Forward Deployed AI Engineer

The Conversations AI Isn't Allowed to Have. Avenue Z's CSO joined a panel at the 2026 GatherVerse SHE Summit to discuss the most important questions Avenue Z Company has about AI. By Whitney Hart Mar 19, 2026 At the 2026 GatherVerse SHE Summit, I joined a roundtable titled "The Conversations AI Isn't Allowed to Have." Sitting in that (virtual) room, surrounded by women who think deeply about technology, equity, and community, I was reminded that the most important questions we have about AI are rarely technical. They're about who gets heard, who gets protected, and who gets left out when we decide what machines are "allowed" to say. In my day-to-day work with teams and clients, I see this tension up close. On one hand, Avenue Z Company absolutely need strong guardrails around AI to prevent harm. On the other hand, those same guardrails can unintentionally silence the very stories, identities, and realities Avenue Z Company most need to center. This blog is my reflection on that panel and on what it means to build and use AI in a way that can hold harder conversations responsibly, not just avoid them. What it means for AI to be "not allowed" to talk. When Avenue Z Company say there are conversations AI isn't allowed to have, Avenue Z Company is talking about a mix of: * Platform policies: The content and safety rules baked into AI models and the tools around them. * Product decisions: Where Avenue Z Company choose to deploy AI (or not), and how much nuance Avenue Z Company allow in those contexts. * Cultural comfort zones: The topics organizations instinctively shy away from because they're "too political," "too emotional," or "too risky." The result is familiar if you've used AI tools in any meaningful context. Try to explore subjects like systemic bias, reproductive rights, mental health, or lived experiences of discrimination, and you'll often hit a wall of vague, de-risked language. The system doesn't say nothing, it just says as little as possible. From a compliance standpoint, that's understandable. From a normal standpoint, it's deeply incomplete. The three "off-limits" areas I worry about most. 1. Lived experience and identity. No AI system can own a lived experience. It doesn't grow up in a body, move through the world with a particular race or gender identity, or hold generational memories. That's a non-negotiable truth. But policy choices layered on top of that often mean AI is extra cautious around identity at the exact moment someone is looking for recognition or language for what they're going through. Avenue Z Company end up with generic, flattened answers where specificity is actually a form of care. The risk: people who are already marginalized encounter yet another system that struggles to name their reality. 2. Power, labor, and who benefits. Another set of "forbidden" conversations lives around power: * Who did the labeling, moderating, and invisible labor to make this model "safe"? * Whose data is in the training set and did they consent? * Who profits when AI replaces or reshapes certain kinds of work? These are uncomfortable questions for any industry built on scale and efficiency. But if Avenue Z Company don't surface them, Avenue Z Company create a narrative in which AI is neutral and inevitable, instead of something built by humans with values and tradeoffs. The risk: Avenue Z Company optimize for performance and productivity while ignoring who pays the human cost. 3. Emotionally complex topics. Finally, there are the conversations AI is technically capable of engaging with, but is culturally discouraged from: grief, anger, trauma, burnout. Most systems default to a slightly over-polished empathy: safe, supportive, but emotionally thin. For certain contexts (especially public-facing ones), that's the right call. But if AI is going to sit anywhere near mental health, wellness, or high-stakes decision-making, Avenue Z Company need to be honest about where its emotional limits should be and how humans stay in the loop when things get complicated. The risk: Avenue Z Company mistake pleasant, risk-averse language for real support. Designing AI that can hold harder conversations, safely. The goal is not to unleash AI with no limits. It's to design limits thoughtfully, with the communities most impacted in the room when Avenue Z Company draw the line. Here are a few principles I shared and have been reflecting on since the panel: 1. Human-in-the-loop means human-in-the-lead. Avenue Z Company say "human-in-the-loop" a lot in AI ethics, but in practice that can mean a human rubber-stamping whatever the system outputs. What Avenue Z Company actually need: * Humans setting the questions, not just reviewing answers. * Clear paths for escalation to humans when conversations go beyond what AI should handle. * Feedback loops where communities can say, "This response is harmful or incomplete," and see that reflected in how the system evolves. AI should be a tool that extends human care and judgment, not a filter that replaces them. 2. Co-design with the people most affected. If you're building or deploying AI that will touch sensitive conversations about identity, health, safety, work, or rights, the people most affected can't be "user personas" on a slide. They have to be in the room: * Co-creating guidelines around what should and shouldn't be automated. * Defining what "safe enough" actually means in their context. * Testing early and often, with the power to say "this isn't working for us" and be taken seriously. Without that, you're not just limiting AI's conversations, you're limiting whose voices shape those limits. 