74% accept AI in customer service. 79% want to be able to choose a human
Brazilians accept being served by AI, on one condition: being able to choose. In the Globo Gente survey from August 2026, 74% of consumers said they are in favor of AI in customer service, and 79% want to decide between talking to a bot or a person. Whoever designs customer service has to treat choice as part of the product.
What Globo asked
The survey The impact of AI on Brazilian consumption habits was conducted by Globo with E&I Inteligência Setorial, with 1,000 interviews in August 2026. Two answers matter to anyone who runs customer service: 74% are in favor of using AI and 79% want to be able to choose between human and AI.
What the 2024 survey already showed
In 2024, CX Brain (Grupo Padrão) and AntennasBI surveyed 1,003 Brazilians and analyzed more than 2,000 videos they recorded on their phones. The average score for human service was 9.3. For AI, 7.0. For 51%, AI would help little or nothing in customer service, and 56% reported negative emotions, with boredom (16%) at the top.
Samples and methods differ, and there are two years between the surveys. They don’t form a series. Read together, they point in a direction: in 2024 AI lagged well behind humans in evaluation, and in 2026 the majority already accepts AI but won’t give up the right to choose.
Choice as a design rule in the service flow
In our reading, offering the exit to a person is what makes AI acceptable. That changes the design of customer service. The option to talk to an agent shows up in the first message, not after three failed attempts by the bot.
We have a hypothesis the surveys don’t test: the customer who chooses AI on their own tolerates its mistakes better. It’s worth measuring before betting on it.
4 decisions for your customer service
- Show the option to talk to a person right at the start of the conversation.
- Define what AI resolves on its own and what starts with a human, such as billing disputes and serious complaints.
- Pass the history to the agent, so the customer doesn’t repeat what they already said.
- Measure the AI score and the human score separately, channel by channel. The gap between 9.3 and 7.0 only shrinks if someone looks at it.
What the surveys don’t measure
Neither of them measures cost. If a lot of people choose the human, does service get more expensive? Or does well-designed AI hold the conversation? That number is your operation’s. Run choice on one channel for a few weeks and compare score, resolution time and cost per contact.
If you want to design that test with us, see how NorthStar works with sales and service with AI. First, read the Klarna lesson and the hybrid service model.
Frequently asked
Do Brazilians accept being served by AI?
Yes, with a caveat. In the Globo survey (Aug/2026, 1,000 interviews), 74% are in favor of using AI in customer service. But 79% want to be able to choose between human and AI.
Why offer a human if the majority accepts AI?
Because accepting and giving up the right to choose are different things. In practice, the customer asks for a person at specific moments: the question wasn’t resolved, the previous service failed, or they’re in the middle of a complaint. At those moments, choosing the human isn’t a preference, it’s a need. That’s why our point isn’t AI or human, but preparing both for what each does best: AI resolves the simple on the spot, and the human steps in trained for the sensitive case, with the history in hand and the autonomy to actually resolve. It’s that well-specialized agent who holds the service score exactly when the conversation gets hard.
Do the Globo and CX Brain surveys say the same thing?
They’re not directly comparable. CX Brain (2024, 1,003 people) measured satisfaction: human 9.3, AI 7.0. Globo (2026, 1,000 people) measured acceptance and the desire to choose. Each lights up one part: the 2024 one shows the score gap between human and AI, and the 2026 one shows acceptance with a desire to choose.
Which channel do Brazilians prefer for service?
In the CX Brain 2024 survey, WhatsApp was the favorite channel of 48% of respondents. Online chat and phone came in at 20% each.
Sources
- Globo Gente / E&I Inteligência Setorial. The impact of AI on Brazilian consumption habits, 09/10/2026. gente.globo.com
- Consumidor Moderno, on the CX Brain (Grupo Padrão) and AntennasBI survey, Sep/2024. consumidormoderno.com.br
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