White House, CFPB take on 'ineffective, time-wasting chatbots'

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The White House and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are going after chatbots.

On Monday, the Biden administration announced a government-wide initiative it calls "Time Is Money" that targets the ways that corporations waste consumers' time and money, such as forcing consumers through complicated processes to cancel paid memberships.

"Companies often deliberately design their business processes to be time-consuming or otherwise burdensome for consumers, in order to deter them from getting a rebate or refund they are due or canceling a subscription or membership they no longer want — all with the goal of maximizing profits," the administration said.

Two of these efforts could directly impact financial services companies if the rules mentioned in the White House announcement come to fruition. 

For one, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is planning to issue rules or guidance cracking down on ineffective chatbots used by financial institutions as a replacement for customer service, according to the Biden administration. The agency will identify when the use of these features are unlawful, including in situations where customers believe they are speaking to a human.

"While chatbots can be useful for answering basic questions, they often have limited ability to solve more complex problems and disputes," the White House said. "Instead, chatbots frequently provide inaccurate information and give the runaround to customers seeking a real person."

This effort follows a report the CFPB released last year that outlined concerns from consumers who have lodged complaints about chatbots. It highlighted the potential of these assistive functions to "cause considerable harm" when they feed consumers inaccurate information or delay them from speaking to a live agent. 

There are documented cases outside of banking that illustrate these dangers. A civil resolution tribunal ordered Air Canada to pay a customer a bereavement discount earlier this year after its chatbot told him he could apply for the fare retroactively. The airline later told him he must submit the request before the flight. 

Financial institutions are also gradually exploring use cases for conversational capabilities driven by generative artificial intelligence. Still, financial institutions are much more likely to restrict generative AI to internal use cases.

The Time Is Money effort also addresses customer service "doom loops," or extensive menu options and recordings that hinder a consumer from reaching a real person. The CFPB is one agency on the White House's list to address this issue. The announcement said the CFPB would initiate a rulemaking process that would require companies under its jurisdiction to connect customers with humans by pressing one button.