FCA

Financial Conduct Authority (UK)

Medium Impact

FCA-commissioned AI consumer research highlights trust, recourse and control issues in retail financial services

Published

Jul 3, 2026

Topics

Artificial intelligence, Retail financial services, Consumer Duty, Customer outcomes, Data protection and trust, Digital advice and guidance, Operational resilience

Executive Summary

The FCA has published FCA-commissioned Yonder research based on an online survey of 5,026 UK retail financial services consumers. The research supports the Mills Review on the long-term impact of AI on retail financial services and is not a rulemaking instrument. It provides new supervisory-relevant evidence on consumer AI adoption, trust, appetite for autonomous tools and perceived safeguards. The findings show AI is already being used by a minority of consumers for personal finance and product shopping, mainly to summarise information or suggest actions rather than to make decisions independently. Consumer willingness falls as AI autonomy increases, while concerns focus on misuse of personal or financial data, lack of protection if things go wrong, scams, mistakes and loss of control. For firms, the immediate impact is strategic and governance-related rather than a filing change: AI propositions should be assessed for customer understanding, accountability, data access, oversight, opt-out routes, vulnerable-customer impacts and evidence of good outcomes under existing FCA expectations.

What Changed

newNew FCA evidence base on retail AI use

The Mills Review evidence base on consumer attitudes to AI was not supported by this survey dataset.

New

The FCA now has survey evidence covering current AI use, trust, perceived benefits, concerns and reactions to AI-enabled financial services propositions.

newCurrent consumer AI use in finance quantified

No equivalent statistic is identified in the supplied FCA research report.

New

Current use is mainly assistive, including summarising, explaining, simplifying and suggesting actions, with lower reported use for ongoing data access or delegated action.

newConsumer recourse awareness gap identified

The supplied source does not identify a prior quantified FCA measure of consumer understanding of recourse for general-purpose AI advice.

New

The FCA evidence base now highlights potential misunderstanding of protections, particularly among consumers already using AI for personal finance.

newAutonomy materially reduces willingness to use AI

The supplied source does not identify a prior quantified comparison across these AI autonomy levels.

New

Reported willingness is 36% for recommendation-only concepts, 30% for permissioned action concepts and 20% for autonomous concepts across all respondents.

newInsurance emerges as comparatively attractive AI use case

The supplied source does not identify a prior FCA-ranked consumer preference across these AI-enabled use cases.

New

The research indicates consumers see clearer benefits from AI in insurance, especially time saving, money saving and decision support, while moving money autonomously is less attractive.

Business Impact

Who is affected

Directly affected

FCA-regulated retail banks, insurers, lenders, investment and pension providers, debt advice firms, payment firms and other firms designing or deploying AI-enabled retail propositions.

Indirectly affected

AI model vendors, open banking and data providers, regtech vendors, outsourced customer service providers, comparison platforms, legal advisers and consumer advocacy bodies.

Jurisdictions

United Kingdom

Business processes

AI product governance and approval, Consumer Duty outcomes testing, Customer communications and financial promotions review, Complaints, redress and customer support routing, Data access, consent and privacy governance, Model risk management and third-party oversight, Vulnerable customer and financial inclusion monitoring

Estimated effort

Medium

Compliance risk

Medium

Affected Reports

AI-enabled product approval and change governance recordConsumer Duty customer outcomes testing pack for AI journeysCustomer communications and disclosure review control for AI-assisted propositionsComplaints and recourse routing control for AI-generated guidance or recommendationsModel, data access and third-party AI governance register

Field	Validation rule

Recommended Actions

7 suggested next steps· derived from source analysis

1
AI generatedStep 1 of 7
record that the FCA research creates no immediate rule or filing change, but map existing and planned AI retail use cases against the consumer risks identified in the report.
2
AI generatedStep 2 of 7
strengthen AI product approval criteria for retail propositions by documenting autonomy level, customer control, permissioning, opt-out routes, human support and notification of actions taken.
3
AI generatedStep 3 of 7
review customer-facing AI disclosures and journey wording to reduce misunderstanding about whether the tool is regulated advice, generic guidance, firm-provided support or a third-party general-purpose AI output.
4
AI generatedStep 4 of 7
add outcomes testing for AI-enabled journeys under Consumer Duty governance, including comprehension, vulnerable-customer experience, complaints, error handling, bias indicators and evidence of customer benefit.
5
AI generatedStep 5 of 7
assess data-access and consent controls for tools that use uploaded documents, real-time account data or ongoing access to personal financial information.
6
AI generatedStep 6 of 7
update complaints and customer support playbooks so staff can route AI-related issues consistently, including cases involving third-party tools where the firm may not control the output.
7
AI generatedStep 7 of 7
monitor the Mills Review and subsequent FCA publications for consultation papers, guidance or rule proposals on AI-enabled retail financial services.

Timeline

other

Apr 2026

Yonder conducted online fieldwork for the FCA-commissioned survey of 5,026 UK retail financial services consumers.

Sources

AI-generated analysis is based on the following primary sources. Always verify against the official publication.

Official FCA-commissioned external researchFinancial Conduct AuthorityDate not specified
Yonder/FCA AI Consumer Research: Consumer quantitative research ↗
https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/external-research/ai-consumer-research.pdf
Official FCA press releaseFinancial Conduct AuthorityDate not specified
FCA publishes landmark review into impact of AI on retail financial services ↗
https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-publishes-landmark-review-impact-ai-retail-financial-services
Policy statementFinancial Conduct AuthorityJul 27, 2022
PS22/9: A new Consumer Duty ↗
https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/policy-statements/ps22-9-new-consumer-duty
Final guidanceFinancial Conduct AuthorityJul 27, 2022
FG22/5: Final non-Handbook Guidance for firms on the Consumer Duty ↗
https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/finalised-guidance/fg22-5-final-non-handbook-guidance-firms-consumer-duty

Related Evidence

Verified source support for this analysis

The evidence agent checks whether the drafted finding is supported by official publications and relevant public source material.

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