Connect with us

Technology

Consumer Alert: The AI Customer Service Race Could Be Costing Companies Customers

Published

on

New research finds more than 8 in 10 U.S. adults 50+ surveyed would consider leaving a company when automation leaves no way to reach a human, underscoring a service model that uses AI to support, not replace, human help.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Oct. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — As companies race to deploy artificial intelligence across customer service departments, new research from Consumer Cellular suggests there may be a hidden cost to getting automation wrong: customers.

More than 8 in 10 U.S. adults 50+ surveyed, across both Consumer Cellular customer and prospect communities, said they would consider leaving a company if an automated system kept them in a loop with no way to reach a human.

Consumer Cellular’s findings align with broader customer-service research showing that consumers may value useful AI while still expecting a clear path to human help. In a 2026 Gartner survey of 3,566 B2B and B2C customers, 50% said customer-service interactions are easier when companies use generative AI, but 87% said companies using GenAI for customer service must provide access to a human agent.*

“AI isn’t the problem. Bad customer service is,” said Ed Evans, CEO of Consumer Cellular. “We’re investing in AI to give our teams better information and remove friction, not to get customers off the phone as quickly as possible. Our goal is to make sure customers get the help they need and the best experience possible, whether that takes two minutes or twenty.”

The findings reinforce the company’s philosophy that AI should give customers more ways to get help, not fewer, and point to a model for customer service in which AI makes human support more effective while preserving easy access to the people customers rely on when they need help.

Key Findings

Bad automation can cost companies customers. Sixty-two percent of Consumer Cellular customers surveyed and 51% of prospects said a frustrating bot experience makes them less likely to stay with a company. Forty-seven percent of customers and 31% of prospects said they have switched providers or seriously considered switching because of a bad automated experience.Customers expect a clear path to a person. Ninety-seven percent of Consumer Cellular customers surveyed and 94% of prospects agreed there should always be an option to speak with a human agent. When automation removes that option, the consequences can be significant: More than 8 in 10 across both groups surveyed would consider leaving a company over an automated loop with no way to reach a human (87% of customers and 82% of prospects).Resolution and human access matter far more than speed. Among Consumer Cellular customers surveyed, 43% said getting their problem completely resolved matters most when seeking help and another 43% chose talking to a real, live person. Just 4% chose speed. Among prospects, 53% chose complete resolution, 32% chose reaching a real person and just 3% chose speed.Chatbots often don’t finish the job. Roughly three in five customers and prospects surveyed said a chatbot successfully resolves their issue less than 40% of the time. Thirty-eight percent of customers and 44% of prospects said bots resolve their issue less than 10% of the time.Customers are more forgiving of impersonal automation than ineffective automation. Just 9% of customers and 10% of prospects would consider leaving because a bot successfully resolved their issue but felt “cold and robotic.” By comparison, more than 8 in 10 would consider leaving over an automated loop with no way to reach a human.

AI in Practice

Consumer Cellular is putting that philosophy into practice by using AI to give its customer-service representatives better tools and information, while continuing to invest in what has long differentiated its customer experience: easy access to its 100% U.S.-based customer support team.

Behind the scenes, AI is being used to help representatives focus more fully on customers and expand individualized coaching:

Helping representatives focus on the customer: An AI-powered auto-summarization tool generates a recap of each customer call, allowing representatives to focus more fully on listening to and engaging with the customer rather than simultaneously taking detailed account notes. Representatives can then review and supplement the AI-generated summary after the interaction.Expanding individualized coaching: Consumer Cellular is also using AI to expand representative coaching. Traditionally, only a small fraction of customer interactions could be individually reviewed. AI allows the company to analyze a substantially larger share of interactions and provide more individualized feedback to representatives. Coaching feedback is delivered by supervisors, and AI insights are one input, not a substitute for human judgment.

Customer information used by these tools is protected under our Privacy Policy and is not used to train third-party AI models.

Customer Service Performance

That service model is reflected in how Consumer Cellular customers view their experience. In the same research, 77% of Consumer Cellular customers surveyed said they were confident their carrier would fully resolve their issue the first time they reached out, compared with 44% of prospects surveyed who said the same of their current carrier.

