Using AI to help with your energy dispute

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming an increasingly common tool for everyday tasks, including writing emails, summarising information and organising thoughts. If you're raising an energy dispute, you may want to use AI to help you prepare your case.

Used well, AI can make your submission clearer and easier to follow. However, AI should support your complaint, not replace your own account of what happened.

How AI can help

AI can be a useful tool when you're preparing information about your dispute. For example, it can help you:

• Organise events into a clear timeline

• Summarise lengthy correspondence
• Improve spelling, grammar and readability

• Highlight areas that appear unclear or suggest questions you may want to consider.

It can also be particularly helpful for people who lack confidence in writing, have accessibility needs, or would like support to communicate their concerns more clearly.

This can make it easier to explain your dispute clearly and ensure you've included the key information.

Check everything before you submit

While AI can be helpful, it isn't always accurate.

AI tools can misunderstand information, make assumptions or generate inaccurate information. Remember, AI only works with the information you provide, so always check that your submission accurately reflects what happened before you submit it.

AI may also produce responses that are longer than necessary or include repeated information, making it more difficult to identify the key points of your dispute.

Before submitting your dispute, read through everything carefully to make sure it accurately reflects what happened. Your submission should always be based on your own experience and supported by relevant evidence, such as bills, emails, photographs or meter readings. AI can help you prepare your submission, but it can't replace the evidence needed to support your dispute.

Using AI does not make your dispute stronger in itself. A straightforward account in your own words, supported by relevant evidence, is what matters.

Providing clear, accurate information from the outset helps us understand your dispute and can reduce the need for follow up questions later in the process.

Keep it personal

The most effective submissions explain, in your own words:

• what happened
• why you believe something has gone wrong
• what outcome you're looking for.

There's no need to use complicated language or legal terminology. A clear explanation of the facts in your own words is far more valuable than a polished response that doesn't accurately reflect your experience.

Protect your personal information

If you choose to use a public AI tool, never enter passwords or payment information. You should also remove names, addresses, account details and other sensitive personal information before uploading correspondence or evidence.

Before uploading correspondence or evidence, remove personal details wherever possible and think carefully about how the AI service will use and store your information.

Useful AI prompts

If you're unsure where to start, AI can help you organise your thoughts. You could try prompts such as:

• "Help me organise these events into a clear timeline."
• "Summarise this email chain without changing the facts."
• "Rewrite this in plain English while keeping it factually accurate."
• "Based only on the information I have provided, identify anything that is unclear or any questions I may need to answer. Do not assume or add facts."
• "Check this for spelling and grammar without changing the meaning and content."

Remember to review the final version carefully and make sure it reflects your own experience before submitting it.

AI can help you organise your thoughts, summarise information and communicate more clearly, but it should never add, assume or change the facts. Your own experience and supporting evidence remain the most important parts of your dispute.

By checking that your information is accurate, relevant and complete before you submit it, you'll help us understand your dispute and investigate it as efficiently as possible.

If you have an unresolved dispute with your energy supplier, find out how Energy Ombudsman may be able to help: https://www.energyombudsman.org/how-we-can-help