Is AI the answer for consumer protection enforcement?

Artificial Intelligence (or AI for short) describes a collection of advanced software technologies and applications that allow machines to simulate different aspects of human intelligence including learning and decision-making.

AI enabled technology in consumer protection enforcement could be well suited to challenges specific to digital consumer markets and interactions such as: analysing a high volume and high speed of transactions and complaints to identify patterns of bad practice, or automatically executing remedies directly to consumers.

AI enabled systems have already been used by the Monetary Authority of Singapore to predict fraud and misconduct, and prototype tools that scan consumer contracts for unfair terms have been developed.

Are AI tools the advanced technology of choice for enforcement?

AI technologies are just one part of what the UK Competition Authority called “the technology-led transformation of competition and consumer agencies” in discussion paper published in 2022.

It is likely to be a critical member of a set of advanced technologies that authorities could make use of, but it won’t be the only one.

There is an array of tech that can work independently and/or alongside the use of AI in enforcement. Not all of these applications require AI-enabled technology, some can be delivered through automated processes driven by algorithms, some may require statistical techniques from data science.

Developing an effective EnfTech strategy requires an understanding of what AI can do as a technology, in its own right, and when combined with others. 

AI is not magic

Without such an informed and critical approach, there is a risk of “jumping to AI as tech of choice in EnfTech” perceiving AI as a panacea or eventually, an inevitable solution for all challenges. As an FTC commissioner reminded us in remarks on consumer protection and AI “AI is not magic; it is math and code.”

The EnfTech project is carrying out further research on the potential use of AI and other advanced technologies for consumer protection enforcement which will form part of the forthcoming book ‘AI and Consumers’ edited by Larry A. DiMatteo, University of Florida, Cristina Poncbò, University of Torino and Geraint Howells, University of Galway to be published by Cambridge University Press.