Roughly half of adults in the UK today are classified as vulnerable, but vulnerability can take many forms, from elderly customers and those with mental health challenges, to people experiencing major life changes, low financial resilience or language barriers. Regulatory bodies, like the FCA, stress the fair treatment of these customers as a key priority for businesses in regulated industries. However, many of these vulnerabilities are difficult to detect through conversation alone, especially when relying solely on human judgement. That’s where we need AI. By analysing speech patterns, sentiment and contextual cues in real time, AI can help spot subtle indicators that might otherwise go unnoticed, enabling businesses to respond with greater care and compliance.

Despite increasing pressure from regulators like the FCA on how businesses protect vulnerable customers, RocketPhone.ai’s research revealed that 37% of consumers are still concerned about vulnerable family members interacting with organisations.  

Business teams, particularly salespeople, are fighting an inherent distrust from consumers, and this is a likely contributor to the public’s growing concern about vulnerable family members. From their perspective, they have no way of knowing that businesses have the right information available to best engage with those close to them or the tools and support to offer the best possible customer outcomes. 

What awaits businesses who fail to comply? 

The FCA mandates that all customers receive consistent and fair treatment, and businesses that fail to comply face serious consequences, including sanctions, public scrutiny, reputational damage and even legal action. 

For instance, TSB Bank was fined nearly £10.9 million last year for mistreating financially vulnerable customers. 

Sales and customer service teams are responsible for maintaining high standards across all interactions. The FCA conducted a comprehensive review of firms’ approaches to consumer needs, staff capabilities, and customer service in Q1 of 2025. Across the findings, it was clear that businesses are making more of an effort to understand the needs of their customers through improving systems and tailoring their processes, including making sure digital channels are available and effectively managed. Equally, more reviews of end-to-end customer support journeys are taking place, leading to the removal of unreasonable barriers.  

However, there are still some clear areas for improvement: 

• Not all support processes are aligned to customer needs, with firms demonstrating a lack of understanding of their target market.
• Too much emphasis is placed on pre-sales support, leaving post-sales support lacking.
• Firms continue to rely heavily on traditional customer service (CS) metrics such as contact rates and wait times.
• Call monitoring is often limited to reviewing a small, random sample of calls by trained quality control (QC) staff. This approach only identifies issues after the fact - when something has already gone wrong - instead of preventing problems in real time. This reactive process misses many opportunities to catch vulnerability risks or poor treatment early.

For customers with known or unknown vulnerabilities, these shortcomings across business processes could seriously impact their overall experience. 

The challenges facing CS teams 

Failing to recognise and properly support vulnerable customers isn’t just a risk to trust it’s a legal and financial time bomb. Businesses that sell to vulnerable individuals without the right safeguards face significant fines, severe regulatory penalties and in extreme cases, criminal prosecution.

Sales and service teams, especially those relying on cold outbound calls, must navigate the difficult balance between meeting aggressive targets and ensuring fair, compliant treatment. But spotting vulnerability isn’t straightforward — missing the signs can lead to devastating consequences for both customers and the business.

Sales teams often face administrative burdens, including updating CRMs in real-time while researching prospects, following up, and meeting KPIs. For optimal service, teams need access to complete communication histories, but manual CRM updates can be time-consuming and error prone. As a result, crucial customer data can become fragmented across multiple systems, making it difficult to identify vulnerabilities. 

Given the challenge of spotting vulnerabilities, how can businesses ensure compliance with the FCA and other regulatory standards? 

Arm your sales teams with AI 

The answer lies in technology. Artificial Intelligence can assist businesses in several critical ways, including real-time detection of vulnerability, delivery of actionable customer insights, and accurate data reporting. RocketPhone.ai’s platform goes beyond basic note-taking or transcription. Built on proprietary IP developed with leading universities and government funding, it analyses the actual waveform of the customer’s voice, not just the words spoken, to pick up on subtle cues and emotional signals that traditional systems miss.

AI tools monitor and analyse customer conversations live, flagging potential risk indicators immediately. For example, subtle changes in speech patterns and voice waveforms can reveal signs of cognitive decline or dementia cues that might easily be missed by human listeners. These insights are then reviewed by teams to trigger necessary actions. Early detection enables businesses to take appropriate steps before any sales occur, ensuring compliance with FCA regulations.

By focusing on these deep, real-time insights rather than routine admin tasks, AI empowers sales teams to engage more effectively and empathetically with customers — especially those who are vulnerable.

As customer interactions expand to new channels, such as video, businesses must refine their processes for identifying and supporting vulnerable customers. With stricter regulations on the horizon, compliance is not optional. By embracing AI, businesses can not only meet regulatory requirements but also build stronger, more trustworthy relationships with their customers.