Using AI to help you with your complaint

Understanding the problems that using AI can cause and what to do if you decide to use it

We know people may worry that, if they use their own words, their complaint might not be understood or taken seriously. We have seen an increase in people turning to AI to help them present their concerns.

However, AI can cause its own problems, because it:

  • can make mistakes
  • makes problems much larger and complex than they need to be
  • can introduce facts that are not correct
  • can refer to laws and regulations that do not exist, or misinterpret those that do
  • can mask people’s vulnerabilities

In some cases people have not understood their complaint response because the genuine concerns in their complaint got lost in the AI-assisted version.

The best way to communicate a complaint

We prefer to hear from our residents directly, in their own words, about how they have been affected. Complaints written in simple and clear terms, will always be quicker and easier to understand, and to reply to. However, if we do not understand what you mean in your complaint, we will get in touch to ensure we understand the problem. All complaints are considered equally on merit, whether they are written or submitted.

If you need help, or are not sure about something, email complaints@croydon.gov.uk and one of our expert Complaints team will get back to you.

Using AI

If you do want to use AI to support you please bear the following in mind:

  • It’s your complaint, so it’s important you read it through carefully to ensure it is accurate before you submit it to us
  • Focus on you and your experiences, and the impact they had on you
  • By using an AI tool generally available over the internet, you may be sharing sensitive personal information which might be used to train that AI system or be processed overseas
  • Consider using one of our suggested AI Complaint Prompts (PDF, 70KB)
  • If we receive an AI-assisted complaint (or subsequent related correspondence) that is overly long or complex, we may ask you to resubmit it in a different form, or we may decide to produce a concise statement of complaint for you to approve

If we need more time to understand an AI-assisted complaint or related correspondence, the formal procedure and timescale will not commence until this is resolved.