You’ve likely interfaced with an AI chatbot in a customer service setting. In fact, it’ll likely become more common as the AI call centre industry is expected to reach $4.1 billion by 2027. While AI chatbots provide time and cost savings, the use of AI agents in customer interactions isn’t always seamless and can lead to huge risks for brands.
Take one of the most recent examples of Cursor’s AI customer service agent. The chatbot created a fake policy and misled customers after hallucinating, creating rising concerns about the integration of AI agents into customer service.
Here’s what I’ve been telling leaders: customer service is no longer just a support function — it’s a brand differentiator. To truly deliver a memorable AI-powered customer experience, it starts with high-quality content. Why? Because an AI chatbot is only as good as the content it‘s trained on.
This is where content governance comes in, providing a framework to ensure that AI chatbots follow brand policies, guidelines, and tone. As chatbots become the voice of brands in many customer interactions, it’s also essential to make sure they’re saying the right things.
Risks of AI agents powering customer service
AI agents are powerful tools but can also become a liability without a robust compliance framework. Like any AI model, AI chatbots can hallucinate or produce inaccurate information, mishandle customer requests, or fall short of regulatory standards.
It goes beyond a singular, negative customer interaction. From eroding customer trust to creating financial and legal risks from non-compliance, hazards like these degrade your brand and result in severe reputational damage. That’s why compliance is the cornerstone of effective AI-powered customer service.
Why AI chatbots start with compliant content
Chatbots rely on high-quality content. Without it, customer experience falls apart.
As AI-powered chatbots become a norm, there is pressure to ensure CX isn’t being disrupted by AI. Just look at Airbnb. Half of its users in the US are now interacting with an AI agent. But Airbnb also showcases what it takes to get it right — personalisation and proactivity.
To meet this bar, companies need governance. This helps safeguard that everything AI agents are saying is compliant with legal, financial, and brand standards. But it’s also shaping how AI speaks. With oversight, brands guarantee chatbots have the right voice, tone, and terminology when interacting with customers.
For global brands, it’s even getting accurate local translations to serve every region with clarity.
Building a compliance framework
So, where should your company start when getting ready to implement AI for customer service?
The first step is having the right content. Without governed, high-quality input to train chatbots, your customer service will never be optimised. On top of that, apply clear guidelines to every output. This sets standards for tone, clarity, and compliance from day one in all output.
As your AI agent starts interacting with customers, make sure you pay close attention to how they’re doing. Gather feedback, track customer satisfaction, and monitor how AI chatbots impact your key performance indicators. These valuable insights will tell you what’s working, what’s not, and where you need to adjust your approach for better CX outcomes.
Having human oversight for AI agents when integrating them into business operations is a fundamental aspect of any AI strategy. Especially as rogue AI agents are becoming increasingly common. Brands can use AI to scale customer service resources, but people must guide strategy, ensure quality, and step in when a customer interaction takes a bad turn.
Thriving in an AI-powered CX era
Content compliance is the backbone of successful AI-powered customer service. Every brand needs a foundation of strong standards to improve trust, empower self-service, and deliver a consistent experience across every touchpoint.
As AI overruns many customer service tool kits, a robust compliance framework is essential to ensure that every piece of content your chatbot delivers still reflects your brand’s voice and values like a customer service representative would.