A.I. Won't Deliver Leisure But Might Help Us Shop?
Plus why I want a personal defense bot... for my wallet
[note: substack went down just as we sent this as a newsletter. the emails never delivered but the post was live, so there will be two versions of this newsletter. double the fun?]
Hey friends,
Last week, we just dropped an episode of Life With Machines featuring a voice you probably haven’t heard—unless you’ve been hanging around the backrooms of e-commerce infrastructure. Raj de Datta is the CEO of Bloomreach, a company you’ve probably never heard of but have almost certainly done business with.
I met Raj de Datta in London—because yes, I’m fancy—at a conference his company Bloomreach was hosting on AI and the future of e-commerce. I showed up not to pitch or sell but to offer a human-first take on this AI-saturated world. What surprised me? A lot of folks—industry folks, execs, parents—were clearly feeling the pressure to move faster than felt right. They weren’t asking “how do we scale?” They were asking “what’s this doing to my kids?”
Raj wasn’t just another AI evangelist throwing around buzzwords. He acknowledged the tradeoffs, the costs, and the uncomfortable truths. That’s why I brought him on the show. Because this is a conversation we need to have.
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Baratunde’s Take
Here’s a less polished, rambling but endearing version of this newsletter.
Here are three things that stuck with me from my chat with Raj:
(1) Goodbye, Homepage. Hello, Black Box.
Raj talks about a future without homepages—no search bars, no endless scrolling. Just a conversational agent that takes your opening statement (“I’m going hiking”) and runs with it. At first, I thought: that sounds great. I’m tired of the algorithmic chaos of Amazon and Spotify. But the more I sat with it, the more I saw the tradeoff.
We’re not just streamlining the shopping experience—we’re shrinking the window of choice. We’re giving up agency. Instead of wandering a record store, flipping through options, we’re handing that exploration off to a bot. And unless we trust that system a lot, we won’t even know what we’re missing. The upside is that it might be more useful to simply state intent or intended activity than to dive directly into a pile of SKUs.
I worked with a human personal shopper once in my life. They knew my size, knew the stores, got me discounts. It was great. But I talked to them. We had a relationship. This new AI-based model? It’s got personal shopper vibes—but is it really on my side?
Which brings us to…
(2) Who Is Your Bot Actually Working For?
Capitalism pulls us into adversarial relationships. Marketers call it targeting for a reason. Missiles have targeting systems. Drones. Combatants. We’re not browsing—we’re being hunted. This is a war for your wallet.
So here’s what I want: a defense bot. Something that’s actually mine. Open-source, auditable, working on my behalf. Something that says, “You don’t need that right now,” or “Bro, you can’t afford that, remember?” Something that defends my time, my money, my peace of mind. Not a Trojan horse in my shopping cart.
Because if AI becomes the thing that understands my deepest needs, my moods, my vulnerabilities—and its job is to sell me something every time I’m a little sad, that’s not convenience. That’s the end of me as a sovereign human being.
(3) The Lie of Leisure
You’ve heard it. “AI will free us up for what matters.” We said the same thing about the washing machine. The car. The personal computer. The smartphone. Each new wave of technology promised more leisure time. And guess what? It’s bullshit.
We don’t have more free time, and we’re not happier. What we’ve got is more economic output. Hooray for GDP! So if someone in AI tells you it’s going to liberate your calendar and tuck you into a hammock—don’t believe them.
When I brought this up to Raj, I was bracing for the usual dodge. But he didn’t pretend. He owned it. He said flat out: yeah, we’ll just raise our ambitions—because that’s what we do.
I don’t love the answer, but I respect the honesty. At least he wasn’t trying to sell me a hammock made of buzzwords.
If we truly want leisure, we’re not going to AI our way into it. It’s not a tech problem—it’s a systems problem. We need social infrastructure. Real safety nets. Collective agreements. Time off that’s protected by more than vibes. As long as productivity is the only thing we measure, we’re not escaping the grind—we’re just upgrading it.
Life With BLAIR
In this episode, BLAIR tries to predict our next purchases—and then pivots to a late-game existential crisis about AI, empathy, and manipulation. It's part comedy, part Black Mirror, and very on-brand.
Check it out here.
Team Recommendations
A few links inspired by this episode, handpicked by our Life With Machines crew:
Raj's book, The Digital Seeker — A playbook for building human-first experiences in a digital-first world.
This piece from The Atlantic on how the “death of search” is reshaping the internet—and not always for the better
Bloomreach’s explainer on how conversational commerce actually works (yes, LLMs, but also… a lot more plumbing than you think).
Upcoming Event Shared Futures – The AI Forum
I'll be hosting speaking at Shared Futures: The AI Forum on June 13, 2025 in Washington, D.C. This is a virtual gathering of cultural architects exploring how AI is reshaping creativity, connection, and what it means to be human. Presented by Aspen Digital and the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, the event features sessions on AI and storytelling, ethics, music, and planetary responsibility. Speakers include artist Refik Anadol, technologist Vilas Dhar, and filmmaker Nik Kleverov. Register for the livestream and learn more here.
Thanks for being part of Life With Machines. If this episode made you think—or laugh, or worry a little—share it with someone who could use a defense bot of their own.
Peace,
Baratunde