Designing AI Chatbots Users Actually Trust

Trust is the single most important UX metric for conversational AI. Get the first three messages right and users stay; get them wrong and you lose them forever.

Show, don't hide Surface what the bot knows, where it looked, and what it is confident about. Hidden retrieval feels like magic only until it fails — then it feels like fraud.

Offer escape A visible human handoff increases trust *even when users never click it*.

Don't pretend Plain language about model limits ("I might be wrong about pricing — please confirm") outperforms confident bullshit every single time.