Oh, I'm terrible for "can I ask you something?" "can I talk to you?" and all variants thereof. I blame it on being scared of approaching people when I was younger - when I ask one of those non-questions, what I'm really saying is "please let me know whether you are scary/hate me before I attempt to interact with you in any depth?" and I'm very grateful when people realise as much and offer me the necessary affirmation before I go on.

But I suppose it is a bit odd in a business context, yes.