Who is liable if an AI voice agent says something wrong to a customer?
The business that deploys the agent is generally liable to the customer. Under the Consumer Protection Act 2019, a wrong price, false promise or misleading claim made on your behalf can be an unfair trade practice or deficiency in service, whether a person or an AI said it. Your contract with the AI vendor can allocate risk between the two of you, but it does not change your responsibility to the customer.
Why the business carries it
Indian consumer law looks at what the customer was told by the business, not at the tool that said it. The Consumer Protection Act 2019 covers misleading representations, unfair trade practices and deficiency in service, and the Central Consumer Protection Authority can act on misleading advertisements. An AI agent speaking for your brand is your representative.
Tribunals abroad have taken the same view. In Moffatt v. Air Canada (2024), a Canadian tribunal held the airline responsible for wrong refund information its website chatbot gave a customer and rejected the argument that the chatbot was a separate entity.
How mistakes happen on AI calls
- —Hallucination: the model fills a gap with a confident but invented answer, such as a discount or a delivery date.
- —Stale knowledge: prices, stock or offers changed and the knowledge base did not.
- —Over-promising: a script that pushes hard for closure leads the agent to agree to anything.
- —Mishearing: a number, date or name captured wrongly.
Controls that reduce the risk
- —Give the agent a tight knowledge base and tell it to say 'let me have the team confirm that' when unsure.
- —Ban price, discount and guarantee commitments unless they come from a live source.
- —Review transcripts weekly, especially calls with negative sentiment.
- —Send a written confirmation by WhatsApp so errors surface early.
How Outpero fits
Every Outpero call produces a recording, transcript, summary and sentiment, so a wrong statement can be found and corrected quickly. The agent can read live data from a spreadsheet or your API, which keeps prices and availability current.
Liability depends on the facts and the contracts involved. Have counsel review your terms with customers and with your AI vendor.
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