APAC brands lead on AI ambition, but execution can’t keep up with hype

Asia Pacific consumers are warming to agentic AI faster than brands may be ready for, but a widening trust and execution gap is threatening to slow down adoption at scale.

New Adobe research shows that while 42% of consumers in Asia Pacific are willing to interact with a brand’s AI agent, and more than half are already using AI for personalised recommendations and customer support, expectations around transparency and human fallback remain firmly in place.

The findings, drawn from the "Adobe 2026 AI and digital trends report", suggest the region is approaching a tipping point in AI-driven customer experience, where enthusiasm for automation is rising but comfort is conditional.

More than half of consumers (53%) are already using AI tools to search for personalised product recommendations, while 48% rely on AI for instant customer service or support. A further 42% say they are open to shopping via a virtual AI concierge, underscoring how AI is increasingly embedded in everyday purchasing journeys.

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However, trust remains a critical constraint. While 47% of consumers say they do not care whether a brand uses AI as long as their needs are met, 38% say they would stop engaging if they discovered they were speaking to AI when expecting a human. In addition, 70% say AI-driven interactions should still feel human rather than robotic, and the ability to switch to a human at any time is the most important reassurance for 26% of respondents.

The report also points to a growing disconnect between consumers and organisations on how AI success is defined. While consumers prioritise trust, transparency and usefulness, many brands continue to measure success through efficiency gains and cost savings, signalling a potential misalignment in expectations as AI becomes more embedded in customer experience strategies.

On the enterprise side, adoption of agentic AI remains in its early stages. Just 14% of brands in Asia Pacific have embedded agentic AI across customer support functions, while 12% have done so in brand discovery and search.

Despite this, ambition remains high. More than a third of organisations are prioritising emerging technologies such as agentic AI over more established AI deployments, with 75% saying generative AI has already improved content speed and production, particularly in enabling non-creative teams to produce content.

Yet scaling remains a challenge, with 74% of organisations citing data integration and quality as a key barrier to adoption. Only 46% say their data quality and accessibility is adequate for AI use, while less than half report having a shared customer data platform capable of supporting agentic AI.

Attention constraints are also reshaping urgency around adoption, with the report finding that consumers give brands just two to five seconds to capture their attention, while 17% make engagement decisions in under two seconds.

Regionally, adoption patterns vary. India shows the strongest consumer appetite for agentic AI, with 58% comfortable with agent-to-agent interactions, significantly outpacing both regional and organisational expectations. Singapore, meanwhile, is taking a more cautious, governance-led approach, with only 33% of consumers comfortable with agent-to-agent interactions but stronger internal alignment than regional peers. 

Australia and New Zealand lead in identifying practical AI use cases, but continue to face execution challenges linked to data and alignment gaps.

Adobe said the findings highlight a pivotal moment for brands as they move from experimentation to scale, but warned that success will depend on trust, transparency and stronger data foundations rather than AI capability alone. As Duncan Egan, vice president of enterprise marketing, Asia Pacific and Japan at Adobe puts it, while AI is already improving experience delivery and content production, most organisations still need to build the governance and orchestration capabilities required to scale agentic AI responsibly across markets.

“Consumer behaviours are shifting across Asia Pacific, with AI already rising in brand discovery and now set to play a greater role in purchasing journeys. Many consumers are comfortable with agentic AI, but say adoption relies on defined, transparent contexts with options for human support,” said Egan. 

Against this backdrop, wider consumer research from Accenture suggests the stakes for brands are rising further as AI reshapes not just how experiences are delivered, but how relationships with brands are formed. The report found that consumers are increasingly turning to generative AI for recommendations and advice, with some describing it as a “good friend”, while active users now rely on AI as a primary purchase recommendation source ahead of social media and online marketplaces. It also found that a growing share of consumers would switch preferred brands if another makes them feel more valued, underscoring how emotional resonance, trust and relevance are becoming central to loyalty in an AI-mediated discovery landscape.

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