Citizens Advice urges 'right to talk to a human' as half of users find service chatbots unhelpful
nordicinst · x · 2026-09-22
UK charity Citizens Advice urged essential service providers (energy, banking, telecom) to guarantee a 'right to talk to a human' instead of relying on AI chatbots.
Key findings:
- Over half of users faced wasted time, stress, and delayed problem resolution; nearly half of those forced to use a chatbot found it unhelpful, with some concluding it seemed rigged to 'make me give up'.
- The charity says chatbots trap people in 'endless loops' and cause real harm.
- Digital exclusion affects at least 14 million UK citizens, worsened by shrinking phone, face-to-face, and paper channels.
- The charity provided one-on-one help to over 2.7 million people in England and Wales last year.
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