AI is having a ripple effect across industries. From the technical perspective, AI seeks to innovate, but executives can overlook the impact it has on the humans who are leveraging those tools. AI is expediting the transmission of information faster than previously imagined, and it can create the impression that any person could be an “expert.”
However, that’s not quite true. And more professionals are beginning to have similar interactions with executives challenging their expertise. Why? Because an LLM generated something in seconds, so why can’t they? Or, AI said that the outcomes should be much more impressive, so what went wrong? Now asking questions is one thing, but making accusations is another.
From a communications perspective, it’s important for companies, whether dealing with employees and/or vendors, to begin to address these issues head-on. Here are the most common communications problems that are arising as a result of increased AI dependency.
AI Delusions Are Not Reality: Understand the Difference
Most people have observed acts of greatness, whether that is someone climbing Mount Everest, competing in an Ironman race, or watched a documentary on an athlete free-climbing to previously unthought-of heights. After watching this, no person should think that they are now an expert. Observing doesn’t give you the skills to be able to do any of these things.
However, in the corporate world, more executives are entering conversations with an unearned sense of confidence around what they believe they know. Reading something second-hand is not the same as being an expert, working in an industry for many years, perfecting skills, and improving on those skills. In an increasingly online world where interpersonal communications have already been challenged, AI is growing that gap internally and externally. Speaking from superficial knowledge and then denigrating anyone with actual lived experience is a growing trend.
The Impact of AI-Motivated Bad Behavior
A common expression goes that people will always remember how you made them feel. However technical this world is becoming, it is still run by people. And people are emotional. The people you interact with now, whether they are an employee or a vendor, may be people who have direct influence on your business objectives or career goals later on. Burning bridges is something that most would advise against.
What you do, who you are, and how you treat people does matter and always will. Whether you are a CEO or staff member in a large or small organization, the respect you show experts and how you act will have an impact. It’s important to recognize that if you are allowing yourself or anyone on your team to behave negatively, this may reduce opportunities in the future.
Ultimately, communication is growing even more important, and AI adoption isn’t an excuse for bad behavior. Most companies are still motivated to make purchases based on the people behind the technology/services. If you blindly trust AI while dismissing the expertise of the people you’ve hired to challenge assumptions and exercise judgment, it won’t take long before you find yourself isolated to an island of your own making.