Start with a sheet, not a tool
An assistant or a new hire answers from whatever you give them. Write the answers once, from your own policy and product pages, with the source beside every line. Where two pages disagree, decide which is right before anything else.
- One line per answer, with its source page.
- A list of questions that always go to a person.
- A note of where your own pages disagree.
Say what is answering, and keep money with a person
A tribunal held an airline to what its website chatbot said, whether the words came from a page or a chatbot. That decision does not bind anyone outside Canada, but the reasoning is plain: you answer for your website. Say when an automated system is answering, and send refunds, photo claims and legal threats to a person.
Test it before a customer does
This is an authored method, not a platform rule. Take 20 real questions from past tickets, with names and order numbers removed, and write 20 more. Make 10 of the 40 questions that must go to a person, and check all 10 are handed over and no answer states a refund, price or deadline that is not in your sheet.
Which paid job fits
The answer sheet job writes the sheet and runs the 40-question test. The chat assistant job sets one up on a test store with a notice, hand-over rules and a log. The monthly re-check keeps the sheet current; none of them sends a reply or issues a refund.
Sources and limits
- McCarthy Tetrault: Moffatt v. Air Canada, a misrepresentation by an AI chatbot Checked 2026-10-12.
- A Canadian tribunal held an airline liable for wrong information its website chatbot gave a customer, and said it makes no difference whether information comes from a static page or a chatbot. It is a tribunal decision, so not binding elsewhere.
- Shopify Community: during BFCM, is it the support bill or the AI's accuracy that breaks first Checked 2026-10-12.
- A poster on 27 Sep 2026 says a confident wrong answer costs more than an extra ticket, and suggests freezing a short truth sheet the bot may trust, with shipping cutoffs and return windows, before volume spikes.
- A poster on 8 Oct 2026 describes, as a general pattern with no case named, a bot that approved a refund on a damage claim, so the money leaves before anyone checks the image.
- Shopify Community: what's a time AI support gave a confident wrong answer Checked 2026-10-12.
- A poster on 8 Oct 2026 says any refund request that includes an image goes to a person first.
- A poster on 5 Oct 2026 describes an AI answer that was confident but based on an out of date cache of the store.
- EU AI Act, Article 50: transparency obligations Checked 2026-10-12.
- Article 50 of the EU AI Act says people must be informed that they are interacting with an AI system, unless this is obvious to a reasonably attentive person. Whether it applies to your store is for your adviser.