AI chatbots masquerade as human staff, block consumer access to real agents
AI chatbots deployed by Chinese ticket, delivery, and retail companies reportedly provide scripted answers that fail to resolve consumer problems and block access to human agents. A Jiangsu consumer survey found 71% reported chatbots giving irrelevant responses and 24% reported being unable to reach human support, prompting concerns that companies are using AI to avoid customer service obligations.
What happened
Multiple consumers reported that AI chatbots deployed by ticket booking platforms, delivery services, telecom companies, and online retailers provided scripted, irrelevant responses that failed to resolve issues. When consumers requested to speak with human agents, they encountered significant delays or found human customer service was unavailable or difficult to access.
One consumer reported attempting to contact human support for five hours to resolve a ticket purchase problem, repeating her inquiry multiple times but receiving only generic automated responses. Another consumer reported being unable to reach a human agent when attempting to change a delivery address, instead continuing to interact with the AI system. A journalist testing 20 online retail vendors found that 12 shops used AI-only customer service.
Reported impact
According to a Jiangsu Consumer Council survey, 71.2% of consumers reported AI chatbots giving irrelevant answers or lack of intelligence in responses, and 23.6% reported being unable to reach human agents or experiencing service runaround. Consumers expressed frustration at being unable to determine whether they were communicating with humans or machines, and complained about service cutoffs after brief waiting periods.
Index analysis
Experts attributed the communication failures partly to the immaturity of AI customer service technology, which struggles with complex language and emotional expression, and to insufficient or inaccurate training data. Some companies were reported to deliberately obscure human customer service contact options or make human agents difficult to reach to reduce labor costs, a practice some legal experts characterized as infringing consumer rights.
Governance controls
A lawyer specializing in consumer protection stated that if companies deliberately hide human customer service or obstruct consumers from contacting human agents, causing consumer rights to be harmed, consumers have the right to file complaints with consumer protection authorities and seek compensation. Experts noted that while cost reduction through AI adoption is reasonable, enterprises should respect consumer choice and improve service quality rather than using AI to avoid after-sales responsibilities.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.