Is Your AI Being Scammed by Your Customers?
PLUS, a tool that claims to be a “zero maintenance” agent for your team.
📅 December 1, 2025 | ⏱️ 4 min read
Good morning.
A lot of leaders are worried about their AI hallucinating. But the real danger right now might be that your AI is too trusting. Today we’re looking at a disturbing new trend where customers are using their own AI to weaponize your support policies, and why the “set and forget” mentality is becoming a liability.
Here’s what you need to know today.
🕵️ The Rise of AI-Assisted Refund Fraud
A new OSINT report highlights a growing crisis where customers are using generative AI to create fake photographic “evidence” (like damaged products) to bypass refund policies on platforms like Swiggy Instamart. Support bots, trained to value speed over scrutiny, are automatically issuing refunds based on these fabricated images.
This is a race to the bottom. Your support agents are being outsmarted by your customers’ tools. If you are optimizing your AI solely for “resolution time” without building for “verification,” you aren’t just automating efficiency—you are automating theft. The next phase of CX isn’t just service; it’s security
📉 The “Set and Forget” Failure
New analysis identifies the “product vs. project” mindset as a top failure point, noting that organizations are launching AI solutions and then neglecting the necessary weekly tuning.
This is the unsexy work that nobody wants to do. Everyone wants the launch party; nobody wants the maintenance meeting. If you don’t have a dedicated team reviewing your AI’s performance metrics every single week, you don’t have a strategy—you have a decaying asset that will eventually embarrass you.
🔮 From Reactive to Proactive
A new forecast from Infobip predicts a fundamental shift in 2026 where AI transitions from a “support role” to a “proactive force,” anticipating customer needs before they even reach out.
Stop designing for better ticket resolution. The goal is ticket prevention. The winners of the next cycle won’t be the ones with the best chatbots; they will be the ones whose customers never have to type “help” in the first place because the system acted first.
🛒 The 805% Black Friday Traffic Surge
New data from Adobe Analytics reveals that AI-driven traffic to retail sites surged by a massive 805% this Black Friday compared to last year, driving a record $11.8 billion in sales.
This is the tipping point. Consumers aren’t just “chatting” with AI; they are using it to navigate the economy. If your CX strategy treats AI as a “support tool” rather than a “discovery engine,” you are invisible to the fastest-growing segment of buyers.
🛠️ Tool of the Day: Hyro
Hyro is an adaptive AI communications platform for enterprise and healthcare that replaces rigid, scripted chatbots with a system that learns from a “knowledge graph.”
The biggest hidden cost of AI is maintenance. Hyro’s promise of “zero maintenance” through self-updating knowledge graphs challenges the old model of constant manual training. It represents a shift from “scripted” interactions to truly “adaptive” ones.
📊 DCX AI Data Stat
New data reveals that healthcare workers are twice as likely to be optimistic (49%) about AI integrations in their workflow than they are to be pessimistic (24%).
The narrative that “employees fear AI” is crumbling. The resistance isn’t coming from the frontline—they are drowning in work and desperate for help. The hesitation is often coming from leadership that is too afraid to disrupt the status quo.
The Signal
The news today confirms that simply “having a bot” is now a liability, whether it’s because customers are scamming it, or because it’s decaying from a lack of maintenance. The signal is clear: AI is not a project you finish; it is a relationship you manage.
Your 1-Minute Action Plan
Ask your Head of Support this uncomfortable question: “If a customer sends a photo to our bot to claim a refund, what mechanism verifies that the photo is real?” If the answer is “we don’t know,” you have a vulnerability.
☕ Reader Poll
What is the biggest risk to your AI strategy right now?
Fraud/Security (Customers tricking the AI)
Decay (Lack of maintenance/updates)
Adoption (Employees not using it)
Privacy (Data handling concerns)
(I’ll share the results tomorrow!)
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