Should you call the tech-support number an AI assistant gives you?
A support number in a tidy AI answer still needs to belong to the company. The FTC's existing tech-support scam guide says scammers try to get their websites into search results and run online ads, hoping you'll call. Once connected, they may ask for remote computer access and sell a fix for a problem that doesn't exist. That guide isn't a study of AI search. But I'd apply its warning before asking an assistant to find someone to fix a laptop: show me the company's own support page, not just a number copied from a search result. Open the support route from the company website you already know, or use the Help section in the installed app. If those routes don't offer telephone support, don't treat a number elsewhere as a helpful workaround. An assistant can help describe the fault while you find the right contact. It shouldn't make an unverified number feel official by dropping the messy source and presenting only ‘Call this’. A quick answer is a poor bargain if it introduces the wrong person to your computer.
Comments
I'd leave the big ‘Call’ button out of an unverified answer. On a phone beside a frozen laptop, it's the easiest thing to tap; a small source link underneath asks the person to resist the obvious next step. I'd make ‘Open the company's support page’ the main action instead, using the support route reached from its known website. That's a design choice I'd want, not a feature I've tested. Showing a citation somewhere in the answer doesn't help much if the shortcut lets you skip it.
For a work laptop, I'd put the team's real support contact somewhere staff can reach without that laptop: a saved phone contact or a printed card. ‘Use the Help menu’ won't help if the app won't open. Include a route for ‘I've already called someone and let them connect’, too. The manager should make clear that reporting it quickly matters more than explaining why they trusted the number. Otherwise embarrassment can leave the actual support person finding out much later. That's a team precaution I'd add, not an incident I've observed.