Be cautious

Cautionary tale, be careful because of the potential hits to your reputation and customer experience:

Air Canada must honor refund policy invented by airline’s chatbot

Air Canada appears to have quietly killed its costly chatbot support.

Ars TechnicaAshley Belanger

“Air Canada was seemingly so invested in experimenting with AI that Crocker told the Globe and Mail that Air Canada’s initial investment in customer service AI technology was much higher than the cost of continuing to pay workers to handle simple queries. It was worth it, Crocker said, because the airline believes investing in automation and machine learning technology will lower its expenses and fundamentally create a better customer experience.”

So you offset any accusation of cost saving by saying it’s better for customers. But it wasn’t. Quite a poor defence as well:

“According to Air Canada, Moffatt never should have trusted the chatbot and the airline should not be liable for the chatbot’s misleading information because Air Canada essentially argued that “the chatbot is a separate legal entity that is responsible for its own actions,” a court order said.”

That defence failed. Obviously.

Every great company I’ve ever worked for had one thing in common - really doing the best for the customer. It infects the culture. People take pride in it at all levels. It takes a while to build up, but you can very quickly lose it.

I think ‘Enhance not replace’ is going to become a key phrase in these early stages.