Disclosing AI to Customers

What the AI Act asks of talking robots

Article 50 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, the AI Act, requires providers to design AI systems that interact directly with people in a way that informs them they are interacting with an AI system, unless that would be obvious to a reasonably well-informed and observant person in the circumstances. The information must be clear and distinguishable and given no later than the first interaction. The duty sits mainly with the provider, usually the maker or whoever supplies the conversational software. You still decide how the robot is dressed, named and introduced in your venue, and those choices can make its nature more or less obvious. Ask the maker how its product meets Article 50 and what it expects you to keep in place on site.

Wording the disclosure so it lands

Put the disclosure in the robot's first sentence and on its screen, in plain words such as "I'm an AI assistant, and a member of staff is nearby if you need one". Avoid giving the robot a human first name and job title that suggest otherwise. Repeat the point whenever the conversation changes hands, for instance when a remote operator takes over the robot's voice, because the visitor is now talking to a person and deserves to know that as well. A sign at the robot's station helps visitors who join mid-conversation. Translate the disclosure into every language the robot speaks, and deliver it as both text and speech so it reaches visitors who cannot hear the robot or cannot see its screen.

What disclosure does to customer behaviour

Disclosure has a cost you should plan for rather than hide from. A field experiment with more than 6,200 potential customers, published in Marketing Science and summarised by Temple University's Fox School of Business, found that purchase rates fell by 79.7% once people were told they were dealing with a chatbot, and that customers were blunter with it once they knew. That study looked at chatbots selling to prospective customers, not robots in a lobby, so treat it as a warning rather than a forecast. The lesson for a venue is to give the robot jobs where being a machine is acceptable or even welcome, such as directions, opening hours and queue updates, and to route persuasive or sensitive conversations to people.

Keeping trust after the first hello

Trust also depends on what the robot does after it introduces itself. If it reads facial expressions or estimates age or mood, Article 50 of the AI Act places a separate duty on you as the deployer to inform the people exposed to that emotion recognition or biometric categorisation. Find out whether such features exist, and switch off any you do not need. Let the robot admit when it does not know an answer instead of guessing. Avoid scripts that claim feelings it does not have or friendships with regular guests. Publish a short notice explaining what the robot records and for how long, and give customers a named person to contact when something goes wrong.

Sources and further reading

• Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (Artificial Intelligence Act) — EUR-Lex, Publications Office of the European Union.
  Article 50 sets the transparency duties for AI systems that talk to people and for emotion recognition.
• Chatbots can help improve sales…provided you don't reveal it's a chatbot — Temple University Fox School of Business.
  University summary of a Marketing Science field experiment on how chatbot disclosure changed customer purchases.

Common questions

Do I have to tell customers my robot uses AI?

In the EU, Article 50 of the AI Act requires AI systems that talk directly with people to make clear they are AI unless that is obvious, with the main duty on the provider. Elsewhere, check local consumer and privacy rules, and disclose anyway as good practice.

Does saying it's a robot put customers off?

It can in sales settings, according to research on chatbots, but customers also dislike finding out later that they were misled. Disclosure works best when the robot handles simple tasks well and a person is easy to reach for anything that matters more.