What’s the Uncanny Valley Risk with AI Agents?

Executive Summary

Uncanny valley = almost human, not quite—trust drops. Marketing agents trigger it when tone, claims, or confidence feel human-like but wrong: faux empathy, over-familiar voice, or half-correct answers delivered assertively. Prevent it by disclosing the agent’s identity and scope, narrowing persona to practical and factual, enforcing policy validators, enabling one-click human handoff, and monitoring trust metrics before raising autonomy.

In human–computer interaction, the uncanny valley is the dip in user comfort when a system is almost—but not quite—human. For marketing, discomfort appears when tone implies capabilities the agent lacks or when confident phrasing masks uncertainty. Design against it with clear identity and purpose (e.g., “AI assistant for order status and product info”), brand voice boundaries, and strict evidence rules for claims. Keep personas practical, not performative; never simulate lived experiences. Add policy validators and escalation paths: when confidence is low, data is missing, or intent is sensitive, the agent should summarize context and hand off to a human. Track trust signals on one scorecard—CSAT, complaint rate, confidence–accuracy gap, and time-to-human—so autonomy rises only when comfort and accuracy improve.

Why TPG? We design, govern, and operate agentic systems connected to Salesforce, HubSpot, and Adobe—using disclosure patterns, policy packs, and KPI gates that protect trust while scaling automation.