Earn Customer Trust in the AI Era: A Guide for Businesses

Today's customer is here, navigating a world increasingly powered by AI. This isn't a distant future; the Auth0 Customer Identity Trends Report 2025 found that 37% of consumers already encounter AI agents frequently or very frequently in their daily lives. Consumers are forming opinions, establishing trust levels, and making judgments about your company and brand based on their interactions with your AI agents. This article outlines the key stages of the customer's journey with AI: their immediate preference for humans, how they define AI's role, and the data-sharing dilemma that determines lasting trust. All statistics and data is obtained from the Auth0 Customer Identity Trends Report 2025.

The immediate preference for human interaction

If your customers had a choice between an AI agent or a human to receive assistance, which would they pick? Consumers prefer what they’re familiar with. The global survey of 6,750 consumers revealed a stark preference: 70% of users would rather interact with a human than an AI agent, while only 16% prefer AI.

When asked why, 64% of those who prefer people gave the simple answer: "A human understands my needs better." In a moment of need, consumers seek empathy and understanding—qualities they don't yet associate with AI.

What will you do for me? How users define AI's role

After the first impression, the customer begins to define AI's role. They ask, "What is this tool actually for?" Today, the answer is clear: users see AI as a taskmaster, not a decision-maker.

Users are comfortable delegating objective, tedious tasks to AI, such as:

• Language translation (the top choice, cited by 38%)
• Research and information gathering
• Data analysis

But users hesitate when it comes to subjective and personal responsibilities like creative tasks, personalized shopping recommendations, or critical decision-making support. Users are cautiously placing AI in a box labeled "useful for chores," but they don’t trust it enough to give it a key to the corner office. That caution doesn't exist in a vacuum, it’s built on their fundamental expectations for all digital interactions. These aren't just preferences; they're core demands that shape every online experience, including how they'll adopt and trust AI.

Can I trust you? The data sharing dilemma

This is the pivotal moment in the user's journey. Before they grant AI a bigger role, they ask the most important question: "Can I trust you with my data?" For many, the answer is "no."

This fundamental distrust has led to a significant portion of consumers "ghosting" AI entirely. The report found that nearly one in four users (23%) have no intention of using AI agents at all.

What’s driving this complete avoidance? It comes down to one critical factor: data privacy. Of the group that avoids AI, 44% cite their primary barrier as a lack of trust in AI with their personal data.

This isn't just a niche concern. The data shows this fear is widespread across the entire surveyed population. This caution is so strong that only 39% of users are likely to share even the most basic personal information with an AI agent, proving that the fear of data misuse is a powerful force holding back adoption for everyone. How do we help users begin to trust AI beyond the non-critical, chore tasks?

Earning confidence: what businesses can do to build trust

If distrust is the barrier, then proactively building confidence is the solution. Your customers have told us what it will take to earn their trust in AI. It isn't just about better algorithms; it's about better governance and clearer values.

To build trust, businesses must focus on these key ingredients:

• Security by design: Underlying all of this is the need for a powerful security foundation—one specifically designed for the unique challenges of AI agents. The report reveals the high-stakes environment these agents operate in, which 46% of all registration attempts are suspected attacks.
• Human oversight: The top factor, cited by 38% of users, is knowing a human can review or approve an AI's decisions. We aren't ready to let AI work for us yet; we want to work alongside it.
• Transparency and ethical guidelines: Coming in a strong second, 34% of users cite transparency—how the AI works, what data it uses—along with ethical guidelines and accountability, as crucial for building trust.

How Auth0 helps to secure AI agents

At Auth0, we are obligated to ensure our customers can move fast and adopt new tech, including AI. Therefore we've done extensive research and discovered that securing AI agents to truly build this trust requires addressing four critical requirements:

1. Authenticate users: Easily implement more secure login experiences for AI agents, from interactive chatbots to background workers.
2. Call APIs on the user’s behalf: Help securely access popular services like Google, Slack, Spotify, and GitHub while seamlessly integrating an application with other products.
3. Provide asynchronous user approval for AI actions: enable autonomous agents to work independently while maintaining user control by getting explicit user approval for critical actions.
4. Secure document access control for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG): Enforce granular permissions for document retrieval and help ensure AI agents only access authorized content.

To realize AI's full potential and build user trust, we must solve all four requirements. Whether you’re building your own custom GenAI framework on top of a language like Python or using one of the many fast-growing frameworks that have emerged in the past two years, these requirements need to be addressed.

The path forward in the AI era

Businesses get one shot to make a first impression with AI, and customers are watching closely. Every interaction is a test where users cautiously decide whether to grant deeper access or reject it. This isn't just a preference; it's a core demand, with a striking 85% of consumers wishing more companies would earn their trust when handling data. Ultimately, the path forward isn't about forcing AI adoption; it's about making a deliberate commitment to earning that trust from the very first interaction.

This requires empathy for the user's journey, a deep commitment to building trust through transparency, and a security-first approach to identity.

To see the data behind this journey and get the complete blueprint for building trust, download the Auth0 Customer Identity Trends Report 2025.

Sign up to access Auth for GenAI in Developer Preview today. Visit auth0.com/ai to access documentation, explore our SDKs for JavaScript and Python, and quickstarts to get you started.