CFPB Issue Spotlight Analyzes “Artificial Intelligence” Chatbots in … – Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Poorly deployed chatbots can impede customers from resolving problems
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today released a new issue spotlight on the expansive adoption and use of chatbots by financial institutions. Chatbots are intended to simulate human-like responses using computer programming and help institutions reduce the costs of customer service agents. These chatbots sometimes have human names and use popup features to encourage engagement. Some chatbots use more complex technologies marketed as “artificial intelligence,” to generate responses to customers.
The CFPB has received numerous complaints from frustrated customers trying to receive timely, straightforward answers from their financial institutions or raise a concern or dispute. Working with customers to resolve a problem or answer a question is an essential function for financial institutions – and is the basis of relationship banking.
“To reduce costs, many financial institutions are integrating artificial intelligence technologies to steer people toward chatbots,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “A poorly deployed chatbot can lead to customer frustration, reduced trust, and even violations of the law.”
Approximately 37% of the United States population is estimated to have interacted with a bank’s chatbot in 2022, a figure that is projected to grow. Among the top ten commercial banks in the country, all use chatbots of varying complexity to engage with customers. Financial institutions advertise that their chatbots offer a variety of features to consumers like retrieving account balances, looking up recent transactions, and paying bills. Much of the industry uses simple rule-based chatbots with either decision tree logic or databases of keywords or emojis that trigger preset, limited responses or route customers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). Other institutions have built their own chatbots by training algorithms with real customer conversations and chat logs, like Capital One’s Eno and Bank of America’s Erica. More recently, the banking industry has begun adopting advanced technologies, such as generative chatbots, to support customer service needs.
Financial products and services can be complex, and the information being sought by people shopping for or using those products and services may not be easily retrievable or effectively reduced to an FAQ response. Financial institutions should avoid using chatbots as their primary customer service delivery channel when it is reasonably clear that the chatbot is unable to meet customer needs.
The spotlight found the use of chatbots raised several risks, including:
Federal consumer financial protection laws place a variety of relevant legal responsibilities on financial institutions, such as obligations to respond to consumer disputes or questions or otherwise competently interact with customers about financial products or services. When market participants can deploy new technologies, they should do so in ways that comply with existing law and, ideally, to increase the quality of customer care.
Read today’s issue spotlight.
The CFPB is actively monitoring the market, and expects institutions using chatbots to do so in a manner consistent with their customer and legal obligations. The CFPB also encourages people who are experiencing issues getting answers to their questions due to a lack of human interaction, to submit a consumer complaint with the CFPB.
Consumers can submit complaints about financial products and services by visiting the CFPB’s website or by calling (855) 411-CFPB (2372).
Employees of companies who they believe their company has violated federal consumer financial laws are encouraged to send information about what they know to whistleblower@cfpb.gov.

###

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is a 21st century agency that helps consumer finance markets work by making rules more effective, by consistently and fairly enforcing those rules, and by empowering consumers to take more control over their economic lives. For more information, visit www.consumerfinance.gov.
If you want to republish the article or have questions about the content, please contact the press office.

Subscribe to our email newsletter. We will update you on newsroom updates.
Subscribe to our RSS feed to get the latest content in your reader.

source

Jesse
https://playwithchatgtp.com