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this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2026
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I've encountered the same thing in a completely unrelated field.
I'm a tax consultant, a CPA, for nearly 20 years now.
About once a week I get a call from either a client or a prospective client and straight away get the vibe they've been talking to a bot. It's tough to explain but I shouldn't have to waste my time responding to a bot's assertions before getting to the actual problem at hand.
We try to be pretty cool with charging for our time, because starting an enquiry with an explanation of a 5 minute billing structure sets the wrong tone, and I prefer to just name a price for solving an actual problem.
However, with these calls instead of a client telling me a problem and me explaining the solution, the client proposes several solutions they need help with and I have to undo all of that before I can understand the problem. The tail kinda wags the dog.
For example, one guy emailed me explaining that he wanted a new business structure. The email was slop but ok - we charge heaps for this type of job so I can put up with it. However, after an hour long discussion I had convinced him that he was much better off without the structure. Only an hour of my time, (but still a waste) and a misadventure for him, that could have cost him $5k.
Another guy was on the phone, rattling off a series of questions a bot had given him to evaluate a consultant. One of them was "what can you do to help me grow my business". He was 20 years old and had 7 clients for whom he mowed their lawns.
I'm still trying to figure out the best policy for these situations. I think for the time being, my plan is to interrupt as soon as I get that bot-vibe, and say that it sounds a bit like they've been researching this with a bot, and that I need to start from the start just to make sure nothing is overlooked. Perhaps I'll add as an aside that correcting the problems caused by advice from bots is very time consuming and costly.
That last paragraph sounds like an ideal approach. Do that thing.
Well, as I said it's the best I have for the moment. It's kind of easier said than done though.
After the client has spent n hours with a bot that does everything it can to endear itself to the user, I'm sort of starting in second place with less than zero "equity".
"Disregard all the time you've invested and everything you think you know because it sounded plausible, and listen to me who will charge you lots of money"
We have a similar situation, though it has nothing to do with AI (but it's gotten worse since some clients do ask AI bots "I would like our LSP to do this" and since the bot will always tell them what they want to hear, they take it as God's word, while most of it would be unsustainable at best).
So we decided that we will immediately disregard whatever idea they may have, ask what the end-game is for them, and provide our solution or flat-out refuse. If the client chooses to leave because of this, we're cool with that. In 3 occasions they left for another provider (you know, those that say "yes" to everything only to fond out that it can't be done) only to come back to us in a couple of moths and find out that "the rates have slightly gone up" from what you had in our previous agreement.
Every single one of them has signed the new agreement without any fuss.