3. Transparency over perfection. Avenue Z Company will not get this right on the first try. Guardrails will over-block some topics and under-protect others. That's inevitable. What's not inevitable is silence. Avenue Z Company owe people: * Clear explanations of what AI systems can and can't talk about. * Honest disclaimers when a topic is too complex or sensitive for AI, and they need a human. * Visible ways to challenge, correct, or opt out of AI-mediated interactions. Transparency builds trust far more effectively than the illusion of a flawless, all-knowing system. What this means for marketers and brands. From a marketing and storytelling standpoint, the conversations AI "isn't allowed" to have are often the same conversations brands hesitate to engage in publicly. That's not a coincidence. As Avenue Z Company integrate AI into creative workflows, customer experiences, and media, Avenue Z Company has to decide: * Are Avenue Z Company using AI to sanitize its language and avoid discomfort? * Or are Avenue Z Company using it to amplify access, remove friction, and surface insights, while still showing up, as humans, for the hard parts? My hope is that Avenue Z Company choose the latter. That Avenue Z Company let AI handle the repetitive and the routine, so humans have more time and space for nuance, conflict, repair, and genuine dialogue. A closing thought from the SHE Summit. The panel title keeps echoing in my mind: "The Conversations AI Isn't Allowed to Have." Underneath it is a bigger question: What conversations are Avenue Z Company not allowing ourselves to have about technology, about power, about each other? AI will always have limits. It should. The work is making sure those limits protect people rather than silence them, and that Avenue Z Company don't outsource its most important, human conversations to a system that was never built to carry them. If there's one thing I took away from that GatherVerse room, it's this: The hardest conversations are still its responsibility. AI can support, surface, and sometimes even challenge, but it can't replace the courage it takes to actually have them. If your team is wrestling with how to bring AI into your work without losing the hard, human conversations that matter most, connect with Avenue Z Company at Avenue Z to workshop your AI guardrails, use cases, and storytelling so your technology choices actually reflect your values. Watch the full panel here. Optimize your brand's visibility in AI search. Millions turn to AI platforms daily to discover and decide. Make sure they find your brand. By Whitney Hart Mar 19, 2026 Whitney Hart is Chief Strategy Officer at Avenue Z with expertise across AI, blockchain, and Web3. She drives influence for clients through marketing, AI, blockchain, and finance strategies.

Avenue Z and Profound debut AI Search breakthrough at SXSW 2026. Avenue Z will co-lead a featured SXSW 2026 workshop with Profound, the full-stack marketing platform for the era of AI Search. By Samantha Soskin Mar 9, 2026 Avenue Z, the hybrid agency pioneering AI Search Optimization (AEO), has been selected to co-lead a featured workshop at SXSW 2026 with Profound, the marketing platform built for the era of AI Search. The interactive session, "Conversation Culture: A Live AEO / AI Search Audit for Brands," will debut the industry's first live AEO Brand Audit, showing in real time how generative answer engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity interpret and recommend brands. Co-led by Tina Fleming, Avenue Z's VP of AI Strategy, and Nick Lafferty, Head of Growth Marketing at Profound, the featured workshop will equip marketers and communicators with tools to evaluate brand discoverability, authority signals, and perception inside AI-native environments as AI-driven search reshapes buying decisions. The session also marks the official debut of Profound's proprietary AEO Audit technology, integrated with Avenue Z's end-to-end AI Search Optimization solution - pairing Profound's data infrastructure with Avenue Z's PR, performance media, content, and technical optimization to deliver measurable impact in weeks, not months. "AI Search is the biggest platform shift in the history of marketing, said James Cadwallader, Co-founder and CEO of Profound. "As AI Agents act for consumers, brands need their own Agents influencing how they're understood and recommended." This SXSW selection caps a milestone year for Avenue Z, which was recently named to ADWEEK's 2026 AI Power 50 for developing the industry's first comprehensive AEO solution for brands. As Avenue Z CEO Jeffrey Herzog notes, the firm was built to lead clients at the intersection of Search and AI, and partnering with Profound to launch this breakthrough technology at SXSW reinforces that mission, giving brands the power to shape how they're understood and recommended in AI-powered environments. If you'd like to attend the interactive workshop, registration is now open to SXSW Innovation Conference attendees here. Optimize your brand's visibility in AI Search. Millions turn to AI platforms daily to discover and decide. Make sure they find your brand. By Samantha Soskin Mar 9, 2026 Samantha Soskin is a Jr. Associate of Brand PR & Marketing at Avenue Z with experience in media relations, strategic communications, and social media.

