C.E.O.s and professors are deploying A.I. versions of themselves to handle routine employee questions and meetings
Jeremy Allaire, chief executive of the stablecoin company Circle, trained an artificial intelligence agent to think and write like him. He fed it his podcast interviews, public writing, and internal communications. The result: a chatbot that could draft messages in his voice.
Allaire then made the bot available to his 1,000 employees. "People can interact with the Jeremy Allaire skill on their own before they actually bring something to me," he said. The move lets him handle more inquiries without attending every meeting or answering every email himself.
This approach is spreading across business and academia. Consultants and executive coaches refer some clients to their A.I. doubles when they lack bandwidth. Harvard Business School professors have built A.I. versions of themselves into courses and office hours. Some executives use digital avatars to address employees in other countries, with the bot speaking in local languages.
The technical barrier is low
Creating an A.I. chatbot or avatar requires minimal technical expertise. Allaire built his using Claude, an existing language model. Several startups now offer platforms that simplify the process further. Delphi takes your content and instructions, then creates a voice and text chatbot that mimics you. Video generators like HeyGen and Synthesia build digital avatars that copy your appearance.
The trend reflects a practical reality for busy professionals: demand for their time exceeds what they can supply. An A.I. double doesn't solve every problem, but it handles the straightforward questions that don't require executive judgment.
For communications professionals managing executive visibility and availability, this technology raises questions about consistency, brand voice, and when a human touch matters. The answers will likely vary by organization and use case.
Learn more about how leaders are adopting A.I. tools: AI Learning Path for CEOs and AI Productivity Courses.
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