AI Is Fueling A Flood Of Customer Complaints. Is That A Bad Thing?

Until recently, plenty of people with perfectly legitimate complaints never bothered to make them. They didn’t know where to start, couldn’t face writing a formal letter or simply didn’t have the time. Now they can ask ChatGPT to do it for them in seconds.

And ChatGPT, it turns out, is very good at complaining. Perhaps a little too good.

What might once have been a polite email asking for a refund can now become a 20-page legal masterpiece, complete with references to consumer protection laws, court judgments and regulations that may or may not exist.

For consumers, AI is making it easier than ever to stand up for their rights. For businesses, it’s creating a growing headache.

The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has recorded a fivefold increase in annual complaints since ChatGPT launched in 2022. AI won’t account for all of that increase, but it’s certainly making complaining easier.

And complaints are getting longer, too. What might once have been a one-page letter can now stretch to 20 pages or more, stuffed with examples, legal arguments and citations that may be irrelevant or entirely invented by AI.

For businesses, particularly those legally required to investigate and respond to complaints, this creates a significant administrative burden.

But there’s another side to the story. AI is empowering people who previously struggled to express themselves or navigate complicated complaints procedures. And surely that’s a good thing.

So how should businesses respond to this flood of AI-generated complaints? And how can consumers make sure their genuine grievances don’t get lost in a sea of AI slop?

Why Is There A Flood Of AI Complaints, And What’s The Problem?

It’s easy to see why people turn to AI when they have a complaint.

Many of us struggle with the dreaded blank page. We know something has gone wrong, but putting our frustration into words, explaining what happened and making a convincing case can be surprisingly difficult.

But there’s a catch.