TL;DR

Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s annual social services complaints report says AI tools are “considered” to have influenced a jump in stage two complaints, from four to 20, Wales Online reported on 30 October. The numbers are small and the wording cautious. It is nonetheless a concrete local entry in a growing UK debate about AI-assisted demand on public bodies.

Stage two is the more formal tier, where an independent investigator becomes involved. Stage one volumes barely moved, at 157 complaints, which is the pattern behind the council’s suggestion. In our reading, tools that make complaining easier may be pushing people further up the process rather than producing more first-time grievances.

What the report does and does not say

The report, due before the council’s governance and audit committee, attributes the increase to the ease of use of AI tools. It offers no count of AI-written complaints and, as reported, no method for identifying them, so this is an officer’s judgement rather than a measurement. Wales Online’s headline word “surge” should be read with that in mind.

Other pressures are visible in the same document. Overall contact with the customer feedback team grew 10% to 814 in 2025/26. Ombudsman enquiries rose by 150% to 24, and appeals by 78%, though 33 of the 41 appeals concerned a disabled bus pass. More complainants want financial redress. Those shifts may have several causes, and the report treats complexity as a reason statutory deadlines remain hard to meet.

One detail stops this being read simply as frivolous AI-generated grievance. Of the stage two complaints with a recorded outcome, 73.7% were upheld or partly upheld.

The wider picture

The same question is being asked well above council level. We reported in May that the Independent Office for Police Conduct had tied a rise in complaint reviews to AI-drafted submissions. A recent academic blog examined whether AI explains rising judicial review claims, and found the court data did not clearly support that yet.

Looking Forward

The council plans a new online complaints form, intended to focus people on the detail of their complaint and the outcome they want, plus guidance that will refer to AI applications. That guidance also covers persistent and unreasonable behaviour, which the report says has increased.

In our view, how public bodies word such guidance deserves attention. For someone unfamiliar with a complaints process, a chatbot may be the first help they have ever had in putting a case together, and the upheld rate here suggests the underlying grievances can be genuine. UK councils will want to manage workload without treating AI assistance as a mark against the person complaining.