A new law signed by Governor Newsom, AB 1609, requires large private businesses to disclose when the customer service agent they are using is an AI bot and provide customers with timely access to quality customer service.
This joins other existing obligations that may require disclosure of AI bot use, including:
- Consumer protection laws, if the use could be misleading.
- Existing bot disclosure laws in states such as Maine and Utah.
Under the new California law, a “large private business,” meaning a business with more than $500 million in gross annual revenue nationally that provides goods or services to customers, will also be required to:
- Provide a clear and conspicuous disclosure that the customer service chatbot is artificially generated and not human if a reasonable person interacting with the chatbot is likely to be misled into believing that the person is interacting with a human. The disclosure must be provided in the same medium in which the chatbot interacts with the customer.
- During regular business hours, provide a simple customer service feature that allows a customer to request connection with a customer service agent, such as through commonly understood commands, prompts, menu selections, or verbal requests. The feature must be provided on all platforms through which the large private business provides customer service, including online chatbot and telephone customer service platforms.
- Make a good-faith effort to provide a customer who requests connection to a customer service agent with either:
- Connection to a customer service agent within 15 minutes of the request; or
- A specific appointment time, within one business day of the request, at which a customer service agent will call or otherwise connect with the customer.
- Make a good-faith effort to ensure that a customer is not placed on hold or made to wait for more than 15 minutes at any time after connecting with a customer service agent, and that cumulative hold times, wait times, or escalation queues do not exceed one hour in total.
- Post the business’s customer service telephone number clearly and conspicuously on its website if the business provides services through online platforms and maintains a telephone customer service platform.
The law does not apply to hospitals in connection with providing patient care or to consumer reporting agencies. It also includes carve-outs for certain emergency situations, certain regulated utility services, and certain exclusively business-to-business lines and communications.
The law is enforceable by a public prosecutor and provides for civil penalties, rather than statutory damages, of up to $5,000 for an initial violation and $10,000 for each subsequent violation.