What AI Is Teaching Us About Human Behaviour with Wanita Nicol

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What is AI teaching us about human behaviour, trust and the way clients experience our advice businesses?

In this episode of PROpulsion LIVE, Francois du Toit speaks to Wanita Nicol, a freelance writer, editor and storyteller who spends an unusual amount of time talking to AI.

This is not another conversation about using AI to save time or produce more content. Instead, we explore what happens before we “press yes to proceed”.

When advisers use AI to write, reply, summarise, create or explain, those choices tell a story. The client may not hear the story we intended. They may hear that speed matters more than care, that polish matters more than thought, or that automation has replaced judgement.

Wanita shares what her own AI experiments have revealed about sycophancy, vague language, bias, blind spots, trust and the risk of letting AI shape our thinking without us noticing.

We also discuss what this means for financial planners and advice businesses in South Africa, where context, culture and client trust matter deeply.

In this episode, we cover:

* What AI reveals about human behaviour
* Why polished AI content can weaken trust
* How advisers may use AI in ways that help themselves more than clients
* Why AI often avoids strong opinions
* The risk of bias in AI outputs
* How to use AI without giving up your own thinking
* Practical prompts advisers can use to learn more about their own blind spots

The 2026 theme for PROpulsion LIVE is “From Knowing to Doing”. This conversation is a reminder that using AI well is not only about knowing the tools. It is about making better choices in how we communicate, serve and build trust.

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