“In marketing, we are trying to persuade people to take action, but when that action involves interacting with a computer rather than a human, you may be able to record the conversation but never really understand the context that generated it in the first place!”

I was driving to a weekend golf outing with a friend, and we were discussing various topics, including the current movies and TV shows we had watched, such as Nuremberg. I asked him if he remembered the name of the actor who played Hermann Göring? He said, “It's on the tip of my tongue.”

Then I remembered TecMo (the name I gave my new car) had a new superpower. So I swiped the CarPlay screen to reveal the new Perplexity app, tapped it, then asked, “Perplexity… what is the name of the actor who played Hermann Göring in the 2025 movie Nuremberg?” It replied, “In the movie Nuremberg, the character Hermann Göring is played by Russell Crowe.”

Now, I know this is not an earth-shattering use of AI technology, but it is a tool that comes in handy and can have lasting benefits to me and my business.

The Technology Behind the Answer

To be clear, TecMo (Technology Molly – my car's full name) is just the touchscreen interface that allows Perplexity to be active in my car. (I could have done the same thing with my phone, but this just makes it a bit safer when driving.)

Best part? The interaction was captured on my phone while I was driving. That helps Perplexity act like a personal assistant (or, as it is now known, an AI agent). I will dig a bit more into agents, but this is a realization for me that I can have a conversation with my computer, which it will record, and I can use later. So I can do more than I can with a voice recorder. It will help me capture ideas as they occur and expand on concepts through AI research.

When I got home, I asked what the writers were trying to say in making this film, and Perplexity said, “Writer-director James Vanderbilt aimed to make the story feel modern and relevant, particularly for younger audiences, by highlighting the psychological battle between Douglas Kelley and Hermann Göring. The takeaway they hoped viewers would have is that understanding the psychological roots of evil and the consequences of authoritarianism can help prevent history from repeating itself.”

The Psychology of AI Chats

The movie Nuremberg is a historical drama focusing on U.S. Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley and his interactions with Hermann Göring and other Nazi leaders during the Nuremberg trials. The film explores themes of accountability, psychological profiling of leaders, and the importance of confronting evil. Needless to say, it was a complex relationship that contained trust, skepticism, lies, and betrayal. Human relationships are very complex and are shaped by bias, experiences, and real emotions that no AI can truly share. In other words, humans bring real, shared emotion, while AI offers only simulated responses.

There are several programs that consider themselves AI friends, including Replika, Pi (Personal AI), Nomi, and roleplay companions Character.AI and Kindroid. These tools let you build digital coaches, friends, characters, and more to have conversations and supposed relationships with.

When people are drawn to AI companion/friend tools, it’s rarely about the tech specs. It’s mostly about the emotional needs these tools tap into.

• Feeling Heard and Understood
• Non‑Judgmental, Safe Space
• Hope and Idealization
• Emotional Reward Loop

This taps into the desire for psychological safety: a place where you can say anything without fear of rejection. AI rarely pushes back, forgets you, or behaves badly; it can feel like an idealized friend or partner.

AI is always agreeable and centered on you, which can make normal human interactions (with conflict, misunderstandings, and limits) feel more disappointing by comparison.

So it can feel good to chat with AI, but it may be missing context and pushback that normal human interactions contain.

AI Agents

In general, Perplexity, Claud, and ChatGPT are considered AI Agents. An AI agent is like a smart software tool that can see its surroundings, figure out what to do, and act to achieve its goals. It uses smart rules and information to learn from its actions, get better at new tasks, and do things automatically or help solve problems. Imagine having an intelligent assistant that can look at information and act just right, without you having to keep telling it what to do all the time.

Things are getting more personalized and local, with software tools like Perplexity Computer running on a personal Mac Mini. This AI agent is always ready to go! It connects right to your Mac’s files and apps so it can keep running all the time. You can use it to do tasks in different apps, keep your local files safe, and even control it from afar.

There are other, more powerful AI options from Anthropic (Claude) and OpenAI (ChatGPT) that can write code, create content, and more. They are not simple subscriptions, but are paid for with usage credits or tokens (normally used by enterprise buyers).

As AI gets smarter and more personalized, you will find more voice-based options that can be trained to replace humans in interactions such as lead qualification and tech support.

I'm Here to Help You…

AI agents can help with qualifying leads and tech support, saving time and money. However, it’s important to keep in mind some potential downsides and risks, especially when it comes to customer trust, accuracy, and how your brand is perceived.

AI is there to please the user, so interactions can become skewed by context like urgency, buying authority, internal politics, and non‑obvious pain points. AI may give generic or slightly off answers, which savvy buyers spot immediately. Bots are usually great at getting people to engage, but they can sometimes act like they’re just reacting and not really helping users move forward to more meaningful sales discussions.

In emotionally charged or high‑stakes situations, customers want genuine understanding and reassurance. AI can come up short if a person is losing revenue or panicking over downtime. If users can’t easily escalate to a human, or the bot keeps misinterpreting the question, customers can feel trapped and ignored.

If your company and team depend too much on AI to answer questions, they might not get as good at creating their own products, finding things, and dealing with objections.

Closing Thought

When I use AI, I find that I go back and re-read the answers before asking more questions. The fact that Perplexity saves those conversations means I can review the answer and formulate more cohesive questions after that initial interaction. Having the ability to brainstorm and save it for later has given me a new way to capture my inspiration and separate the stupid from the stupendous.

It's true, AI can be your non-judgmental friend that is there to make you feel good about yourself, but it cannot currently replace having hard conversations with mentors, friends, and real people who have different experiences from yours.

Remember: In marketing, we are trying to persuade people to take action, but when that action involves interacting with a computer rather than a human, you may be able to record the conversation but never really understand the context that generated it in the first place!

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Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas, or questions about business-to-business sales and marketing today! Do you have a sales or marketing communications strategy that works for you? What tips or techniques can you share that work for you and your business?

To learn more about this and other topics on B2b Sales & Marketing, visit our podcast website at The Bacon Podcast.