Most consumers want to share control with AI when it shops for them, not hand it over, according to SAP’s sixth annual Global Customer Loyalty Index. In a sponsored article SAP published on MarTech on Tuesday, Oct. 13, the company said 60% of respondents prefer shared control between people and AI, 20% want full human control, 16% are comfortable with AI leading under oversight and 4% want a fully autonomous experience.

The survey found AI cuts both ways for brands. Thirty-one percent of consumers said interactions with AI assistants make them feel more loyal to a brand, while 30% said they have already switched away from a brand because of its use of AI, rising to 45% among Gen Z.

SAP Survey: 60% of Shoppers Want Shared Control When AI Shops for Them

One-third of respondents trust AI to complete purchases for them and 31% regularly rely on it to help choose what to buy, yet 56% want to be able to reverse AI decisions. SAP calls its answer “earned autonomy” and writes it as an equation: Earned Trust + Human Control + Autonomous Action = Loyalty. Human support when something goes wrong was the top trust-builder at 42%, followed by the ability to review or override decisions at 36%.

Points and discounts are losing pull. Incentivized loyalty fell from 48% in 2025 to 38% in 2026, the first time it has dropped below 40% in the index’s six-year history. Product quality still came first, cited by 62% as a loyalty driver, and declining quality was the top reason to leave at 45%.