Business and operations
Customer service
The problem
The suggested reply looks fluent and goes out in one click. An outdated knowledge-base article, a coupon nobody approved or a grace period the tool invented reaches the customer as the company's promise.
35 courses · 10 specific to this profession
A process from your work
How long does it take you to resolve a customer's chat request?
- Step 1During the chat, the tool suggests replies and points to the relevant knowledge base articles.
- Step 2You compare every promise the suggestion makes with the company's terms before sending it.
- Step 3The conversation stays yours: you can accept, change or ignore the suggestion.
- Where the tool goes wrongThe draft invents a freeze rule the gym does not have: longer, free, no medical report.
- The verification stepFind the matching clause in the current terms for every promise; delete any promise without one.
More: what was measured and the full check
What changed, as measured
Agents with the AI assistant resolved 14% more issues per hour on average, and novice and low-skilled agents 34% more; experienced agents gained little.
Who was measured: Chat support agents of a large business software company and its outsourced contact centres, as the assistant was rolled out in stages.
The caveat: A staged rollout at one company, not a randomised trial; the most skilled agents may see the quality of their conversations fall with the assistant.
The check, step by step
- Underline every sentence in the draft that promises something: a deadline, a number of days, a fee, "free of charge", "automatically".
- For each one, find the matching clause in the current version of the terms and note its number next to the sentence. Delete a sentence with no clause behind it, or pass it to the person in charge before sending.
- Where the terms set a condition (a medical report, once only, up to 30 days), write it into the reply together with the document the customer must send.
- When the tool invents a rule you do not recognise, tell whoever maintains the knowledge base, and keep the draft, the clause and the reply as sent in the ticket.
The course covers correspondence, tickets and the knowledge base with AI: every answer verified against the official source.
We can help you with this process: “Customer service AI: Correspondence, support tickets and knowledge base”, 8 hours.
A documented failure pattern
“Up to 60 days” of freeze, not in the gym's terms
A reply an AI tool drafts for a customer-service employee at a gym, to the email of a member who will be abroad and asks whether they can freeze their annual membership.
Source: Civil Resolution Tribunal of British Columbia, Canada, 2024, and 2 more.
Why it is easy to miss
The draft invents a rule the gym does not have: a freeze for travel, 60 days a year, free, by a simple email. The terms allow only one freeze, of up to 30 days, and only with a medical report. The error slips through because the draft speaks in the company's voice and adds procedural detail (a number of days, "free of charge", "automatically") that reads as if taken from a rulebook, while the tool drew it from what other gyms commonly offer, not from this gym's terms. A reviewer usually checks tone and spelling, not whether each promise has a clause in the terms. Nor does the tool answer the same way every time, so a good test yesterday does not vouch for today's draft. Once it is sent, the email is the company's word as far as the customer is concerned.
Where the failure pattern is documented: A decision of the Civil Resolution Tribunal of British Columbia, Canada (February 2024); the Cursor cofounder's post-incident statement on Hacker News (April 2025); a report in The Register (April 2025).Sources: Civil Resolution Tribunal of British Columbia, Canada, 2024; Anysphere, 2025; The Register, 2025.The case above is ours, written for work in Albania; the laws it names were checked against the official text.
What it looks like
The member's emailI will be abroad for two months. Can I freeze my annual membership during that time?
The AI tool's draftOf course! The annual membership can be frozen for up to 60 days a year, free of charge. Just email us the dates and the membership end date is moved automatically.
The gym's membership terms, clause 7"The annual membership cannot be frozen. Only in case of illness, certified by a medical report, is it frozen once, for up to 30 days."
Translated from the Albanian original.
Specialist courses for this profession
Courses on customer correspondence, support requests, complaints and checking AI-assisted responses.
Customer support AI: Orientation
Customer support AI: Workflow
Customer support AI: Documents and communication
Customer support AI: Data and analytics
Customer support AI: Quality and evaluation
Customer service AI: Orientation
Customer service AI: Correspondence, support tickets and knowledge base
Customer service AI: Escalation and complaints
Customer service AI: Data, analytics and reporting
Customer service AI: Preparation for assessment
What you leave with
The checking card for suggested replies separates form from substance, says where each claim is checked (the customer system, the compensation table, the official text) and which conditions call for escalation. The log beside it shows the team lead what the tool proposed and who made the call.
Customer service
The catalogue lists all 35 together, with filters for format and time.