Consumer Cellular also reports strong performance across several key customer-service measures, reflecting a model that prioritizes resolution and customer experience over simply shortening interactions:

First-contact resolution (FCR): CCI records indicate ~86%Customer satisfaction (CSAT): 5 points above the value MVNO average, 7 points above the industry average, 8 points above the major network operators.**Average handle time (AHT): 11.6% longer than the industry benchmark,*** reflecting the company’s focus on giving customers the time they need rather than rushing them off the phone.

Consumer Cellular was ranked #1 in Network Coverage and #1 in Customer Satisfaction among wireless carriers from ACSI in 2026 and #1 in Customer Service from USA TODAY (2025-2026).

Research Methodology

The research was conducted on the Switchboard Hive Platform by Big Village among Consumer Cellular customer and prospect communities aged 50 and older. Prospects were primarily current customers of AT&T (26%), Verizon (26%), and T-Mobile (22%). The research included 217 Consumer Cellular customers (128 ages 50–69 and 89 ages 70+) and 265 prospects (194 ages 50–69 and 71 ages 70+), for a total of 482 respondents. Research activities were fielded June 25 and July 2, 2026.

For additional research findings and methodology, visit AI Customer Service Study.

About Consumer Cellular

Founded in 1995, Consumer Cellular is the first wireless provider built for Americans 50+. An approved wireless partner of AARP, the company is trusted by more than 4 million subscribers for affordable plans, popular devices, and nationwide coverage, all backed by 100% U.S.-based customer support. Based in Scottsdale, Arizona, the company was ranked #1 in Network Coverage and #1 in Customer Satisfaction among wireless carriers from ACSI in 2026 and #1 in Customer Service from USA TODAY (2025-2026).

Press Contact:
alana.kornfeld@consumercellular.com

Sources:

* Gartner, August 2026 survey.

** American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), 2026.

*** Sprinklr, citing Call Centre Helper industry benchmarks. Telecommunications average handle time: 8.8 minutes.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/consumer-alert-the-ai-customer-service-race-could-be-costing-companies-customers-302913632.html

SOURCE Consumer Cellular

Continue Reading

Technology

Cboe Global Markets Announces Increase in Share Repurchase Authorization; Declares Fourth-Quarter 2026 Dividend

Published

on

By

Increases share repurchase authorization by $550 millionQuarterly cash dividend of $0.86 per share

CHICAGO, Oct. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), a leading global markets operator and pioneer in equity and index derivatives, today announced its Board of Directors has authorized the company to repurchase up to an additional $550 million of its outstanding common stock and declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.86 per share of common stock for the fourth quarter of 2026.

The fourth-quarter 2026 dividend is payable on December 15, 2026, to stockholders of record as of November 30, 2026. 

As of June 30, 2026, the Company had $536.8 million of availability remaining under its existing share repurchase authorizations.

“Cboe’s strong cash flow and robust balance sheet give us the flexibility to continue investing in our growth priorities while returning capital to shareholders,” said Craig Donohue, Chief Executive Officer of Cboe Global Markets. “Today’s increase to our share repurchase authorization, together with our dividend announcement, reflect the Board’s confidence in our business and our commitment to delivering long-term value.”

The share repurchase program has no expiration date. The repurchase program permits the company to purchase shares through a variety of methods, including in the open market, through established trading plans, or through privately negotiated transactions, in accordance with applicable securities laws. It does not obligate the company to make any repurchases at any specific time or situation. The timing and extent to which the company repurchases its shares will depend upon, among other things, market conditions, share price, liquidity targets, regulatory requirements and other factors. Share repurchases may be commenced or suspended at any time or from time to time without prior notice.

About Cboe Global Markets
Cboe Global Markets (Cboe: CBOE) is a leading global markets operator with a long history of innovation in equity and index derivatives. Since launching the world’s first listed options exchange in 1973, Cboe has pioneered landmark products, including the introduction of S&P 500® index options and the creation of the VIX® Index, the world’s leading gauge of market volatility, reshaping how investors manage risk and access opportunity. Today, Cboe operates derivatives, equities, and FX markets, providing trading, clearing, and investment solutions for customers worldwide. To learn more, visit www.cboe.com.

Cboe Media Contacts

Cboe Analyst Contact

Angela Tu

Tim Cave

Kenneth Hill, CFA

+1-646-856-8734

+44 (0) 7593-506-719

+1-312-786-7559

atu@cboe.com 

tcave@cboe.com

khill@cboe.com 

CBOE-C
CBOE-OE

Cboe®, Cboe Global Markets®, and VIX ® are registered trademarks or service marks of Cboe Exchange, Inc and S&P 500® is a registered trademark of Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners. 

Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. You can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as “may,” “might,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential” or “continue,” and the negative of these terms and other comparable terminology. All statements that reflect our expectations, assumptions or projections about the future other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements, which are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions about us, may include projections of our future financial performance based on our growth strategies and anticipated trends in our business. These statements are only predictions based on our current expectations and projections about future events. There are important factors that could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.

We operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible to predict all risks and uncertainties, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements.

Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include: the loss of our right to exclusively list and trade certain index options and futures products; economic, political and market conditions; compliance with legal and regulatory obligations; price and new products and services competition and consolidation in our industry; decreases in trading or clearing volumes, market data fees or a shift in the mix of products traded on our exchanges; legislative or regulatory changes or changes in tax regimes; our ability to protect our systems and communication networks from security vulnerabilities and breaches; our ability to attract and retain skilled management and other personnel; increasing competition by foreign and domestic entities; our business and operational dependence on and exposure to risk from third parties; factors that impact the quality and integrity of our and other applicable indices; our ability to manage our global operations, growth, and strategic acquisitions, wind downs, divestitures, or alliances effectively; increases in the cost of the products and services we use; our ability to operate our business without violating the intellectual property rights of others and the costs associated with protecting our intellectual property rights; our ability to minimize the risks, including our credit, liquidity, market, investment, counterparty, and default risks, associated with operating our clearinghouses; our ability to accommodate trading and clearing volume and transaction traffic, including significant increases, without failure or degradation of performance of our systems; misconduct by those who use our markets or our products or for whom we clear transactions; challenges to our use of open source software code; our ability to meet our compliance obligations, including managing our business interests and our regulatory responsibilities; the loss of key customers or a significant reduction in trading or clearing volumes by key customers; damage to our reputation; the ability of our compliance and risk management methods to effectively monitor and manage our risks; restrictions imposed by our debt obligations and our ability to make payments on or refinance our debt obligations; our ability to maintain an investment grade credit rating; impairment of our goodwill, long-lived assets, investments or intangible assets; the accuracy of our estimates and expectations; and litigation risks and other liabilities. More detailed information about factors that may affect our actual results to differ may be found in our filings with the SEC, including in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025 and other filings made from time to time with the SEC.

We do not undertake, and we expressly disclaim, any duty to update any forward-looking statement whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cboe-global-markets-announces-increase-in-share-repurchase-authorization-declares-fourth-quarter-2026-dividend-302917368.html

SOURCE Cboe Global Markets, Inc.

Continue Reading

Technology

Community Heritage Financial, Inc. Announces Adoption of Stock Repurchase Program

Published

on

By

MIDDLETOWN, Md., Oct. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Community Heritage Financial, Inc. (the “Company”) (OTCID: CMHF), the parent company of Middletown Valley Bank, today announced that its Board of Directors has adopted a stock repurchase program. Under the repurchase program, the Company may repurchase up to 147 thousand shares of its common stock. This amount represents approximately 5.0% of the Company’s 2.95 million shares of common stock outstanding.

The repurchase program permits shares to be repurchased from time to time on the open market, in private-negotiated transactions or otherwise. Repurchases will be made at management’s discretion at prices management considers to be attractive and in the best interests of the Company and its stockholders, subject to general market conditions, the trading price of the Company’s common stock, regulatory requirements and limitations, alternative uses for capital, the Company’s financial performance, and other factors deemed appropriate.

The repurchase program expires August 21, 2027.  The repurchase program may be suspended, terminated or modified at any time for any reason and does not obligate the Company to purchase any particular number of shares.

About Community Heritage Financial, Inc.

