New research from CallMiner, the global leader in customer experience (CX) automation powered by conversation intelligence, reveals that organisations across Europe are rapidly scaling AI in CX, but governance frameworks are struggling to keep pace. While nearly all organisations (99%) say they are under pressure to scale AI in CX, fewer than four in ten (38%) say they have a clear and well-defined AI governance approach, creating growing risks across CX, governance, and trust. In Europe’s complex regulatory and multilingual environment, this gap highlights an urgent need for greater visibility into how AI performs in real customer conversations.

The study was conducted by independent research firm Vanson Bourne, surveying 200 senior CX, contact centre, compliance, risk, governance, security and data protection leaders across Western and Central Europe. The findings show that while AI is now firmly embedded in customer interactions, many organisations still lack the visibility, governance, and trust required to scale the technology responsibly.

“European organisations are moving quickly to realise the benefits of AI, but speed alone is no longer enough,” said Frank Sherlock, VP of International at CallMiner. “As AI becomes more embedded in customer interactions, organisations need confidence that it’s delivering the right outcomes consistently, fairly, and compliantly. Without visibility into how AI is performing in real customer conversations, leaders risk creating blind spots that undermine trust and expose new CX and compliance risks.”

AI momentum is outpacing governance, creating growing CX and compliance blind spots

The research shows that pressure to scale AI in CX is nearly universal, driven by rising customer expectations and competitive or market pressures. Yet while 59% say they are scaling AI quickly, only 39% believe compliance is keeping pace.

This gap between speed and control is creating new risks as AI moves from experimentation into live customer interactions. Seven in ten organisations (70%) believe speed of AI adoption is often prioritised over compliance requirements, even as 94% agree AI must be applied intelligently, not just quickly.

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These challenges are magnified in Europe’s complex operating environment. While almost all organisations (96%) use AI in multilingual CX environments, nearly two-thirds (64%) say using AI across multiple languages is a major challenge. As AI scales across regions, channels, and languages, limited visibility into real customer interactions makes it harder to detect experience issues, compliance failures, or inconsistent outcomes before they escalate.

Trust, not technology, now defines how far AI can scale

The findings reveal that trust has become the primary constraint on AI adoption in CX across Europe. More than seven in ten organisations say both employee confidence (72%) and customer willingness to engage with AI-driven interactions (71%) directly accelerate AI adoption.

Trust is rooted in performance and accountability. Organisations identify accuracy and consistency (70%) as the top drivers of customer trust in AI, followed by transparency and explainability (57%), and data protection (47%). Trust in AI is strongest when AI operates with clear boundaries and human oversight, with 87% expressing strong or very strong trust in AI when used with human oversight.

In multilingual and multi-market environments, trust becomes even harder to maintain. Inconsistent AI behaviour across languages or regions can quickly undermine confidence among both customers and employees. As AI plays a greater role in customer journeys, organisations need assurance that it delivers reliable, explainable outcomes everywhere it is deployed, not just in isolated use cases.

Europe can still lead in AI, but only with visibility, governance, and the right partners

Europe’s regulatory environment is shaping a more responsible approach to AI, with GDPR and the EU AI Act raising expectations around transparency, accountability, and control. However, many organisations are struggling to translate evolving regulations into practical, consistent governance frameworks. Just 38% say they have a clear and well-defined AI governance approach, and many key controls — such as explainability, audits, and safeguards for vulnerable customers — remain only partially implemented.

As a result, organisations are increasingly turning to external partners to help them scale AI with confidence. Seventy-one percent (71%) say use of external AI technology vendors helps accelerate AI adoption, and two-thirds (66%) say that as AI regulations evolve, they trust external partners more than internal solutions for compliance. Importantly, vendor selection is no longer driven by automation alone. Organisations are looking for partners that can deliver intelligence while providing the transparency, compliance, and governance expertise needed to scale AI responsibly.

“For European organisations, the opportunity to lead in AI is still very real,” added Sherlock. “But leadership will belong to those that pair innovation with visibility and governance, so they can scale AI across markets and languages without sacrificing trust, fairness, or control.”