A frontline bot loses customers: 14% abandon their query before reaching a human

Citizens Advice is asking energy, banking, telecoms and internet providers to guarantee the right to speak to a human employee. Its findings draw on frontline consultations: over the past year, the organisation's advisers helped 2.7 million people in England and Wales in person.

The cost of a dead end. Among those unable to reach a human employee, 49% experienced stress or frustration, 44% faced delays in resolving their issue, 27% felt powerless, and 14% abandoned the matter entirely. Nearly half of those forced to speak with a bot found it unhelpful.

A chatbot was named the preferred contact method by 20% of UK adults in a July survey commissioned by Citizens Advice. "Going round in circles with a chatbot is not just frustrating; it can cut off access to essential services," says Tom McInnes, the organisation's policy director.

At least 14 million UK residents face digital exclusion, while 1.7 million households have no laptop, tablet or computer (Connection Project). Advisers are seeing this too: applications for homelessness support are accepted only digitally, leaving people without housing for longer and pushing them into debt.

In the EU, it is already a right. In Ireland, a remote buyer of a financial product can demand a human employee instead of a bot under EU Directive 2023/2673, as announced on 3 July 2026. In the UK, Citizens Advice is currently asking for voluntary guarantees.

Next comes a fork in the road: providers' own promises or a UK equivalent of the European rule.