AI-only support hemorrhages customers before it saves money

Tombstone icon
Oct 2025

Acquire BPO’s AI in Customer Service survey found 70% of U.S. consumers would bolt to a rival after just one bad chatbot interaction and 72% only buy when a live agent safety net exists, even as CMSWire reports enterprises poured $47 billion into AI projects in early 2025 alone... which delivered almost no return. CX strategists now warn executives that "Air Canada–style" hallucinations, mounting legal liability, and empathy gaps make AI-only helpdesks awful for customer-churn unless humans stay in the loop.

Incident Details

Perpetrator:Executive
Severity:Facepalm
Blast Radius:Customer churn, wasted automation budgets, and tribunal-tested liability for brands that replace human support with hallucination-prone bots.

Tech Stack

Generative AI chatbotsAgentic contact center automationSentiment analysis routingAI role-play simulators

References