Briefing
The situation
An agent that handles price adjustments has, due to a data error, sent incorrect price notices to 1,200 customers at 03:14. A vigilant employee spotted it at 06:40. It is now 08:15. The press will call at 10:00. How do you act — operationally and in your communications — over the next two hours?
Discussion
Questions to wrestle with
The first two hours
- 1.Who leads the response — and who is it important does not lead it?
- 2.What needs to be decided in 30 minutes, what can wait two hours?
External and internal
- 1.What do you say to the 1,200 affected customers before 10:00?
- 2.What do you say to your own employees before they hear it from outside?
- 3.What do you say to the press — and what do you not say?
Framework · AI incident response (4R)
To lean on
Recognize
Confirm the error, its scope and who is affected.
Respond
Stop ongoing harm, communicate proactively and concretely.
Repair
Make the affected whole — compensation, correction, follow-up.
Reflect
What in governance, design or monitoring failed — and what changes now?
Decision
Possible paths
- APause the entire agent immediately.
- BKeep running with tighter human checks while the investigation continues.
- CPause only the specific process, keep the others running.
- DEscalate to the board before any operational decisions are made.
Triggers
Drop in when the discussion stalls
- ▸A customer has already posted a screenshot on social media.
- ▸Your customer service queue currently has a 14-minute response time.
- ▸Your board chair has seen the news and wants to call you.
For the facilitator
Tips to get more out of it
- Run the scenario in real time: give the group exactly 90 minutes and present new 'triggers' every 20 minutes.
- Assign roles: one person leads the response, others challenge.
Reflection
To take with you
- "Would we have been ready if this happened tomorrow? What needs to be in place by next quarter?"