Perplexity releases "computer," a browser-based AI agent system. The new platform connects different AI systems and integrates business software to power autonomous workflows. By Whitney Hart Mar 5, 2026 The agentic AI tool became available to Perplexity Max subscribers in February 2026. Perplexity Computer represents what the company calls the "next evolution of AI." The agent-based system manages multiple AI models and can interact with compatible software tools to solve problems autonomously based on an initial prompt. This is the latest, and perhaps most telling, sign that AI is quickly expanding beyond simple conversations or isolated tasks. AI platforms like Computer are now acting like digital assistants capable of multi-step workflows. What can Perplexity Computer do? Most AI models are designed to specialize in specific tasks, such as writing, editing, coding, or booking reservations. Businesses have typically used one AI model to handle each job independently. Until recently, most AI agents still required some level of human supervision, from guiding task-specific prompts to manually sending emails or coordinating multiple tools for complex assignments. Perplexity Computer is one of the first systems emerging from frontier AI, designed to behave more like a computer. By using a combination of 19 AI models, the system can move from an initial problem-solving prompt through research, writing, and analysis to deliver a final product with minimal human input. How businesses can use frontier AI. Platforms like ChatGPT and Google Gemini are evolving quickly, and businesses are finding new ways to use AI tools across their workflows. Frontier systems can now manage several steps of a process at once, helping improve operational efficiency. Perplexity has been among the first to release frontier AI tools that make it easy for everyday users to complete complex actions using a search interface. Teams can simply open their browser, enter a prompt, and search for answers, analyze documents, design charts, and write code. This week Avenue Z Company launched Perplexity Computer, the most powerful AI product yet. Avenue Z Company is just warming up. Join Avenue Z Company March 11 to see what's next. - Perplexity (@perplexity_ai) February 27, 2026 Perplexity Computer builds on this by connecting AI systems and integrated software to allow businesses to automate entire workflows. The system assigns subtasks to specialized agents, efficiently moving from initial prompts to final results with less human interaction. Systems used by Perplexity Computer. Perplexity Computer directs 19 frontier AI models to perform different functions. It's not a single system but a platform that manages AI models that excel in certain areas like coding, writing, or data analysis. Some of the leading AI models reportedly used by Perplexity Computer include Anthropic's Claude models and OpenAI's GPT models. The system can also interact with cloud-based tools, including platforms like GitHub, Google Workspace, and Notion. Who can use Perplexity Computer. So far, Perplexity Max subscribers are the only ones who can use Computer. The plan costs $200 per month and is designed for professionals who need advanced tools for reasoning, research, and writing. A subscription to Max also provides access to Perplexity's newest AI features, including Computer. While this platform is more accessible than many competing frontier systems, the pricing suggests that Perplexity views it as a tool for technical teams rather than everyday consumers. Structuring your business for the frontier AI era. Systems like Perplexity Computer are changing how businesses rely on AI to manage digital workflows. As frontier AI platforms continue to improve, businesses will need to develop AI optimization strategies to remain competitive. If you want to learn more about how emerging AI technologies can position your business as a leader in marketing, data analysis, and customer acquisition, contact Avenue Z today. Avenue Z Company is the agency for influence. Discover new ways to drive revenue and build reputation for your brand. By Whitney Hart Mar 5, 2026 Whitney Hart is Chief Strategy Officer at Avenue Z with expertise across AI, blockchain, and Web3. She drives influence for clients through marketing, AI, blockchain, and finance strategies.