Thato Dutch

Conversation Designer + Writer

I design AI agents that sound like someone and hold up when real people use them.

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Talk to the Fabric Matchmaker →
A live shopping assistant I designed for a deadstock fabric shop.

100k sessions on Alexa and Fire TV · Mercury Award for Innovation, 2022 · 20-scenario eval on the Fabric Matchmaker

I started in advertising, writing brand voice for Visa, Emirates and McDonald’s. Now I design the voice and behaviour of AI agents.

For four years at Cashew.ai I designed conversational AI, working across Tripadvisor, Amazon Ads, Honda and others. Voice-first agents, content systems, and the architecture underneath. I treat the system prompt as a design artifact and the conversation as the product.

Now I build agents end to end and ship them as live prototypes. I’m strong on character, guardrails, edge cases, and turning a vague brief into something that holds up once real people start talking to it.

The thread through all of it: an agent should know what it is, what it’s for, and how to talk to people. Most don’t. I design the ones that do.

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Recognition

Mercury Award for Innovation, 2022. U.S. Travel Association. Won by Visit Orlando for the Tripadvisor Alexa experience I designed.
Campaign Magazine. Named one of 30 Future Leaders.
Loeries, Eagles & Creative Circle. Awards for advertising craft.