I've encountered the same thing in a completely unrelated field.

I'm a tax consultant, a CPA, for nearly 20 years now.

About once a week I get a call from either a client or a prospective client and straight away get the vibe they've been talking to a bot. It's tough to explain but I shouldn't have to waste my time responding to a bot's assertions before getting to the actual problem at hand.

We try to be pretty cool with charging for our time, because starting an enquiry with an explanation of a 5 minute billing structure sets the wrong tone, and I prefer to just name a price for solving an actual problem.

However, with these calls instead of a client telling me a problem and me explaining the solution, the client proposes several solutions they need help with and I have to undo all of that before I can understand the problem. The tail kinda wags the dog.

For example, one guy emailed me explaining that he wanted a new business structure. The email was slop but ok - we charge heaps for this type of job so I can put up with it. However, after an hour long discussion I had convinced him that he was much better off without the structure. Only an hour of my time, (but still a waste) and a misadventure for him, that could have cost him $5k.

Another guy was on the phone, rattling off a series of questions a bot had given him to evaluate a consultant. One of them was "what can you do to help me grow my business". He was 20 years old and had 7 clients for whom he mowed their lawns.

I'm still trying to figure out the best policy for these situations. I think for the time being, my plan is to interrupt as soon as I get that bot-vibe, and say that it sounds a bit like they've been researching this with a bot, and that I need to start from the start just to make sure nothing is overlooked. Perhaps I'll add as an aside that correcting the problems caused by advice from bots is very time consuming and costly.