AI fixes one thing and breaks another: what should you do?

You add a phone field and the confirmation email disappears. How to describe the problem, limit the next fix and check what needs to stay unchanged.

Imagine a change: you ask for a phone field in the contact form. It appears, but messages no longer reach you by email. Before asking for another improvement, focus on this problem alone: which action stopped working, after which change and with what result?

Describe what you observe

Write down the steps: “I fill in the form, click Send and see the confirmation, but no email arrives. It worked before the phone field was added.” Include an example with invented contact details.

This description provides things to investigate. “You broke everything” conveys the frustration, but does not show where to look. If an error message appears, copy it too.

Ask for a limited fix

You can write: “Restore email sending after this form. Keep the phone field and the other pages. Explain what you plan to change before doing it.”

Then ask for a list of what was actually changed. The instruction does not guarantee an error-free result, but it makes an intervention easier to follow than a general request for improvement.

Check the old behaviour and the new one

Submit once with a number, then without one if the field is optional. Check the on-screen confirmation and the received email. Both belong to the same journey.

Record the expectation: “The form sends the message, with or without a phone number.” This sentence describes a check; an automated test can then verify part of the behaviour after each change.

Prepare a way back

Before another intervention, check that an earlier version of the code is available. Ask how to retrieve it and what effect returning to it would have on current behaviour.

Data needs its own backup. Returning to an earlier code version does not necessarily recover deleted messages or customers. If real information could be affected, ask for the procedure to be explained before trying it.

Keep a short list of checks

Choose three actions essential to your work: send an enquiry, find a customer, download a document. Repeat them after an important change and keep the trial results.

Maestro organises work in stages and retains project documents to help track these decisions. In any tool, a specific request and practical checks make errors easier to spot. The guide to AI development risks extends this approach to costs and taking over a project.