I had the pleasure of speaking to an auditorium of over 1000 businesspeople from all kinds of industries. The speaker before me spoke for an hour on how AI can replace customer service people. And way AI can deliver technical support and service related issues faster, more efficiently, and for less money.

The business owners in the room were salivating. The thought of being able to lay off dozens of workers and replacing them with software was a dream come true.

And then I came on stage and ruined the show with a few stories.

The man who slept in the airport because AI cancelled his hotel booking but still charged him because he was classified as a no-show. He was unable to reach a human being.

The 90 year old woman who had no television, internet, or phone service for a month because the company’s AI said everything was working fine and the human reps refused to believe the AI was wrong.

The business owner whose AI tool angered his customers by sending aggressive collection letters for balances that were not past due.

A real-estate agent that was sued by a client for using an AI generated contract that granted a renter 100 years of rent free occupancy.

The airline that was sued by a customer who claimed the AI bot told him he could apply for a bereavement discount after buying tickets. The airline refused him, claiming they are not accountable for what the AI bot says.

I then shared some strategies that every organization should implement before handing customer service off to AI.

Despite these gloomy stories, I was the most popular speaker of the evening. This is sad because if people had used some common sense, I would have never needed to make this presentation.

Are your organization’s members, dealers, or franchisees eager to make AI a big part of their business? Maybe we need to talk.