An AI-powered smart assistant helped improve the quality of 70% of consumer complaints, speeding up their handling, according to the Ministry of Commerce's consumer protection bulletin for the third quarter of 2026.

The bulletin, which reviews the ministry's oversight of businesses, shows inspectors made more than 144 thousand visits to shops and online stores to check compliance with regulations and requirements.

The ministry dealt with more than 210 thousand complaints, led by those concerning online stores and failure to honour exchange and return policies. The average time to resolve a complaint was 36 hours.

During the quarter the ministry also ran 30 recall campaigns covering more than 191 thousand defective vehicles and products, to fix technical faults and protect consumers. The bulletin is available at https://mc.gov.sa/nlc