Artificial intelligence can help executives communicate more effectively and efficiently. But relying on it too much carries significant risks.
One of the biggest is something Wade Foster, co-founder and chief executive of workflow automation platform Zapier, calls the “comprehension gap”—failing to adequately understand the underlying subject matter of their own AI-assisted work.
Leaders who overuse AI to write polished memos, emails, or talking points may find themselves unable to answer follow-up questions or back up their claims in real time. The fact that they used AI to create the original material might quickly become obvious.
“There are definitely situations [where] you don’t use AI responsibly, where you’re delegating too much,” Foster said in an appearance on Harvard Business Review’s IdeaCast earlier today.
“As you get asked questions, as you start to investigate, you realize, ‘Oh, I don’t actually know enough about this area,’” he said.
AI overuse can also rob executives of knowledge they would have gained by producing the materials themselves, added Matt Abrahams, a lecturer in organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Composing an internal memo about a regulatory issue, for example, might give an executive a deeper understanding of the issue itself.
“Communication is operationalized critical thinking,” Abrahams told IdeaCast. “If we outsource that critical thinking and then are put on the spot to answer questions, to give input, to give an update, people get really anxious.”
The key to avoiding such a scenario is to take time studying the AI-generated material until you really comprehend it, Abrahams said—it’s about truly knowing the subject matter, even if you had some help putting the verbiage together
“It is really important not just to review the output, but to really review the thinking so that when you’re put on the spot, you have the confidence that you know what you’re speaking about,” he said. Otherwise, workers might come to believe that their leaders aren’t doing their homework.
The business community is still figuring how to responsibly incorporate AI into communications, Foster added.
“AI is a fantastic tool and to not use it would be a mistake,” he said. “[But] it could be a lot better if you use it responsibly. [That] is what everyone’s trying to figure out.”
Leaders who overuse AI without understanding the underlying subject matter risk their own credibility—one recent study found that employees view executive communications as less helpful when they think they are AI-generated (even when they aren’t)—and set a bad example for workers who may be eager to outsource their own work to AI.
In the end, it may be that there are no hard-and-fast rules for responsible AI use in executive communications. Leaders will have to decide on a case-by-case basis.
“It just depends on the task,” Foster said. “There could be areas where the impact is relatively low, and you’re fine delegating the work to the AI more fully.”
“It just comes down to judgment.”