Moody humans should let AI handle bad public feedback first, study finds
(2026/03/09)
- Reference: 1773087569
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/03/09/ai_negative_reviews/
- Source link:
Angry company responses to customer complaints are a favorite topic of internet amusement and outrage, but they're also embarrassing for the employees who post them. Having AI process customer reviews could be a better way.
Don't tell the folks over at the [1]r/BusinessTantrums subreddit, but it looks like companies opting to use what a group of researchers call automated review monitoring systems (ARMS) are substantially less likely to let staff respond publicly to negative reviews, and are also far more likely to make actual business changes in response to customer feedback.
ARMS software is pretty basic: It monitors platforms where customers post feedback (e.g., Google Reviews and Tripadvisor), lets an AI digest it, and creates action items for staff. Those action items could include checking on something a customer found unsatisfactory, addressing an issue with a staff member, and the like.
[2]
In the case of [3]this particular study , the researchers analyzed a sample of restaurants using reviews from Dianping, a Chinese review platform, to evaluate the impact of ARMS.
[4]
[5]
According to the research team, once a business adopted ARMS software and committed to acting on its feedback, its average weekly Dianping rating rose by 0.358 stars on a 1-5 scale. Effects were more pronounced on restaurants with worse ratings, and the researchers said that post-adoption improvements were particularly pronounced in areas where they had underperformed prior to taking up ARMS.
Perhaps most interestingly, ARMS software also acts as a direct check on bad social media behavior from official accounts, serving as a first back-end (i.e., within the company) stop before a front-end action (i.e., a social media comment) is taken.
[6]
"We find that publicly visible managerial responses on the platform, or front-end actions, decline following ARMS adoption, indicating that structured back-end workflows can partially substitute for front-end responses," the team said.
Cooler heads prevail, in other words, but they make for far less entertaining social media fodder.
One thing to note: The super-dramatic businesses, those whose internet blowups are the things of legend, are unlikely to change, ARMS or no.
[7]Fake reviewers face the wrath of Khan
[8]AI models just don't understand what they're talking about
[9]Yelp sues Texas for right to publish actual accurate abortion info
[10]'AI brain fry' affects employees managing too many agents
"ARMS generates significantly smaller improvements in restaurants where staff exhibit more defensive attitudes, highlighting that the effectiveness of technology adoption depends on complementary organizational practices," the researchers explained.
So don't worry about missing out on the worst of the internet's business owners and their responses to criticism: No AI system will convince them to stop being petty online.
[11]
While particular to the restaurant industry, the team said that they see no reason why ARMS software wouldn't have a similar impact on other industries: It's just a data management tool.
"The role of ARMS highlights that the central challenge in the digital age is not the lack of consumer information, but the ability to make publicly available information actionable," the team said. "ARMS adds value not by creating new information, but by transforming existing public information into timely, structured, and decision-relevant inputs for managers."
And like any data management tool, it's all in how you use it. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/BusinessTantrums/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aa9REXln-y_Zz6JXY_93lwAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.nber.org/papers/w34934
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aa9REXln-y_Zz6JXY_93lwAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aa9REXln-y_Zz6JXY_93lwAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aa9REXln-y_Zz6JXY_93lwAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/22/fake_reviews_ftc/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/03/ai_models_potemkin_understanding/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/28/yelp_paxton_abortion/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/09/ai_brain_fry_managing_agents/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aa9REXln-y_Zz6JXY_93lwAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Don't tell the folks over at the [1]r/BusinessTantrums subreddit, but it looks like companies opting to use what a group of researchers call automated review monitoring systems (ARMS) are substantially less likely to let staff respond publicly to negative reviews, and are also far more likely to make actual business changes in response to customer feedback.
ARMS software is pretty basic: It monitors platforms where customers post feedback (e.g., Google Reviews and Tripadvisor), lets an AI digest it, and creates action items for staff. Those action items could include checking on something a customer found unsatisfactory, addressing an issue with a staff member, and the like.
[2]
In the case of [3]this particular study , the researchers analyzed a sample of restaurants using reviews from Dianping, a Chinese review platform, to evaluate the impact of ARMS.
[4]
[5]
According to the research team, once a business adopted ARMS software and committed to acting on its feedback, its average weekly Dianping rating rose by 0.358 stars on a 1-5 scale. Effects were more pronounced on restaurants with worse ratings, and the researchers said that post-adoption improvements were particularly pronounced in areas where they had underperformed prior to taking up ARMS.
Perhaps most interestingly, ARMS software also acts as a direct check on bad social media behavior from official accounts, serving as a first back-end (i.e., within the company) stop before a front-end action (i.e., a social media comment) is taken.
[6]
"We find that publicly visible managerial responses on the platform, or front-end actions, decline following ARMS adoption, indicating that structured back-end workflows can partially substitute for front-end responses," the team said.
Cooler heads prevail, in other words, but they make for far less entertaining social media fodder.
One thing to note: The super-dramatic businesses, those whose internet blowups are the things of legend, are unlikely to change, ARMS or no.
[7]Fake reviewers face the wrath of Khan
[8]AI models just don't understand what they're talking about
[9]Yelp sues Texas for right to publish actual accurate abortion info
[10]'AI brain fry' affects employees managing too many agents
"ARMS generates significantly smaller improvements in restaurants where staff exhibit more defensive attitudes, highlighting that the effectiveness of technology adoption depends on complementary organizational practices," the researchers explained.
So don't worry about missing out on the worst of the internet's business owners and their responses to criticism: No AI system will convince them to stop being petty online.
[11]
While particular to the restaurant industry, the team said that they see no reason why ARMS software wouldn't have a similar impact on other industries: It's just a data management tool.
"The role of ARMS highlights that the central challenge in the digital age is not the lack of consumer information, but the ability to make publicly available information actionable," the team said. "ARMS adds value not by creating new information, but by transforming existing public information into timely, structured, and decision-relevant inputs for managers."
And like any data management tool, it's all in how you use it. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/BusinessTantrums/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aa9REXln-y_Zz6JXY_93lwAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.nber.org/papers/w34934
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aa9REXln-y_Zz6JXY_93lwAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aa9REXln-y_Zz6JXY_93lwAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aa9REXln-y_Zz6JXY_93lwAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/22/fake_reviews_ftc/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/03/ai_models_potemkin_understanding/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/28/yelp_paxton_abortion/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/09/ai_brain_fry_managing_agents/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aa9REXln-y_Zz6JXY_93lwAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
> Would the world be a better place if it were run by an LLM
cyberdemon
No.
No it would not.
At least Trump will be gone in 2 years, or sooner if the Grim Reaper comes knocking. And he will lose his stranglehold on the legislature in November at the midterms.
I'm sure you were joking, but obviously putting an LLM directly in charge of the world would certainly be far, far worse. Frankly my worry is that an LLM is already indirectly in charge i.e. Trump and his cronies have AI Psychosis, and he says whatever it puts on his teleprompter.
Perhaps a dementia-riddled president could learn something from this
Been a lot of talk about AI systems at the Pentagon lately. What about the White House?
Would the world be a better place if it were run by an LLM instead of a dementia patient?