agents are enhancing, not complicating, the experience?

What’s Happening

From customer service bots to proactive wellness advisors, AI agents are quickly becoming a core part of the digital brand experience. These tools are not just reactive anymore—they’re predictive, context-aware, and even emotionally attuned.

Take Microsoft’s Copilot for Microsoft 365, for example. Launched in late 2023, it integrates directly into Word, Excel, Teams, and Outlook to act as a true AI assistant—drafting documents, summarizing meetings, and surfacing data with simple prompts. It’s a powerful example of how AI agents are moving from novelty to everyday necessity.

Or consider Oura’s in-app advisor, which offers personalized health recommendations based on your biometric data. These agents go beyond standard notifications—they act like mini-coaches, embedded directly into your daily routine.
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Other brands are leaning in too:

• Domino’s now uses an AI voice agent to take up to 80% of phone orders across North America
• Walmart is piloting an in-app AI shopping agent that will auto-reorder staples—or even build a unicorn-themed party basket—so you can check out with a single tap
• Google rolled out “AI Mode” in Search—a chat-style assistant that compares products, tracks price drops, and completes checkout for you inside the results page
• Spotify upgraded its AI DJ, letting Premium users give spoken requests like “play mellow electronic” and get an instant, real-time playlist shift. 

These aren’t just gimmicks—they’re part of a bigger shift in how consumers want to engage with technology: intuitively, instantly, and intelligently.

What Consumers Want

Today’s consumers are embracing AI agents—when they add value. A recent Salesforce study found that 69% of consumers appreciate when AI makes their experiences more consistent and personalized. But, here’s the catch: 71% also worry about losing the human touch.

Consumers expect AI to be:

• Helpful, not overbearing
• Context-aware, not generic
• Personal, but privacy-conscious

It’s a fine line between “wow, that’s helpful” and “why is this bot talking to me?” The difference lies in empathy, design, and timing.

Why Research Matters

For brands getting ready to launch (or fine-tune) an AI-powered agent, real-time consumer truth is the make-or-break factor. Are shoppers open to a proactive shopping guide? Which voice strikes the right balance between helpful and creepy? Do people trust an AI with health tips?

Suzy Speaks lets you answer those questions in the same format your agent will use. The tool runs AI-moderated, voice- or chat-based conversations at quant scale, so you can:

• Test different rapid-fire greeting scripts or personalities and hear authentic, spoken reactions.
• Spot moments where users get confused, frustrated, or delighted—before you ship.
• Compare sentiment across segments (Gen Z vs. Boomers, new vs. loyal customers, etc.).

While Suzy Speaks captures the micro—verbatim feedback on tone, flow, and trust—Suzy Signals keeps you locked into the macro. Signals pulls in live cultural trends, news headlines, and market shifts, then overlays them with your own research to reveal:

• How fast consumer curiosity (or skepticism) around AI agents is rising this week.
• Which adjacent topics—privacy, personalization, sustainability—are spiking right now.
• Competitive moves you might have missed, helping you position your agent in the bigger narrative.

Together, Suzy Speaks + Signals form a feedback loop: you hear consumers in their own words and see the cultural currents shaping those words. That’s the kind of contextual intelligence that turns an interesting AI demo into an experience people actually welcome.

AI agents are here, and they’re only getting smarter. From health to hospitality to retail, brands are embedding these digital guides everywhere. But adoption alone isn’t success—experience is.

Consumers want AI that’s relevant, respectful, and real. The only way to build that? Ask them.

Want to understand how your audience feels about AI? Let’s talk. Get in touch with Suzy.

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