As installment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s next director advances on Capitol Hill, the CFPB’s most recent leader is getting further organized for his newest regulatory position in California.

Earlier this year, Gov. Gavin Newsom picked Rohit Chopra to serve as secretary of California’s new Business and Consumer Services Agency (BCSA), which officially launched on July 1.

The new agency was established by Newsom through a government reorganization last year. Under a single agency that now incorporates the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) and the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI), the BCSA will bring together a broad range of licensing, enforcement and other functions that “ensure fair competition and treatment for consumers and businesses across a number of sectors of California’s economy,” according to a news release.

In a recent statement, Chopra gave an update since being installed, reiterating that BCSA is “improving coordination and enforcement across sectors that touch the daily lives of Californians.”

Chopra said, “A top priority for the new agency will be to ensure that new technologies actually help us, rather than undermine our health and safety.

“The new agency’s departments, boards, and bureaus work to protect people when seeking medical care, repairing their home or car, and managing their finances. California law already requires that businesses and professionals obtain a license and adhere to consumer protections. This helps to create trust, maintain quality, and ensure accountability when things go wrong,” he continued.

Chopra then discussed the tools providers of financial services and other companies use nowadays.

“Many of the agency’s licensees have deployed devices, software, and other technology to supplement the work of a skilled professional,” Chopra said. “However, Californians are also finding that many of their day–to–day experiences as a consumer now force them to interact with a chatbot or other technology simulating a human interaction. For our skilled professionals, their work is also quickly changing.

“While technological advances can help us shop for products and services at competitive prices and do our jobs better, technologies are also being used to perpetrate scams, drive up prices, exploit our data, and make us less secure,” he continued.

“The Business and Consumer Services Agency will investigate how businesses are using new technologies to ensure that they aren’t harming consumers or undermining longstanding legal protections,” Chopra went on to say.

“Our work complements many other efforts by the Newsom administration to prepare California for potential disruptions driven by artificial intelligence and new technologies. Right now, we’re working to ensure that our licensing, regulation, and enforcement practices are meeting the moment to protect Californians,” he added.