An AI tool we integrated into our customer routing process made a major mistake that frustrated a key client. How do we run this issue through our weekly IDS process to solve the root cause permanently instead of just turning the AI tool off in a panic?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a new technology fails, the natural human reaction is to panic, blame the tool, and revert to old manual ways. This is a mistake. Technology failures must be treated exactly like human performance issues. You must run them through your weekly IDS process to identify and solve the root cause permanently.

Start with the Identify step. Do not just say the AI is broken. Dig deep to find the root cause of the error. Did the AI fail because of a bad prompt, unstructured source data, or a lack of human oversight?

During the Discuss step, look at your Accountability Chart. Who owns the seat responsible for managing this AI tool? If the human seat owner failed to audit the AI's output, then the issue is a process compliance problem, not a technology problem. Ensure everyone is on the same page regarding where the human handoff should have occurred.

Finally, solve the issue by updating your core process documentation. If the AI routing tool made a mistake because a customer request fell outside its normal parameters, update the system logic to automatically flag unusual requests for immediate human review. By addressing the failure with structured problem solving rather than panic, you strengthen your systems and prevent the same mistake from ever happening again.