According to CCTV News, the first national standard in China on the collaborative mechanism between human and AI customer service, "Requirements for Collaboration between Human and Intelligent Customer Service in Customer Contact Services," will take effect on September 1st. It aims to regulate consumer pain points such as AI customer service providing irrelevant answers, hidden human customer service channels, and inconsistencies between AI and human responses.
Currently, many platforms use AI customer service to reduce labor costs. Some companies even hide the human customer service access points, leading to mechanical responses from AI when dealing with complex disputes. Issues such as unauthorized transaction operations by AI and subsequent rejection of AI's proposed solutions by human agents have emerged. Data from the China Consumers Association shows that after-sales service complaints accounted for 26.79% of total complaints this year, with AI customer service making false commitments and difficulty in accessing human customer service becoming prominent issues. Industry professionals said that AI customer service can save enterprises more than 70% of customer service labor costs.
The new national standard clearly defines the service scope and collaboration mechanism between human and AI customer service. It requires clear human customer service access points, which should not be hidden in layers. It also calls for reasonable division of labor based on the complexity of the issue, with simple inquiries handled by AI and complex disputes promptly transferred to human agents. Additionally, it improves the human-machine switching mechanism to prevent consumers from repeatedly describing their issues, and the system should automatically transfer to a human agent once certain conditions are met.
Although this standard is a recommended national standard and does not directly constitute grounds for legal penalties, it will become an important reference for industry service quality. With the large-scale application of AI customer service, the industry is shifting from merely pursuing cost reduction and efficiency enhancement to also focusing on service experience, responsibility boundaries, and consumer rights protection.
