Consumers complain about banks' AI-powered customer service

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Banks have expanded services powered by artificial intelligence (AI) aggressively amid a rapid digital transformation across sectors, and customer service was one of the first areas to be affected by this initiative.

The expansion of AI-powered customer services, such as chatbots, however, has caused increasing complaints from customers, especially from older adults.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), Monday, most of the complaints have been centered on communication difficulties.

In one case, an office worker made inquiries to a bank about the documents necessary to get a loan, but the chatbot failed to provide the information he needed. Things were eventually sorted out once he was connected to a human banker after wasting 20 minutes with the chatbot.

Another case was experienced by a university student who made inquiries about lease deposit loans. In the end, the student had to visit the bank’s physical office as the chatbot repeatedly stated, “I don’t understand.”

“We believe that older customers who may be relatively less familiar with technology might experience greater inconvenience when interacting with AI-based customer service,” an FSS official said.

In a bid to address the mounting complaints, the FSS vowed to collaborate with financial institutions operating AI-powered customer service to improve procedures and ensure that older customers have better access to human advisers.

The measures could include giving customers the option to choose between AI-based support and speaking with a human banker from the beginning when being connected to customer support channels.

If banks still opt to connect customers to AI services first, they are advised to provide clear instructions on how to connect with a human banker.

“We will guide financial institutions, which are planning to implement AI customer support systems, to put a priority on customer choice and convenience,” the official said.