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All scenarios

Workplace scenario · 06 of 13

The report cites a study you can’t find

A polished AI-assisted report, a deadline and one reference that doesn’t seem to exist.

The situation

A colleague’s AI-assisted market report is due to the client this afternoon. You search for one of its key studies and can’t find it anywhere. The rest of the report reads well.

Principles involved

What do you do?

Choose the option you would take, then open it to see how it plays out. Reviewing the other options is part of the exercise.

Option A: Send it. One missing link doesn’t matter.

Risky

If one reference is invented, others may be too. In 2025 a consulting firm repaid part of a government fee after a report with invented references was published.

Option B: Delete the citation and keep the claim.

Risky

The claim came from somewhere. Without a real source, it may be invented too.

Option C: Check every reference before it goes, and remove or replace anything you can’t verify.

The best choice

It takes an hour, and it protects the client, your colleague and your firm.

Option D: Ask the AI whether the study is real.

Part of the answer

It may confirm an invented source just as confidently. Only finding the study proves it exists.

Takeaway

A citation proves nothing until you open it. For client work, check every reference.

Sources

What each source establishes, and its limits. The practices and recommendations on this page are ours, and the facts come from the sources. See every source we use.

  1. Deloitte refunds Aussie gov after AI fabrications slip into $440K welfare report The Register · October 6, 2025 · News report Reports the invented references and made-up court quote in the report for the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, the corrected version disclosing AI use, and Deloitte’s agreement to repay the final instalment of its fee. Limits: A news report.
  2. AI Hallucination Cases database Damien Charlotin · Updated continuously (2,077 cases on September 23, 2026) · Research database Lists decisions in which a court or tribunal found, or implied, that a party relied on AI-invented content, mostly fake citations: 2,077 by September 23, 2026, 1,428 of them in the United States. Limits: Maintained by one person. It leaves out cases where reliance was only alleged.