A recent chat with a friend really brought this home: She’s been using an AI avatar of herself on TikTok, and when she asked her (young, savvy) audience, “Do you mind that I use AI Tash instead of real Tash?” they said, “Not at all—we trust it because we know it’s you.” (Thanks Tash Courtenay-Smith !)
That stuck with me. We want to trust AI. When it's well-designed, that trust can be immediate. But here’s the catch: trust is yours to lose. Break it, and you damage more than just one interaction, you damage your brand.
So here are six key lessons from building Nibble on how to design an AI agent your customers will trust and enjoy engaging with.
Your AI agent needs to feel native to your brand. That means using your logo, your colour palette and your tone of voice. It should be introduced as your AI agent—and it should be clear it’s AI, not pretending to be human.
But it should also feel like you/your brand. This is what makes trust possible. Without that consistency, the experience feels disconnected, like being passed from a friendly store associate to a robotic call centre.
Your AI agent will have a personality—whether you plan for it or not. So take control of it.
Decide how you want your brand to come across: is your agent warm and casual, or formal and authoritative? Is it humorous or straight-talking? How does it speak to people who are nervous, frustrated, or just in a hurry?
And yes, ethical choices matter. Gender, voice, and language all carry assumptions. Make those choices intentionally. They say a lot about who you are as a brand. Here at Nibble, we've made Nibble an "it". I don't know if thats the right choice but I knew I was fed up of subservient female AI's designed by tech bros... so I didn't want to go that route. It's your choice and depends on your brand and customer expectations.
Most chatbots say “yes” to everything. Ours doesn’t. Nibble negotiates, so it has to say no—politely, helpfully, and persuasively.
That’s surprisingly hard to do well. We’ve gone back to the fundamentals of behavioural science and conversation design to teach Nibble how to handle objections, just like a great human negotiator would.
We use two key tools:
And yes, we use LLMs to generate and tailor these in real time, so they land naturally.
When we spoke to Walmart about their use of AI negotiation in procurement, they told us one simple change—starting a supplier negotiation with “How are you?”— increased their chance of reaching a win-win.
We build similar empathy into Nibble. Customers share more than you’d expect: that they’re students, or on maternity leave, or loyal long-time buyers. Nibble is programmed to recognise those circumstances and respond appropriately—wishing someone happy birthday, acknowledging a tight budget, or simply thanking them for their loyalty.
These little moments build trust more powerfully than perfect grammar ever could. It also gives you the opportunity to elarn for the long term and further tailor and personalise the next conversation.
I believe personalisation technology will fundamentally leap forward over the next few years, look out for progress at Amazon and Microsoft Shopping fo buying assistants as a first step.
Even in B2B, we do golf days and pub nights—so why are we afraid of a chatbot that makes customers smile?
A touch of humour, a playful tone, a bit of fun in the interaction—all of this makes your brand more human, more memorable, and more trustworthy. You don’t lose credibility by being a bit more engaging. You lose it by being forgettable.
Take a look here at one of our customers buying some shorts online for what I mean...
Finally—and most importantly—you need a trustworthy pricing strategy. People can spot false discounts and hi-lo tactics a mile off.
If you’re offering deals because you’re overstocked, or because someone’s a loyal customer, say so. If long-term contracts or bulk orders get better rates, explain that. It’s not a weakness to be transparent—it’s a strength.
Nibble gives you real-time feedback on how people feel about your pricing. Sometimes that’s hard to hear. But would you rather know... or just see them walk away?
Can you design trust? Yes—but only if you remember that trust is emotional, human, and deeply fragile.
Design your agent with personality, empathy, and transparency—and it won’t just represent your brand. It will earn trust on your behalf.
Find out more from Nibble's experience negotiating 100,000 times a month here.
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