Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping how organisations interact with the people they serve. That’s certainly true in the world of complaints – both in how individuals raise concerns and in how organisations respond to them. What used to be a slow, paper-heavy, emotionally draining process is becoming faster, more consistent, and in some cases more empowering. But these changes also raise new questions about fairness, transparency and the human touch.

At what point during the previous paragraph did you stop and wonder whether I’d used AI to write it? I’d love to say the common quirks of AI use – the classic dash and the three-point list – are giveaways, but as you’ll see below, I often use them in my own writing.

The truth is I did ask AI to write that paragraph for me, but could have easily written it myself, which is why it is so unnerving. For all of the glaring errors, slightly off nuances and hallucinated events AI can deliver, it can also be alarmingly convincing.

It’s undeniably true we are all already seeing the impact and use of AI in our daily lives. We can debate the good and the bad, but it is here and we have to deal with it. That’s certainly the case in our work in dealing with complaints about legal services.

We know complaints are reaching us now where someone has asked AI to help them write it. Sometimes that’s helpful, aiding someone anxious or upset to order and set down thoughts clearly. Less helpfully, it can mask their own words – which are what we need to hear – with unnecessary, sometimes incorrect legal jargon. We’ve also seen complaints about the use of AI by lawyers and there’s a lively debate about the potential benefits and risks of using AI in legal services.

Organisations in every field are thinking about how AI might help them improve their productivity, efficiency and potentially their insight and decision-making. With complaint numbers rising, we’re certainly asking ourselves where AI tools might help us manage and better understand that demand. That has to be balanced with the well-understood risks of AI and important safeguards and protections for the confidential information people share with us.

Ultimately, the benefit of any tool is to support and free up human capacity for the tasks only a human can perform. We believe using AI could aid our customer service if it helps us be more efficient, but good customer service is about people feeling listened to and respected. AI’s ability to analyse large datasets and detect patterns and root causes could provide more insight into what drives complaints but might not tell us what would help support services to improve.

If AI can help us to manage routine tasks and provide insight, it will be genuinely helpful to us and our customers. That leaves humans to handle empathy, judgment and complex decision-making. If it helps consumers express themselves that can only be a good thing, but we’ll still be listening to the person behind the words.

AI is reshaping our lives and our world. But like any technology it must be used thoughtfully. Complaints are, at their core, about people – people who feel let down, frustrated, or unheard.

AI can support the process, but it cannot replace the empathy, accountability and human judgment that define a fair and compassionate complaints system. We want to realise the benefits it brings while protecting the things that really matter to us and our customers.

Vicky Crichton is director of public policy at the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission. This article first appeared in The Scotsman.