Why AI is becoming our new best friend

Agony aunts, once the keepers of society’s secrets, may have been quietly usurped. Increasingly, artificial intelligence (AI) is where people turn to confess their anxieties and seek counsel. More comfortable with machines than with other humans, they pour their hearts into chat windows, hoping for wisdom in return.

In an era of relentless social, political and moral churn, large language models (LLMs) and chatbots have emerged as unlikely confidants. That is not always in our best interest, warns Rishad Tobaccowala, author and senior advisor to Publicis Groupe. “The number one use of AI right now is relationships,” he says. As these systems expand their context windows and become more sophisticated, they begin to mimic intimacy. “They begin to remember you, they learn how to say things you like, and sometimes you like them more than real people.”

Marketers are unlikely to miss this development. The loneliness epidemic, Tobaccowala argues, will become valuable fodder for insights. Human isolation is good business, at least when the aim is to profile consumers ever more precisely.

There is, however, a darker parallel. AI firms, he notes, appear to be following the same well-trodden path as social media platforms. Influence, once seen as a soft metric, can harden into something more political. Elections have been swayed before. There is little to suggest they will not be again.

Trust, then, becomes paramount. “I believe that for brands and marketers, trust is going to be very important,” he says. Yet trust may be in short supply, especially as capital floods into AI.

Has the rise of machines sapped human ingenuity, the same ingenuity that once tamed fire? Tobaccowala offers a mixed view. “On one hand, I’d say there is case to be made that yes, there is a crutch. On the other hand, I am optimistic because AI is cost effective.”

He cites GitHub’s chief executive, who recently predicted that a billion people will be coding by decade’s end, 800 million of them in Asia and Africa, regions historically locked out of such technological shifts. A hopeful vision, to be sure, but not one without casualties. Disruption creates winners and losers. Layoffs are already under way.

Oddly, the most unprepared may be those in the upper ranks. “It's never happened that a technology has actually affected the knowledge worker like this one has… And as your management, you never expect that change is coming to attack you.”

What, then, is the antidote? Tobaccowala suggests adopting the mindset of an immigrant, resourceful, forward-looking and unafraid of discomfort. That spirit, he contends, may be what saves humans when the machines begin to do more than just listen.