‘AI clog’: UK public bodies battle onslaught of chatbot-generated complaints

Why it matters

Generative AI tools including ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and Gemini have made it easy for anyone to produce polished, statute-citing complaints and legal letters, and the organisations on the receiving end say they are drowning in the results. Commenters call the phenomenon "AI clog," while researchers have labelled the mass targeting of public bodies "agentic flooding." Hollie Wickens, a senior caseworker in a Labour MP's office, says roughly half the emails her team receives are AI-generated and far more taxing to handle. Local authority lawyers report complaints ballooning in length, with some stretching to enormous multi-page submissions, and councils noting surges in appeals over parking and planning decisions. The Information Commissioner's Office warns such requests are often repetitive, misdirected and hard to decipher, yet still require human responses. AI also risks inventing case law from other jurisdictions or emboldening people to pursue weak claims. Employers describe verbose, exaggerated complaints, and tribunal volumes have jumped sharply year-on-year while backlogs persist, leaving both public bodies and businesses struggling to absorb the workload.