Following a session at the Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG) Conference 2025 entitled ‘Artificial Intelligence – Technology in Tandem with Humans’, we identified a gap in knowledge on the impact of generative AI on self-serve debt advice now and in the longer term.
MALG, in partnership with Wyser (whose founder and CEO Mark Pearce was on the panel at the conference), has secured funding from Money & Pensions Service (MaPS) to undertake a research project entitled: ‘Exploring Safe & Effective Self-Serve in Regulated Debt Advice in the Generative AI Era‘.
The research will be carried out by Wyser (whose mission is to develop AI products that make the world a better place) from January to the end of March 2026. MALG Members are encouraged to support and take part in the research and opportunities to do so will be shared in due course.
Research Brief: Executive Summary
Generative AI tools, including chatbots, are increasingly accessible to people seeking information and guidance about debt management. These tools present potential opportunities to improve access, convenience and early engagement with advice. At the same time, their use within regulated debt advice raises significant questions about safety, trust, suitability and the risk of harm.
This research explores the opportunities, limitations and risks of AI-enabled self-serve tools in the context of regulated debt advice. It seeks to identify the conditions under which such tools may be used safely and effectively, as well as circumstances in which they must hand off to human advisers.
The work is exploratory and foundational. It does not aim to evaluate or certify a specific AI tool and it is not intended to replace regulated human advice. Instead, it builds an evidence base that reflects how consumers behave when interacting with AI tools, how advisers and managers assess risk and regulation in practice and where alignment or tension exists between consumer expectations of AI-enabled self-serve tools and professional real world knowledge of working within the sector.
Findings will inform a set of practical, sector-facing outputs including an evidence report, a safe-use framework, reusable templates and open license research tools. The research is delivered by Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG), in conjunction with Wyser, and is intended to support learning and responsible experimentation across the debt advice sector.
Watch this space for more details…!
