AI hallucinations are making entitled customers even worse

The Verge published a report on October 2, 2026, on how AI hallucinations affect customer service work. Restaurant, retail, park and childcare workers say customers treat chatbot answers as authoritative, pushing back on staff even when the information is wrong. The report argues that mass adoption of generative AI is rewriting the old adage that “the customer is always right.”

Allergen warnings and wines that don’t exist

Madison, a server in New York City, asks every table about allergies. Guests with a shellfish allergy have ordered a fish dish made with a shellfish broth, then pushed back when warned, saying ChatGPT disagreed. “You’re allergic to shellfish, and ChatGPT says there’s no shellfish in this, and we are telling you, yes there is!” she said.

At the Michelin-recommended restaurant where she worked, guests consult ChatGPT instead of the sommelier, declining help with “I’ll just ask ChatGPT.” Some ask for bottles that do not exist. Staff soften the blow, saying the wine list is hyper-specific rather than telling guests a chatbot invented the brand.

Hallucinated campsites and sleep schedules

The problem extends well beyond restaurants. Jason, a river ranger on federal lands in the Mountain West, says visitors arrive with AI-generated itineraries that hallucinate campsites or put stops out of order, creating routes that would require rowing upstream. Some groups stay skeptical even when rangers point at a map: “A certain type of AI user is inclined to trust ChatGPT over rangers, maps, and printed guidebooks.”

Casey, an after-school program teacher in New York, says parents now ask ChatGPT or Claude about child development. One family’s ChatGPT bedtime routine left their child short on sleep; Casey estimated he needed two to three more hours a night, but the parents insisted the chatbot said the schedule was fine.

AI agents making demands

Lauren Wilford, who has worked in food service for 15 years, says guests upload menu photos to chatbots instead of asking servers, and her restaurant now receives reservation requests from AI agents acting on users’ behalf. She was surprised when a hands-off client suddenly demanded podiums and AV equipment the Providence, Rhode Island restaurant she manages did not have. The clients arrived the next day and never mentioned it; Wilford suspects an AI agent sent the requests.

Why it matters

The Verge notes that Meta’s new AI agent, Muse, will likely make things worse; movie theater workers, baristas and Apple Store employees have also dealt with customers asking for products that do not exist. On Reddit and X, workers say customers take ChatGPT’s word as gospel. Wilford’s worry is what gets lost: “Anything where there’s value to two humans seeing each other and working something out together,” she said, “I think we’re not sensitive to what might be lost if we try to skip all of that stuff.”