Community Heritage Financial, Inc. is the parent company of Middletown Valley Bank (the “Bank” or “MVB”). Middletown Valley Bank offers a full suite of personal and business banking solutions, along with residential mortgage lending through its MVB Home Loans division. At the heart of the MVB brand is a commitment to delivering Absolutely Exceptional Experiences – one customer, one community, one experience at a time. Founded in 1908 in Middletown, Maryland, MVB has grown to serve customers across Frederick, Washington, and Garrett counties in Maryland, as well as Franklin County, Pennsylvania. For more information, visit www.communityheritageinc.com or www.mvbbank.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws.  Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by the use of forward- looking terminology such as “believes,” “expects,” “intends,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “anticipates” or similar terminology.  Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.  Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, changes in interest rates, stock market liquidity, deposit flows, loan demand and real estate values, as well as changes in economic, competitive, governmental, regulatory, technological and other factors which may affect the Company specifically, its existing and target market areas or the banking industry in general.  The realization or occurrence of these risks or uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those addressed in the forward-looking statements.  The statements in this press release are made as of the date of this release.  The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by law.

Community Heritage Financial, Inc. 

Robert E. Goetz, Jr. (“BJ”)
President & Chief Executive Officer
301-371-3055

John A. Scaldara, Jr.
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
301-371-3070

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/community-heritage-financial-inc-announces-adoption-of-stock-repurchase-program-302917441.html

SOURCE Community Heritage Financial, Inc.

Continue Reading

Technology

Insurance Professional Paula Miller Shares Questions to Ask Before Choosing Life Insurance in HelloNation

Published

on

By

The article explains how coverage needs, policy terms, premiums, exclusions, and beneficiaries can help families compare their options.

SIMI VALLEY, Calif., Oct. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — What questions should you ask before choosing life insurance?

HelloNation has published an article featuring insights from Insurance Professional Paula Miller of Simi Valley, CA. The article explains how asking about coverage, costs, policy terms, and family needs can help households make informed comparisons before selecting a policy.

The HelloNation article explains that choosing life insurance begins with determining which type of policy fits a household’s goals. Term life insurance generally provides protection for a set period, while permanent policies may provide longer coverage when policy requirements are met. Understanding these differences can help narrow the available choices.

The amount of life insurance coverage is another important consideration. Income, debts, housing expenses, education plans, and dependent needs may all influence how much protection a household requires. The article notes that life insurance coverage should reflect what the policy would need to provide if the insured person died.

Coverage length should also match the household’s expected financial timeline. Term life insurance may be appropriate when protection is needed while children remain dependent, a mortgage is being paid, or retirement savings are still growing. Buyers should understand what happens when the initial term ends before selecting a policy.

The article also recommends examining life insurance premiums carefully. Age, health, coverage amount, policy type, and underwriting factors can influence cost. An insurance agent should be able to explain how these factors affect pricing and whether life insurance premiums remain level or may change over time.

Price alone, however, does not provide a complete basis for comparison. The article explains that policy exclusions, benefit terms, and coverage duration can affect the protection a policy provides. Reviewing policy exclusions before purchasing can help households understand circumstances that may limit coverage.

Beneficiaries are another important part of policy planning. Policyholders should understand how beneficiaries are named and how those selections can be changed. Marriage, divorce, births, deaths, and other significant life events may create reasons to review those decisions.

Optional policy features also deserve careful attention. Some policies include riders or other provisions designed for specific circumstances. The article recommends asking what each feature provides, what it costs, and whether it addresses a financial need relevant to the household.

The application process can affect both eligibility and final pricing. Depending on the policy, an insurer may review health information and other underwriting factors before making a final offer. An insurance agent can explain unfamiliar provisions and help applicants understand why an initial estimate may differ from final policy terms.

The article emphasizes that several factors should be evaluated together when comparing policies. Coverage amount, duration, benefits, costs, and contract terms can all affect the protection provided. Understanding these details can help families evaluate policies based on their financial responsibilities rather than monthly price alone.

Insurance needs can also change over time. Buying a home, growing a family, changing careers, or reducing debt may affect the amount or duration of protection needed. Periodically reviewing life insurance can help determine whether existing protection still reflects a household’s circumstances.

What Questions Should You Ask Before Choosing Life Insurance? features insights from Paula Miller, Insurance Professional of Simi Valley, CA, in HelloNation.

About HelloNation
HelloNation is America’s Good News Network, a premier media platform built on the idea that good news travels faster when real people tell real stories. Through its community-focused publications and innovative “edvertising” approach, HelloNation delivers content that informs, inspires, and spotlights the leaders making a meaningful impact in their communities.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/insurance-professional-paula-miller-shares-questions-to-ask-before-choosing-life-insurance-in-hellonation-302917444.html

SOURCE HelloNation

Continue Reading

Trending