u/the_underdog_9133

I’m building an AI agent that diagnoses problems instead of just answering questions — looking for brutally honest feedback
I’ve been experimenting with a different approach to AI agents, and I’m trying to figure out whether the idea has applications beyond the first use case I’ve built it for.
Most AI assistants work roughly like this:
User asks → AI answers → conversation ends.
I’m experimenting with something different:
Person explains their situation → AI asks questions → understands the context → identifies the actual problem/gap → guides them toward a solution → hands them to a human when necessary.
The idea is less “chatbot” and more AI counsellor / diagnostic layer.
For example, I’ve currently implemented this approach in career counselling.
Instead of someone simply asking:
“Which career should I choose?”
the agent tries to understand their background, experience, goals, concerns, transferable skills and gaps.
Someone coming from sales, for example, might initially think they have to start from zero to move into HR. The agent can identify that their negotiation, communication and stakeholder-management experience may already be relevant, while also identifying the technical gaps they need to close.
The interesting part isn’t the answer itself.
It’s the conversation that gets you to the right answer.
And that’s what I’m trying to validate.
Where I’m stuck
I’m wondering whether this architecture could work in other industries.
For example:
Education → understand what a student actually struggles with before recommending a program
Healthcare → understand a patient’s needs and route them appropriately (not diagnose medically)
Finance → understand someone’s financial objective before recommending the appropriate service
Real estate → understand what the buyer actually needs before showing properties
Recruitment → understand both candidate and employer requirements before matching
Insurance → understand the customer’s situation before recommending products
SaaS → diagnose what a business actually needs before recommending a solution
Customer support → diagnose the underlying problem instead of simply answering the immediate question
The broader idea is:
Can an AI agent become the first layer of diagnosis and guidance before a human or business solution takes over?
I’m not looking for people to tell me “AI is the future.”
I want the opposite.
Tell me why this idea wouldn’t work.
Where would this approach break?
What industries would not benefit from it?
Where would users get frustrated?
Where would trust become a problem?
And if you were building this, what would you make the agent do differently from a normal AI chatbot?
If you’d like to actually test the concept
The current prototype is WhatsApp-based rather than a website. I’m deliberately testing the conversational experience first rather than building a polished UI around it.
If you want to experiment with it, message:
WhatsApp: +91-8867934443
You can simply tell the agent what problem you’re trying to solve and see how it responds.
I’m particularly interested in hearing from people in different industries.
You don’t have to buy anything. I’m looking for criticism, unusual use cases, and ideas I haven’t thought of.
If you’ve worked in sales, customer success, SaaS, recruitment, education, consulting, healthcare, finance, or another service business, I’d especially like to hear your perspective.
What would you want an agent like this to actually solve for you?

I’m looking for brutally honest feedback from people who’ve worked in marketing, sales, SaaS, or education. Here’s my funnel. Meta ad to WhatsApp, then they chat with an AI career counsellor that I built, which is a Hermes agent. Hermes doesn’t pitch immediately. It asks about their career goals, identifies gaps, gives personalized insights, then introduces our HR course as a possible solution. People engage deeply. They answer questions, ask about the course, even ask about fees, but later they vanish. They stop replying or say ‘I’ll think about it’ or ‘Next month’ and then they’re gone. We’ve tried softer selling, better follow-ups, human intervention. Same result. Now we’re switching ads to promote the course directly, instead of free guidance, to attract higher intent. Where do you think the leak really is? Is this a trust issue, a timing issue, a value mismatch, or are these simply not real buyers? If you were rebuilding this funnel, what would you change first?

I’ve been building AI agents for businesses, and during a chat with a friend in the film industry, this idea came up. Imagine a movie launching not just trailers and Insta posts, but also its own AI companion. Fans could talk directly to the hero, or even to the character instead of the actor. Maybe even chat with the villain or the director. Maybe it remembers past conversations, so each fan feels a personal connection. Maybe fans unlock small teasers, or clues or little rewards the more they engage. This could be especially wild in South Indian cinema where fan culture is so strong. I’m not talking deepfakes or replacing actors, just official, studio-approved interactivity. So, some questions:would you actually use something like this? What would make you keep coming back? What would make it fail or feel annoying? And has anything even close been tried that you’ve seen? I would love criticism, feature ideas, or reasons why this might completely collapse.