Five9 Research Finds 44% of Patients Have Delayed Care, Given Up, or Switched Providers Because Healthcare Customer Service Was Too Difficult

Easy access to a human was the most common factor respondents said would increase trust in AI-powered healthcare interactions.

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85% expect their provider to know their history, yet 53% still have to repeat themselves

SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Five9 (Nasdaq: FIVN), provider of the Genius CX Platform, today released new research examining how patients navigate healthcare customer service. The Five9 Care-Completion Gap Report found that 44% of consumers have delayed care, stopped trying to schedule an appointment or resolve a billing issue, or switched providers in the past 12 months because dealing with a provider was too difficult, time-consuming, or frustrating. The findings point to a gap between what patients expect providers to know about them and what they experience.

Based on a survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers, the research examines where consumers feel comfortable using AI, when they want a person, and where friction keeps them from getting what they need. The findings show that patients expect providers to use the context they already have, that too often it doesn't reach the interaction, and that younger consumers are the most likely to give up as a result.

"Healthcare organizations already hold much of what they need to understand why a patient is reaching out. What's missing is turning that context into action in the moment,” said Andy Dignan, President at Five9. “When the experience breaks down, many patients don't call back. They stop trying. The contact center is where that friction shows up first, which makes it the best place to fix it: an intelligence center that brings together customer history, real-time context, AI, and human expertise to resolve issues faster and keep routine friction from becoming a barrier to care.”

The findings also show that consumers aren't rejecting AI in healthcare. They're drawing a line around where it belongs. Thirty-eight percent are comfortable using AI to schedule or reschedule an appointment, but only 12% are comfortable using it for medical advice about symptoms, a diagnosis or treatment. The most common factor that would increase trust in an AI-powered healthcare interaction is being able to easily reach a human (39%), ahead of knowing personal and health information is secure (29%) or being confident the answers are accurate (29%).

Other key insights include:

• Patients expect to be known, but still repeat themselves: Eighty-five percent expect customer service agents to have access to at least some of their previous interactions and relevant history, and 49% expect access to all of it. Yet 53% say they have to repeat information their provider should already know at least sometimes, including 14% who say they do so often.
• Fewer than half get resolved on the first try: Only 46% say their issue was fully handled the first time they reached out, including just 26% of Gen Z compared with 74% of Baby Boomers.
• Younger consumers are giving up: Among Gen Z, 34% stopped trying to schedule an appointment and 34% gave up on resolving a healthcare or billing issue, compared with 6% and 4% of Baby Boomers.
• Openness to AI grows with each generation: Fifty-eight percent are open to AI in some form, whether they prefer it outright (9%), prefer it when it means faster resolution (16%), or will use it to avoid longer wait times (33%). Thirty-one percent of Gen Z prefer AI when it's faster, compared with 2% of Baby Boomers.
• Context matters most to the youngest consumers: For Gen Z, the top factor that would increase trust in AI is knowing it has access to information they've already provided (35%), compared with 11% of Baby Boomers.

Download the full Five9 Care-Completion Gap Report to see the complete generational breakdowns here.

Methodology

This survey was commissioned by Five9 and conducted by Dynata, the world’s largest first-party data company. The data was collected in September 2026 from 1,000 U.S. consumers 18 years and older.

About Five9

Five9 is the proven, open cloud platform for customer experience. Cloud-native since 2001 and built by voice experts for the agentic era, Five9 powers contact centers for more than 4,000 customers across 140+ countries, including leading health systems, financial institutions, and organizations across every major industry. The Five9 platform, powered by Genius AI, serves every channel and workflow, together with the governance, control, and ecosystem flexibility that even the most regulated enterprises demand. Practical AI that learns from every interaction, driving real outcomes for customers and the businesses that serve them. Smarter CX with every interaction.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261110017278/en/

Media Contact
Tommy Morgan
Director, Corporate Communications
Press@five9.com

Source: Five9