How does AI drafting of review replies work?
The tool receives the review text plus context you supply: a voice guide, the services you offer, the policies you follow and phrases you never use. It produces a draft, a person edits and approves it, and the approved reply is posted. The AI can be a general chat tool such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot or Google Gemini, a feature inside review software, or part of a managed service. The quality of the draft depends heavily on the context it is given. A tool that only sees the review text will write a polite reply that could sit under any business.
Where do AI drafts go wrong?
Generative AI produces text that reads well whether or not it is true. The OAIC notes that AI systems are known to produce inaccurate or false results, and that the risk is especially high with generative AI. In review replies, the errors fall into a short list, which makes them practical to check for. Read every draft for the problems below before you look at tone. Each of them is quick to spot when the approver knows to look for it.
- Invented facts, such as a callback that never happened or a policy you do not have.
- Commitments nobody authorised, such as refunds, discounts or a free return visit.
- Personal details repeated from the review, or added from context you pasted in.
- The same opening and closing lines under every review.
- A cheerful tone under a review describing a distressing experience.
- Sarcasm read as praise, or a mixed review answered as if it were wholly positive.
What information should stay out of the AI tool?
The OAIC says privacy obligations apply to personal information entered into an AI system and to output that contains personal information. As best practice, it recommends that organisations do not enter personal information, and particularly sensitive information, into publicly available generative AI tools. For review replies, the practical rule is to give the tool the public review text and general facts about the business, and nothing from customer records: no booking notes, account history, health details or payment information. If you use a business tool with contractual data protections, check its settings and terms, and record the decision.
What should the approver check in an AI draft?
The approver is the main safeguard in AI drafting. Their job is to compare the draft with what actually happened and with what the business is willing to commit to. Google's reply tips add useful checks: keep replies short and relevant, avoid promotions in replies and never share a reviewer's private information. Work through the list below for every draft, then read it once more as the next customer would, and only then approve it for publishing.
- Every fact matches your records, checked privately.
- Every offer or commitment is one the business has agreed to.
- No detail appears that the reviewer did not post publicly.
- The reply names the specific issue raised, in your voice.
- The reply is going to the right location's profile.
Which reviews should a person write from scratch?
Some reviews need judgement that a draft can steer in the wrong direction. For these, a person who knows the facts writes the reply, and AI is used at most to tidy the wording afterwards. Health practices have an extra reason for care, because Ahpra says practitioners should take care when engaging with reviews on third-party sites. Agree the list below with your team and add it to the voice guide, so the drafting tool is never the first to respond to these reviews.
- Complaints involving injury, safety or a possible legal claim.
- Reviews naming a staff member or alleging misconduct.
- Reviews that discuss health treatment or outcomes.
- Clusters of negative reviews that might be fake or part of an extortion attempt.
- Any review from someone you are already in a dispute with.
Do you need to tell customers that AI helped draft a reply?
The OAIC recommends that businesses update their privacy policies with clear information about their use of AI, and that public-facing AI tools such as chatbots are clearly identified to customers. A review reply drafted with AI help, then edited and approved by a person and published under the business name, is a different situation from a chatbot talking to customers, and we are not aware of an Australian rule requiring a label on it. If customer personal information is processed by an AI tool at any point, say so in your privacy policy. When in doubt, ask the OAIC or a privacy adviser.