My name is Jonathan Gluck. I’m a cancer patient. I have a type of blood cancer called multiple myeloma that is treatable but, in all but a small percentage of cases, incurable. I’ve been living with my illness for more than 22 years. During that time I’ve undergone dozens of rounds of radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy as well as a difficult and potentially fatal treatment called CAR T-cell therapy. I’ve gone in and out of remission more times than I care to recall. And I’ve spent thousands of hours in doctors’ offices and hospitals, filing thousands of health insurance claims worth millions of dollars.

I am writing with an urgent request. Please don’t deploy AI customer service agents. And if you’re already doing so, stop.

For some time now, leaders in industries from e-commerce and financial services to travel and hospitality have been employing AI agents to interact with their customers to increase efficiency, cut costs, and boost profits. Many large health insurers are using AI agents, as well, for settling claims disputes, ruling on prior authorization requests, and managing other functions.

I won’t hide my bias. I hate AI agents. At best, I find interactions with them to be cold and soulless. At worst—when something goes wrong, say, or the agent doesn’t understand your request—they are infuriating. When you’re trying to buy an airline ticket or return a pair of flip-flops, that’s bad enough. But when you’re dealing with a health issue, especially a serious one, it’s not just frustrating.

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