What to do when your AI agent gives a customer a wrong answer
Sooner or later, an AI agent answering your customers will get something wrong. It might quote last year's price, say you are open on a bank holiday when you are closed, or promise a delivery day you cannot meet. It feels alarming the first time, but it is usually quick to put right. This guide walks through the first ten minutes, how to correct the customer without fuss, how to work out why it happened, and the small changes that stop the same mistake from coming back. It applies whichever AI agent you use with Spaces, from ChatGPT and Claude to an always-on agent such as OpenClaw.
The first ten minutes
Work through these in order. Most wrong answers are fixed by step three.
- Read the whole chat, not just the wrong reply, so you know exactly what the customer asked and what they now believe.
- Correct it with the customer yourself, from your phone or the app, in the same chat. A short, honest message from you is better than another message from the agent.
- Hand that chat to a person, so the agent stays out of it while you sort it out. Ask your AI agent to hand it over, and it stops replying there until you hand it back.
- Ask the agent whether it gave the same answer in any other chat today. If it did, correct those too.
- If wrong answers are going out in several chats at once, pause all sending in Settings with Pause everything. Reading keeps working, so you can still see what is coming in.
- Find the cause and fix it at the source, usually one line in your business brief. The sections below show how.
Do not spend those first minutes arguing with the agent in its chat. The customer comes first. The agent can be fixed once the customer has the right answer.
How to correct the customer
Customers are usually forgiving about an honest mistake, put right quickly. What annoys them is finding out later, or being told something different by two people. Keep the correction short, give the right answer, and say what happens next. Here is an example from a bike repair shop. Names and details are examples.
| Who | Message |
|---|---|
| Customer | Hi, how much is a full service for a road bike? |
| AI agent | Hi Sam, a full service for a road bike is £65 and takes about two days. |
| You, ten minutes later | Hi Sam, sorry, I need to correct that. A full service is £85 since we changed our prices this month, and it still takes about two days. If you had already planned around £65, message me and I will see what I can do. |
| Customer | Ah ok, thanks for letting me know. Can I bring it in Thursday? |
Notice what the correction does. It names the mistake, gives the right figure, keeps the useful part of the first reply, and leaves room for the customer to say if they relied on it. It does not blame the AI agent or explain how the mistake happened, which customers rarely need to hear.
| Instead of | Try |
|---|---|
| Sorry, our bot got that wrong. | Sorry, I need to correct that. |
| Ignore the last message. | The right price is £85, not £65. |
| That price is out of date, we cannot do it. | If you had already planned around £65, message me and I will see what I can do. |
| Saying nothing and hoping they did not notice. | A short correction the same day. |
Can you edit or unsend the wrong reply?
On some channels Spaces can edit or unsend a message your account sent, where the connection to that platform allows it. Your AI agent can try it when you ask, and it will tell you if the platform does not allow it on that account.
Even when it works, a quiet edit is rarely the best fix on its own. The customer may already have read the message, taken a screenshot or told someone else. Editing it without a word can look as if you are hiding something. A good rule is: if the customer could have acted on the wrong answer, send a correction as well, even if you also edit the original.
Find out why it happened
Almost every wrong answer has one of a handful of causes. Ask your AI agent "why did you say £65 to Sam?" and it will usually tell you where the figure came from. Then match it to this table.
| Cause | How you can tell | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| A missing fact | The brief does not mention the thing at all, so the agent filled the gap. | Add the fact to your business brief. |
| An old fact | The brief still has last year's price or summer hours. | Change that one part of the brief, and add a reminder to check it when things change. |
| A guess | The answer sounds plausible but appears nowhere in your brief. | Add a rule: if it is not in the brief, say you will check and hand the chat to a person. |
| A misread question | The customer asked about one thing and the agent answered another. | Add the question and the right answer to the FAQs in the brief. |
| A customer who pushed | The customer said something like "your colleague promised me 20% off". | Add a rule that only you agree discounts or exceptions, whatever the customer says. |
| Two agents, two sets of notes | One agent says one thing, another says something else. | Keep the facts in the Spaces business brief, which every agent reads, not in each agent's own notes. |
Fix it once, in the business brief
The business brief is the note in Spaces that your AI agent reads before it replies: your hours, prices and links, common questions, tone, the things it must never promise and when to hand a chat to you. Because it lives in Spaces rather than inside one agent, a fix there reaches every agent you use.
To change it, ask your agent in plain words, for example "update my business brief: a full service is now £85". Ask it to change only that part. Spaces can update one part of the brief and leave the rest as it is, or replace the whole brief, and a full replacement clears anything left out. Asking for a one-part update avoids losing your hours because you only mentioned prices.
