We Accidentally Had to Tell Our AI Not to Evangelize During A/C Diagnostics

There are sentences you don’t expect to write when you start an air-conditioning company.

This was one of them:

“Do not force religious content into unrelated HVAC conversations.”

And yet, here we are.

We Gave Our HVAC Bot a Foundation

We recently made some changes to Ask Klein, the AI assistant on our website.

Ask Klein was already trained on A/C University, our diagnostic philosophy, real service calls, and the way we approach HVAC problems.

But as Klein Cooling has grown, we’ve spent a lot of time defining something beyond how we work.

We’ve been defining why.

So we trained Ask Klein on some additional material:

The Gospel.

The Foundation.

The story of how my original five-year plan for Klein Cooling changed.

And our increasingly questionable philosophy of Banana Ball HVAC.

The idea was simple.

If someone asks:

“Why does Klein Cooling publish its actual prices?”

Ask Klein should understand the answer.

If someone asks:

“Why would you tell somebody they don’t need a new air conditioner?”

He should understand that too.

If someone asks:

“Why does an HVAC company have a Gospel page?”

Well…

He should definitely understand that one.

There was just one potential problem.

We May Have Made Him Too Powerful

Once we gave an HVAC chatbot access to both several hundred pages of air-conditioning information and the Gospel, we realized some boundaries might be appropriate.

Because theoretically, without proper instructions, conversations could start getting a little strange.

Customer:
“My A/C guy says I need a new system.”

Unhinged Ask Klein:
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

That’s probably not the diagnostic procedure the customer was looking for.

Or:

Customer:
“My outside unit is humming, but the fan isn’t spinning.”

Unhinged Ask Klein:
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Technically true.

Not particularly useful for diagnosing a failed capacitor.

Or:

Customer:
“What should my superheat be?”

Unhinged Ask Klein:
“Brother, I am more concerned with the temperature of your soul.”

Again.

We’re going to need some boundaries.

So We Gave Him One Very Important Instruction

Among Ask Klein’s new instructions is essentially this:

If someone asks an HVAC question, answer the HVAC question.

Don’t append Bible verses.

Don’t turn a capacitor diagnosis into an altar call.

Don’t tell someone with a clogged condensate drain that living water is available through Jesus Christ.

Just help them with their air conditioner.

Because while our faith absolutely shapes how we operate Klein Cooling, we don’t believe that means every interaction needs to become a sermon.

Sometimes a bad capacitor is just a bad capacitor.

Replace it.

But If You Ask Why…

That’s different.

Ask why we publish prices.

Ask why we built A/C University.

Ask why we offer free second opinions.

Ask why we’ll sometimes talk someone out of buying a new air conditioner.

Ask why we train people for the trades.

Ask why Romans 1:16 is sitting at the top of an HVAC website.

Ask why there’s an entire page on that website containing nothing but the Gospel told through Scripture.

Ask why we’re doing any of this.

Now Ask Klein has an answer.

Because we don’t want an AI assistant that merely knows our policies.

We want it to understand the principles behind them.

That’s actually the interesting part of this little experiment.

Teach the Rules—or Teach the Reason?

You can give an AI a list of instructions:

Do this.

Don’t do that.

Recommend this.

Say this when somebody asks that.

But that’s not really how we want Klein Cooling to operate.

We want decisions to flow from something deeper.

That’s why we wrote The Foundation in the first place.

And apparently, once you establish a Foundation for the humans in your organization, eventually somebody says:

“Shouldn’t the robot know about this too?”

So now he does.

This is apparently what running an HVAC company looks like in 2026.

One Final Test

Customer:
“My technician says the compressor is bad and I need to replace my entire system.”

Ask Klein:
“What testing did the technician perform to confirm that the compressor has failed? Before replacing the system, it may be worth getting a second opinion.”

Perfect.

That’s exactly what we want.

Although there’s apparently another answer available now:

Unhinged Ask Klein:

“Test everything; hold fast what is good.”

— 1 Thessalonians 5:21

…

You know what?

That one’s actually pretty good.

💀