Google’s New AI-Powered Customer Service Tools Spark Back-to-Back Class Action Lawsuits
Zion Mercado
Google recently began rolling out “human-like generative AI powered” customer service tools to help companies enhance their customer service experience.[1] This new service is known as the “Cloud Contact Center AI,” and touts a full package of customer service-based features to help streamline customer service capabilities.[2] Companies who utilize the new service can create virtual customer service agents, access AI-generated insights providing feedback on customer service interactions, store and manage data on a specialized “Contact Center AI Platform,” and consult with Google’s team of experts on how to improve the AI-integrated systems.[3] However, one key feature that has recently come into controversy is the ability for customers to utilize real-time AI-generated responses to customer inquiries which can then be relayed back to the customer by a live agent.[4] This is known as the “Agent Assist” feature.
Agent Assist operates by “us[ing] machine learning technology to provide suggestions to . . . human agents when they are in a conversation with a customer.”[5] These suggestions are based on the company’s own data and conversations.[6] Functionally, when Agent Assist is in use, there are two parties to the conversation: the live customer service agent, and the customer. The AI program listens in and generates responses in real time for the live customer service agent. Some have argued that this violates California’s wiretapping statute by alleging that the actions of Google’s AI program, which is nothing more than a complex computer program, are attributable to Google itself.[7] Those who have done so have alleged that Google, through its AI-integrated services, has been listening in on people’s conversations without their consent or knowledge.[8]
The wiretapping statute in question is a part of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”), and prohibits the intentional tapping, reading, or any other unauthorized connection, whether physically or otherwise, with any communication being transmitted via line, wire, cable, or instrument without the consent of all parties to the communication.[9] It is also unlawful under the statute to communicate any information so obtained or to aid another in obtaining information via prohibited means.[10]
In 2023, a class action lawsuit was filed against Google on behalf of Verizon customers who alleged that Google “used its Cloud Contact Center AI software as a service to wiretap, eavesdrop on, and record” calls made to Verizon’s customer service center.[11] In the case, District Court Judge Rita F. Lin granted Google’s motion to dismiss on grounds that the relationship between Google and Verizon and the utilization of the Cloud Contact Center AI service fell squarely within the statutory exception to the wiretapping statute.[12] Now, the wiretapping statute does contain an explicit exception for telephone companies and their agents, which is the exception upon which Judge Lin relied; however, that exception is narrowed to such acts that “are for the purpose of construction, maintenance, conduct or operation of the services and facilities of the public utility or telephone company.”[13]