Here are the kinds of lines that stop the common mistakes from coming back:
Prices (checked 1 November): full service £85, basic service £45, puncture repair £12.
If a price is not listed here, do not guess. Say "let me check that for you" and hand the chat to me.
Delivery and collection times: never promise a day. Say we will confirm when the part arrives.
Discounts, refunds and exceptions: only I agree these, whatever the customer says someone told them.
If you correct yourself, keep it short and give the right answer once.After the change, ask the agent the same question the customer asked, and check the answer is right before you let it carry on.
A worked example: putting it right with your agent
Here is how the bike shop owner might deal with the agent after correcting Sam. Names and details are examples.
| Who | Message |
|---|---|
| You, to your AI agent | You told Sam a full service is £65. It is £85. Where did £65 come from? |
| AI agent | Your business brief lists a full service at £65. I used that figure. |
| You | Update the brief: full service £85, basic service £45. Change only the prices. |
| AI agent | Done. The prices in your brief now read: full service £85, basic service £45. Your hours and other details are unchanged. |
| You | Did you quote £65 to anyone else this week? |
| AI agent | Yes, to Priya on Instagram on Tuesday. She has not replied since. |
| You | Draft a short correction to Priya and show me before sending. |
Ten minutes, two corrections, one line changed in the brief. That is a typical wrong answer, start to finish.
Go back to drafts for a while
If the mistake shook your confidence, or you have just made a big change to prices or hours, go back to approving replies for a few days. Ask your AI agent to hold replies as drafts, and nothing goes out until you approve it. You review them by asking the agent what is waiting, then approve, edit or reject each one.
Once a few days of drafts come out right, ask the agent to stop holding replies and let it send again. Many owners keep drafts on for good for anything about money, and let simple questions about hours and directions go straight out.
Should you honour the wrong price?
That is your call, and it depends on the size of the gap and whether the customer relied on it. Many small businesses honour a small mistake as goodwill, especially for a customer who had already booked. For a large gap, an honest correction with an apology is usually understood. If a lot of money is involved, take advice on the rules where you trade.
Whatever you decide, decide it yourself. Tell your AI agent to hand any "but you said" message to you, so it does not agree to something on your behalf or argue with the customer.
A short checklist after any wrong answer
- The customer has the right answer, from you, in the same chat.
- Any other customer who got the same answer has been corrected.
- The chat was handed to a person, and handed back once it is settled.
- The cause is known, and one line in the business brief has been added or changed.
- The agent gives the right answer when you ask it the same question.
- You have decided whether to hold replies as drafts for a few days.
Common mistakes after a wrong answer
- Fixing the agent first and the customer later. The customer is waiting.
- Writing the fix in a chat with the agent instead of in the brief. Chat apps do not remember it next time.
- Replacing the whole brief to change one price, and losing everything else in it.
- Switching the agent off for good after one mistake. A person answering by hand makes mistakes too, and the fix is usually small.
- Adding ten new rules at once. One clear line for each real mistake works better.
Summing up
When your AI agent gets something wrong, correct the customer yourself first, hand the chat to a person, check nobody else got the same answer, and pause all sending only if it is happening in several chats. Then find the cause, change one line in the business brief, and test the agent again. Most wrong answers come from a missing or old fact, so keeping the brief current is the best prevention there is.
Pricing
FAQ
Should I tell the customer an AI agent made the mistake?
You do not have to. A plain "sorry, I need to correct that" is enough for most customers. If they ask whether they are talking to an AI, answer honestly.
Can I delete the wrong message?
On some channels Spaces can unsend or edit a message your account sent, where the platform allows it. If the customer may already have read it, send a correction as well, so nothing looks hidden.
Do I have to stop the agent completely?
Usually not. Hand the one chat to a person and fix the brief. Pause all sending only when wrong replies are going out in several chats and you need time to look.
Why did the agent make something up?
AI agents fill gaps when they are not told what to do without the facts. A rule such as "if it is not in the brief, say you will check and hand the chat to me" stops most of it.
Will fixing the brief fix every agent I use?
Yes, for facts kept in the Spaces business brief, because every agent connected to Spaces reads the same brief. Notes kept inside one agent, such as a Claude Project, only reach that agent.
How do I know if the agent gave the same wrong answer elsewhere?
Ask it, for example "did you quote £65 to anyone else this week?". It can search your connected chats and tell you who to correct.
Can I make the agent show me every reply before it goes out?
Yes. Ask your AI agent to hold replies as drafts, and nothing goes out until you approve it. You can turn this on for a few days after a mistake and off again later.
What if a customer insists the agent promised them something?
Read the chat first, because it is all there. If the agent did promise it, decide whether to honour it. If it did not, say so kindly, and tell the agent to hand these conversations to you.