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When an agent invents policy: the Air Canada lesson
By Prof. Abhik Roychoudhury, Co-founder & Chief Expert, Verigrey · Provost's Chair Professor, NUS · ACM Fellow1 min readUpdated
A court held an airline liable for its chatbot’s invented refund rule. What that precedent means for every enterprise deploying agents.
In a widely cited ruling, a tribunal held an airline responsible for a refund policy its support chatbot fabricated mid-conversation — the company argued the chatbot was "a separate legal entity," and lost. The agent’s words were treated as the company’s words.
The precedent matters well beyond airlines: any agent empowered to state policy, pricing, or commitments to a customer is a liability surface, and "we didn’t know it would say that" is no longer a viable defense. We cover what evidence regulators and courts are starting to expect before an agent goes live.