You know what, I had an idea.
It’s working, for the most part. You’re learning (as we all still are!) so once it works figure out how to refine it and that’s what you’re needing right now. So let’s put a pin in all this for a moment.
This is for an NPC, so braking isn’t as important. This might give you the overlapping movement you need-
Try opening your character movement component and messing with the BRAKING setting on your walk. If the braking is turned way down it may try to slow down early, if that’s the case you could tune acceleration as well.
Also- most of the stuff you mentioned in this previous post is true. I don’t think I’ve ever added a custom component for AI though… HOWEVER there are so, so many ways to do things with UE5 and that’s part of the appeal!
Mess with the braking and acceleration and lmk how it goes!