The majority of businesses are now using AI chatbots to handle customer service questions, but what happens when the bot gets it wrong?
That’s what happened to Alison Gil, who says she turned to a United Airlines chatbot for help understanding a $200 travel credit.
“I thought that I’d get a fast answer. Spelled out exactly what I was looking for,” Gil said.
Gil did get a quick answer. It was just the wrong answer. And it became a big headache.
She wanted to know how long she had to use a $200 United travel credit, and the chatbot told her the credit would remain active for five years.
A screenshot provided by Gil shows the chatbot stating that her $200 TravelBank credit “stays active for 5 years from the date it’s deposited.”
But a few weeks later, she received an email from United warning that her TravelBank cash would expire in a matter of months. The email stated that her $200 credit was set to expire on September 27, 2026.
“I got an automatic email from United. That’s just a reminder of, hey, your travel bank cash expires in a couple months. And I was like, well, that’s not right,” Gil said.
When asked whether United explained the discrepancy between what the chatbot told her and the company’s actual policy, Gil said they did not.
“No, they were just like, well, sorry, the bot told you that, but it’s one year and we can’t change it,” Gil said.
Gil had hoped to save the credit for a larger trip. Instead, she says she learned she had only months to use it before it expired.
“It’s just frustrating that there seems to be no accountability in it. Their chatbot can apparently give out whatever answer it wants,” Gil said.
Online forums contain complaints from other customers who say they received inaccurate information from airline chatbots. One Chicago-area customer posted that a question about a refund fee led a United chatbot to cancel their entire trip.
V.S. Subrahmanian, a professor of computer science at Northwestern University, says mistakes by AI systems are not unexpected.
“We know human operators will make mistakes. We expect AI to make mistakes as well, but there should also be some responsibility for those mistakes,” Subrahmanian said.
Subrahmanian has worked in the AI field for decades and says while chatbots can reduce costs for companies, they often lack important human qualities.
“I think the one thing that chatbots lack, which many humans have, but not all, of course, is the ability to dynamically listen to what you’re saying and tell if it sounds right or not,” Subrahmanian said. “There needs to be some regulatory structure that has some system of checks and balances.”
That brings us back to Gil.
After United apologized for the confusion and told her the travel credit could not be extended, NBC 5 Responds contacted the airline.
We asked United how it handles inaccurate information provided by its chatbots and what it would do to address Gil’s situation.
The airline said its “AI chatbot provided this customer with the wrong information for her situation. Our teams work to correct these issues as quickly as possible when they occur, but we do provide a disclaimer informing customers that information may not always be complete or relevant.”
United also told NBC 5 Responds that the expiration of TravelBank funds varies depending on how the funds were received and acknowledged that its chatbot provided incorrect information in Gil’s case. The airline ultimately provided her with an electronic travel certificate.
After that, United sent Gil a $200 travel certificate for the inconvenience she experienced.
“You guys answered me so quickly. I feel like you took me seriously. I mean you guys seem really willing to help and I appreciate that,” Gil said.
While there are no specific studies measuring the accuracy of AI customer service chatbots, at least two studies of major AI chatbots found roughly half of responses contained errors, misleading information or missing context.
Consumer advocates say that if a chatbot is your only customer service option, it’s smart to save screenshots of the conversation. If the information turns out to be wrong, you’ll have proof.
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