Checking AI drafts before they go to a customer

Read the draft against your notes, not against your memory. That's the whole method, and the rest of this page is what to look for when you do it.

Why a check is needed at all

AI drafts read well, and that's the problem. A hallucination is a reply that carries false or misleading information as though it were fact, and chatbots may include plausible-sounding falsehoods such as fabricated citations.¹ Australia's privacy regulator puts it another way: output can be inaccurate yet appear credible.²

A wrong draft doesn't look wrong. So you can't rely on a sense that something's off. You need a routine.

The checklist

Go through these in order. Each pass catches a different kind of slip.

Facts against your notes. Compare the draft with the booking, work order or estimate it's based on. Check the car, the job, the day, the time and the location. Check the workshop's name, address and phone number, since a tool may swap in a plausible one.

Every number. Prices, totals, dates, times, opening hours, reference numbers. Tick each against the source. Don't trust a figure because it's been rounded sensibly.

Anything added. Look for sentences you didn't ask for. Common extras are a warranty line, a discount, a promise about timing, a part you never listed, or a reassurance about the repair. If you didn't supply it, delete it.

Promises. "We'll call you this afternoon." "Done by Friday." Can your shop keep that? If not, cut it or change it.

Anything about the car's condition. The draft shouldn't say what's wrong, what's safe, or what could happen if the work waits. That belongs to a technician who has seen the car, and it doesn't belong in a drafted message at all. Remove it.

Names and personal details. Is the customer's name right? Did a placeholder survive, or a name from an earlier prompt?

Legal and money wording. If the draft mentions rights, refunds, tax, privacy or warranties, take it out unless the wording comes from an official page or your own terms. Tool-written legal wording is a guess. For rules in your country, go to your consumer, tax or privacy regulator.

Tone. Read it aloud. Would you say it across the counter? Strip the gushing opening, extra exclamation marks and stock phrases like "please don't hesitate to reach out".

Clarity. Government plain language guidance wants clear, easy reading.³ Does the reader know what's happening and what they need to do? Aim for one next step, near the end, in one sentence.

What stays out of the prompt

The check starts before the draft does. Look at whether a customer's name, number or plate went into the prompt. The Australian privacy regulator advises against putting personal information into publicly available generative AI tools.² If you did it, note it and stop. Rules vary by country, so look up your own regulator.

Who checks

Someone who knows the job. The person who wrote the prompt is the weakest checker, because they already know what the message was meant to say and their eye slides over gaps. If there's a second pair of eyes in the office, use them for anything with a price in it.

Keep the habit even when the draft is short. A two-line text is where "Thursday" quietly turns into "Tuesday".

Keep a record

Send from your own email or messaging account, so the message is saved where you can find it. If a customer disputes what was said, you want the actual text, not a memory of what the tool produced.

If you've sent something wrong, correct it quickly and plainly. A short follow-up giving the right time beats hoping nobody noticed.

Where it fits

This check applies to every message type on this site: booking inquiry replies, estimate wording, reminders and pickup notices. For the bigger picture of what to hand to the tool and what to keep, see the front desk overview.