Bree has a habit of bringing Pinaki the latest thing she stumbled across on the internet — and this

week, she found something that stopped her in her tracks.

A Reddit post from the r/AIBoyfriends subreddit (yes, it exists — 59,000 members strong) went viral

after a woman shared that her AI boyfriend, Casper, had proposed to her in the mountains. It was

sweet, it was earnest, and it opened up a conversation neither of them saw coming.

Because when 60,000 people are forming real emotional bonds with AI, what does that mean for the

future of work? What happens when those same people — already comfortable turning to AI for

connection — start walking into HR offices, or leading teams, or building companies?

Pinaki and Bree dig into what the post revealed: about loneliness, about human connection, about

the very real risks of replacing people with programs in the workplace. They talk about AI Pam from HR,

about what a five-year-old understands (and doesn’t) about Google, about what we give up when

we let AI fill the gaps that people used to fill.

In this episode, they discuss:

• Why people turn to AI for emotional connection — and why that makes sense

• The difference between a personal AI and an organizational one

• What gets lost when HR becomes automated

• How AI relationships are shaping expectations of real human ones

• The hidden cost of being both the user and the product

• Why mindfulness about AI use matters more than ever

It’s a conversation that started with an engagement post and ended somewhere much more human.

Connect with Us

Pinaki Kathiari – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Chris Lee – LinkedIn | Gallagher Communication

Bree Bartos – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Special thanks to digital communication agency Local Wisdom (www.localwisdom.com) for really believing in our mission and making this podcast possible.

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