ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how people shop, learn, work, and connect. From faster services and more personalised tools to more efficient customer support, AI holds enormous potential for consumers. Yet significant challenges remain. Without strong consumer rights, effective protections, and clear avenues for redress, the benefits of AI can quickly turn to harm. This concern is widely shared: 90% of consumer advocates identify privacy risks, and 86% point to safety threats as the most pressing issues.
While regulatory responses have progressed in recent years, gaps persist. Only 20% of countries, for example, have laws to ensure consumer redress mechanisms apply to digital technologies, and national AI strategies are far more common in high-income countries (65%) than in low- and middle-income countries (12%). Ensuring AI works for consumers requires deliberate, collaborative, and responsible approaches.
Our Vision for Fair and Responsible AI
Fair and responsible AI means designing technology with consumers from the outset. Our vision is for an AI landscape that is truly open and accessible to all. One that upholds the highest benchmarks of consumer protection, features inclusive and representative governance frameworks, and ensures consumers have meaningful avenues for redress and representation.
Our work ensures these principles are not aspirational, but actionable. Through research, advocacy, and collaboration across sectors, we aim to embed consumer priorities at every stage of AI development and governance.
Artificial Intelligence Advisory Group
To turn this vision into action, we have established the Artificial Intelligence Advisory Group – a growing global community of consumer leaders, experts and advocates who bring diverse insights into how AI is shaping people’s rights, choices and everyday experiences. The Group ensures our work remains grounded in real-world needs and emerging risks, strengthening our ability to deliver meaningful change for consumers.
The Advisory Group deepens global understanding of what people expect from AI and help shape a future where AI is developed with, and for, consumers everywhere.
Our Approach
Building fair and responsible AI for consumers will not happen by chance: it requires informed evidence, long-term collaboration and a sustained global effort. We’re working to improve knowledge and understanding of emerging AI and consumer issues amongst advocates and policymakers.
Connecting consumer experiences with global policy and business practice. Our research translates real consumer insights into practical guidance for governments and industry. From testing generative AI chatbots to surveying our Members on AI developments, we highlight key AI-related risks and identify where consumer representatives see promise to build.
Mobilising global actors to focus on consumers. For World Consumer Rights Day 2024, we brought together over 100 organisations under the theme ‘Fair and responsible AI for all consumers’ and led to a United Nations call to action. Building on this momentum, we created the AI Advisory Group a global coalition of consumer advocates, businesses, and policymakers working together to ensure consumer priorities are central to the global AI agenda.
Improving understanding and capacity to respond. As AI evolves, stakeholders need evidence, tools and frameworks to safeguard consumer rights while unlocking AI’s potential. Starting with two key areas – privacy and agentic AI – we are developing global principles and recommendations to support consumer advocates, policymakers and industry to strengthen consumer protection and build resilience against future risks.
Join us
We work with leading organisations across government, business, academia and civil society who are united behind our vision to put consumers at the forefront of policymaking. We mobilise a global network of consumer advocacy organisations and powerful private sector actors around core issues to create impactful campaigns, advocate for robust policies, gather evidence and bring the consumer voice into policymaking at the international level.
Together, we can build a future where artificial intelligence works for everyone. To learn more about our work or to express your interest, please reach out to impact@consint.org.