Customer-Facing AI: Authority and Human Judgment
What should customer-facing AI be allowed to do?
Customer-facing AI needs clear limits on the decisions it can influence, the actions it can take and the information it may use. A person responsible for a consequential decision needs the evidence, time and authority to challenge it. Before expanding AI’s role, establish how the customer can question an outcome and who can correct it.
Match the authority to the customer’s request.
AI may help a customer compare products, select an offer or complete a purchase. Decide which steps it can take independently and where the customer or an employee must approve a commitment. The permissions should reflect what the customer asked it to do.
The boundary should be clear to the customer and the people supporting them. Expanding the task, changing a commitment or using additional information can require a new approval.
Human review needs the power to change the answer.
A person can be formally responsible while having little practical ability to challenge an AI recommendation. If the evidence is hidden, the queue allows no time for review or the employee cannot override the result, the decision is effectively automated.
For consequential customer decisions, preserve a review that can change the outcome. The leadership choice includes who has that authority and what they need to exercise it.
From my writing: The Agent Can Build the Case. It Still Can’t Own the Decision..
Agree on the way back before granting more authority.
The business should be able to explain what AI did, identify who can stop further action and put a wrong outcome right. Customers need a route to someone who can act on a challenge. Giving AI more authority is a decision about the business’s ability to support its actions, including the difficult ones.
Related questions.
AI investment
Which AI investments deserve backing?AI performance
Why are customers still struggling?Business readiness
Can we deliver what AI promises?Bring your customer-facing AI decision.
You may be evaluating an investment in a buying or service journey, questioning a proposed approach or deciding what should happen next. Bring the business context. We’ll establish whether working together would be useful.