In recent years, mainland Chinese companies have been increasingly utilizing AI customer service, resulting in consumers facing issues such as irrelevant responses, repetitive replies, and difficulty in locating human contact points. In the first half of this year, AI customer service has become a new hotspot for consumer complaints; after making commitments or promises through AI customer service, businesses often refuse to fulfill them by citing “AI responses do not represent the company’s stance.”
According to reports from mainland Chinese media on August 26, AI customer service, which was supposed to save time, often provides “random responses,” failing to provide effective answers to complex issues such as returns, refunds, fee disputes, and liability determination.
The General Administration of Market Regulation of the Chinese Communist Party previously announced that in 2024, there was a 56.3% year-on-year increase in complaints related to intelligent customer service in the e-commerce sector, reaching 6,969 cases. Consumers mainly reported issues with AI providing irrelevant responses, difficulties in reaching human customer service, and low communication efficiency.
Data released by the Chinese Consumers’ Association showed that in the first half of 2026, consumer organizations at all levels in mainland China collectively received around 985,900 complaints, with after-sales service issues accounting for 26.79%. Responsible officials at the Chinese Consumers’ Association also acknowledged that false promises by AI customer service, difficulties in reaching human customer service, and inaccuracies in generated content have become new focal points of complaints.
In May of this year, a consumer blindly followed the advice of an AI assistant on ticket modifications and cancellations, only to be charged a 40% processing fee amounting to hundreds of yuan after actual operation. Another consumer seeking legal consultation through AI received not only erroneous legal guidance but also a non-enforceable “compensation commitment letter.”
Before paying a deposit of 2,000 yuan on a second-hand car platform, a consumer received a clear statement from the platform’s official AI customer service “Xiao Gua” that the purchase price of 28,700 yuan already included transfer and licensing fees; however, during the transaction, the salesperson demanded an additional 1,000 yuan. Contradictory statements between the platform’s AI and staff led to disputes.
In similar disputes, some businesses use the excuse that AI customer service is not equivalent to human customer service and that their responses do not represent the company’s stance, thereby refusing to fulfill previously made commitments related to fees or after-sales responsibilities, consequently increasing consumer rights protection costs.
Reports by mainland Chinese media stated that one of the significant reasons why businesses continue to rely on intelligent customer service is the lower cost compared to human customer service. Customer service often involves a large number of repetitive tasks such as returns, address changes, and order inquiries, leading to higher costs if entirely dependent on human resources.
However, the capabilities of intelligent customer service are still limited. Early systems heavily relied on keywords and fixed phrases, making it easy for them to provide irrelevant responses when consumers slightly deviate from the preset patterns. Although later improvements in semantic recognition and intent classification have been made, issues without prior training may still cause setbacks.
Currently, AI customer service is better suited for handling standardized scenarios such as order inquiries, logistics tracking, appointment rescheduling, and fee explanations, but when facing issues like refund disputes, complaint handling, liability allocation, fund security, and compensation, verification of materials and judgment are often required, tasks that AI struggles to complete independently.
More than inaccurate responses by AI, consumers are more irritated by the inability to reach human customer service. In an effort to cut costs and increase customer service thresholds, some companies even eliminate human customer service altogether, resulting in users being caught in repetitive scripts and ineffective menus.
A collaborative standard for human and intelligent customer service in China is set to be implemented on September 1st, but this standard is only recommendatory and not mandatory, nor can it be used as direct grounds for punishment.
Under related discussions, some internet users express that “asking for human assistance” has become the “most difficult-to-trigger curse on the whole internet.” Others have reported waiting almost 50 minutes for human customer service, only to be notified after their turn that service hours have ended. Some netizens also mention that AI merely repeats the same scripts, stating, “problems remain unresolved for hours, even up to half a month.”