Would you send a robot to a networking event?!

Over the weekend I found myself scrolling Instagram when a reel came up selling me a LinkedIn AI agent. At first I didn’t think too much, but when I started to look into what it did, I felt a lot of emotions. Just to be clear, this was not a tool to help you write. This is an agent to run your entire account. It promised me the world: to generate and close my leads (really?!), network with other professionals and build my professional brand online, all on my behalf. I still am trying to work out how!

But get this… over 7,000 people had commented. I couldn’t believe it and honestly, I felt really sad.

OK, so I want to be really clear about where I stand, because I am not anti AI. And I know this conversation is dividing everyone. I bloody love it and I say it in every workshop I run. It has changed my business, my revenue, the way I operate and the time I get back with my family. I use it every single day and I’d be lying if I said I could go back, as I am 100% converted. So this article is not intended to be see as am “AI is bad” piece. It’s more my thoughts around “what are we actually using it for?” piece.

I went all in on LinkedIn 10 years ago, but since running my own business, it has been the single biggest game changer to my career. I’ve had to do very little cold outreach and almost every opportunity that has come my way is a result of being visible on the platform. True story…at the start of this year I wrote down two goals. Work with LinkedIn and work with a global brand and be invited to speak globally. It’s October, and it looks like both will have come true by the end of the year. Yes, I am beside myself but it’s also the result of hard work and delivering incredible results for every client.

But none of this relationship building has come from a bot. It has come from people reading something I wrote, recognising something in it, and deciding to reach out. That’s the whole point and that’s what a personal brand is. Visibility = Opportunities.

So when I see someone selling a LinkedIn agent that promised to network for you and build your brand, I find myself asking ‘how’?. Because your personal brand is YOU. It’s how you think, what you see, what fires you up. It’s the comment you leave on someone’s post because their post made you think or you are keen to get in front of them. It’s the person you reach out to because you want to meet them. You can’t outsource that and still call it yours.

So let’s pretend we are at a networking event. Imagine walking in, only to find that someone has sent a robot in their place. It’s working the room, moving and shaking, handing out business cards, saying all the right things at the right time. Would you talk to it? Would you want to work with the person who sent it? Be honest, because we all know that nobody would. We’d all quietly avoid it and not make eye contact.

So just because the room is now online, doesn’t mean this has changed. If anything, people are craving it more. You will often hear me referring to this moment in time as a trust recession. People are scared of what others will say, of who is actually saying it, of whether the person behind the profile is even real. So agents like this managing every comment and every automated DM makes this so much worse.

I can clearly see when an agent is commenting on my posts. My inbox is full of messages that were obviously written by a machine. But guess what… not one of them has ever turned into a conversation, let alone an opportunity. I quietly press delete.

So let’s get back to where AI belongs? For me the line is pretty simple. Let it run the systems, but don’t let it run the relationships.

I use a Xero plugin to analyse my numbers in ways I never could on my own. That’s because my numbers don’t need my perspective, my warmth or my voice. They just need to be right and accurate. But the moment I’m dealing with another human, that’s where I need to show up in a human way. Yes, I use AI to help me find my ideas faster, shape a draft, tighten my thinking. The speed is great. But the part only you can bring: is your voice, your story, your thinking and your actual interest in the person on the other side.

Maybe it’s time to think about why we’re using AI and what for. Not because it’s dangerous, but because it’s so damn good that it’s really tempting to hand it everything. But some things aren’t meant to be handed over.

Relationships belong to your personal brand. Not AI.

So tell me, would you buy this agent?