The effect of AI on complaints handling

Many organisations are reporting an increase in complaints and service providers we speak to are seeing more complaints produced with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini and Claude. These tools can help consumers articulate their concerns, structure arguments and draft correspondence more quickly than they might otherwise be able to on their own. 

This can make complaints processes more accessible but at the same time, it is changing the nature of the complaints service providers receive.

AI assisted complaints are often longer and more complex, but they can also contain inaccuracies, making them harder to resolve. We recognise the impact this has on what can already be stretched resources and the difficulties involved in addressing unclear complaints.

Challenges for complaint handlers

While AI can help consumers raise concerns that they might otherwise have struggled to express, including overcoming language barriers, it can also create challenges for complaint handlers. The nature of AI-assisted complaints can make it difficult to identify the issues that matter most and to reach a timely resolution. 

This Spotlight is about addressing those challenges. 

AI is a tool: you remain in charge

However impressive some functions of AI tools can be, it’s essential to remember that it is just a tool; a piece of kit that you can use to help you with a task. The tool will see itself as a tool, too, performing tasks to please its master. It’s easy to be swept away by AI’s extraordinary speed, sophisticated process and human-like responses, but it’s just imitating the responses it’s wired to believe its human boss wants.  

Using AI as a tool to resolve complaints

AI can help to resolve complaints. With the right prompt, it can cut through long letters, extract salient details and produce clear, elegant arguments in seconds. Like all tools, it will only do that well if it’s used to best effect. We all know how a paintbrush works and, whilst we can’t paint like Michelangelo, we can learn to paint a fence.   

When not used to good effect, an AI tool can generate a letter that exaggerates the seriousness of a complaint or its effect on the consumer, because it is going too far in trying to perform the task requested of it. This makes resolving the complaint harder. In response, we see some lawyers mirroring the tone of the exaggerated complaint letter, but this can actually push parties further apart. It’s really important to remember this, when dealing with a complaint: who are you responding to?  

Our case studies show how different approaches to AI-assisted complaints can affect the complaint journey, and highlight the importance of keeping correspondence clear, proportionate and focused on resolution.

Read our AI complaint case studies: when AI hinders a complaint and when AI helps a complaint. 

Recognising an AI-assisted complaint letter

There are three big themes in what we see in complaint letters that we believe will help service providers to identify and handle AI-assisted complaints. These themes are useful to recognise because they can otherwise mislead service providers as to how to resolve the dispute.  

  1. Format – complaint letters that use AI tend to be long and cover a wide range of issues, not recognising that some are more important than others for the consumer. Lots of subheadings and bullet points, avatars on each section (like a telephone icon for communication issues), with words and phrases indiscriminately highlighted in bold text are indicators of an AI tool writing the letter.  

  1. Tone – some consumers draft complaint letters similarly to pre-action letters, but those have historically been in the minority. Unless told otherwise in the prompt, our experience is that AI tools default to writing complaint letters in a legalistic tone, adding a veneer of gravity to the complaint. They tend to fixate on the failing and the obligations of a service provider, rather than on the consequences to the consumer. They’re not focused on resolving the complaint, but on stressing its importance. 

  1. Hallucinations – this is a term used for when an AI tool simply makes something up. It might look plausible on the surface, but it won’t bear scrutiny. We have seen a number of references to legal cases that aren’t real and to conduct rules that are misquoted or don’t exist. These can put service providers to avoidable hassle in research and can cause concern for both them and the consumer, when challenged.  

Five tips for handling AI-generated complaints

1. Respond to the consumer, not the AI tool

Many service providers have established a relationship with the human consumer by the time a complaint comes. On receipt of a letter that doesn’t read like it is from that person, it’s likely unwise and inefficient to mirror the style and tone of the letter in response. Instead, think of an AI-written letter to be analogous to a representative or friend writing the letter for the consumer. Responding as if the consumer had raised the same issues in their own words is much more conducive to resolving the complaint. Mirror the tone of the human consumer, not of their “representative”.  

2. Keep it simple

An AI tool is capable of producing highly technical complaint letters, rich in jargon unfamiliar to most consumers. Responding with technical jargon is unlikely to satisfy the consumer, if they don’t understand what’s been said. Worse still, they might put that response into the AI tool and ask it either to summarise or draft another letter, which could entrench their position. Instead, respond in plain English and explain any technical terms with which the consumer might be unfamiliar.  

3. Consider all options for responding

A complaint should initiate a service provider’s internal complaint procedure, but the first contact about the complaint need not be in writing. Particularly where the letter reads like it has a different author and there has previously been a good relationship with the human consumer, it can be helpful to offer a telephone call or invite them to meet face-to-face to discuss the complaint.  

However formal a complaint letter looks, it is merely a reflection of dissatisfaction, and service providers should always consider what action is best to resolve the complaint.  

4. Keep your complaint procedure in mind

Service providers publish their procedure for handling complaints on their website. Consumers will accordingly have a reasonable expectation that the steps in it will match their experience. As a default, service providers should respond to the complaint in line with their complaint handling procedure. When faced with a large, long, detailed complaint that contains references to legal cases that need research, it’s possible that a service provider will want to take more time to respond.  

Ensure you tell the consumer about any changes to the advertised procedure, and the reasons for them, as soon as possible, and then follow that revised approach. 

The regulatory expectations on responses and response times should also be borne in mind. Unless otherwise agreed, after eight weeks from the initial complaint, a consumer may escalate their complaint to the Legal Ombudsman and a consequential finding that the complaint handling at first tier was inadequate can cause problems for the service provider, as our Spotlight on Early Resolution explores.  

5. Whilst AI can help, your experience and expertise matter more in resolving complaints

We know that some service providers use an AI tool currently to help with parts of their job, including some complaint handling functions. Subject to regulatory considerations, the principle of this is fine. However, remember that the primary function of a complaint procedure is to resolve complaints, rather than simply to respond to complaints. The same dangers apply to service providers’ reliance on AI as to consumers’ reliance, including the tool drafting a response which defends the service provider at all costs – reasonably or otherwise – and which ignores the goal of resolution.  

Be mindful of confidentiality. Any information you put in an open AI tool is a risk for your business, so think and check before you ask an AI tool to summarise a consumer’s complaint letter. Finally, remember that anything that goes out with your letterhead at the top and your signature at the bottom is yours, whether it was written by a human or a machine. 

Final thoughts

  • AI is a gamechanger, but the rules are still the same – remember that a complaint, however it is made, is a request to initiate your complaint procedure. 

  • Don’t fight fire with fire – focus on resolving the complaint with your consumer. 

  • Stay human – service providers who adapt to the new dynamics, but who ensure people remain in charge of the dialogue, will find they resolve complaints more frequently and efficiently.  

Further information

Our Technical Advice desk is here to help with any questions about complaints and our Guidance on Remedies gives further information on how to address the effects of any failings.  

Our consumer guide on AI includes a template consumers can use to help them write a letter, if they are using an AI tool. The idea is to produce a short, focused letter that is clear and easy to follow, and that addresses how to resolve the complaint.  

Our Spotlight on Early Resolution can be found here.