The Future of Human Communication: How

Artificial Intelligence Will Transform the

Way We Communicate
June 14, 2016
It’s only a matter of time until Artificial Intelligence is a decision maker in every workplace.
Although the term may still conjure up sci-fi images of robots gone rogue, AI, as it is often
called for short, is actually far less terrifying. With the development of AI, computer systems can
complete or augment tasks that would require human intelligence — at a much larger scale than
we could on our own — in fields that include speech recognition, visual perception and decision-
making.

Robots, yes, but AI is more than that. When Amazon offers recommendations based on your
browsing history, that’s artificial intelligence. When your thermostat adjusts the temperature
automatically to help you save money, that’s AI. Siri, Google Now, and Cortana are, too.

It’s understandable that AI has caused unease among those who fear it may render their jobs
obsolete. As technology has progressed and the scope of AI has expanded, so have the tension
between art and science. Many artists have grown to fear a future in which robots may edge them
out of their work. But what if AI, rather than making artists obsolete, could actually make their
jobs easier? In the leadership communication industry, that’s exactly what’s happening.

AI in Communication
Public speaking has long been considered an art, as has communication in general. Starting in
grade school, there’s a perception that you can be great at math and science or great at writing
and speaking, but not both.

But we’ve seen that artificial intelligence is enabling people to approach creative endeavors in a
way that resembles math, blurring the line between art and science. According to Ray Kurzweil,
one of the best-known AI thinkers, this creative process begins with “Hybrid Thinking,” an
interplay between human and cyber intelligence that he sees as the next big leap in thinking, and
it goes so far as Google researchers’ attempts to quantify the ultimate art: art.

So as the machines get smarter, we can begin to measure and track human behavior in ways that
were never before possible. For further thinking here, we are big fans of Sandy Pentland at MIT
Media Lab.
We use AI to help leaders improve the way they
communicate.
Conceptually, it’s not overly complex. If you can train machines to identify what makes an
audience react (trust, engage, listen, act) and then train the machine to measure enough factors in
those communications (how we use our words, voices, gestures) that may influence those
reactions, then you can use data science and algorithms to build an intelligent machine that can
improve how we communicate.

We train our machine (analytics platform) on the factors that make someone best-in-class, what
makes someone a great leadership communicator, what makes someone trustworthy, etc., and
then we help people “optimize” their communication on those factors.

How it works: The Platform Simulates the Audience

The goal of any communication, whether it’s a letter to shareholders or a keynote address, is to
influence the audience in some way. As we prepare to deliver key messages, the question on our
minds is always Will this work? Will this have the desired effect on my audience? With enough
resources invested in test audiences, focus groups, and certain media monitoring platforms, you
may begin to get an answer to that question. Unfortunately, these costly, time-consuming
methods are out of the realm of possibility for many companies, and most individuals.

However, developments in technology and data science have led to a new kind of AI — where
you can simulate an audience, empowering you to identify in an objective and efficient way, how
your message and delivery will land.

What You Say: How Will Your Content Resonate With Your Audience?

Using natural language processing — translating human communication into the computer’s
processing language — we can conduct automated content evaluations. The AI uses algorithms
built from years of audience perception and communication research to analyze your content on
a wide range of characteristics. How trustworthy will your audience perceive your message to
be? Will they find it to be clear? Engaging? More clear and engaging than your competitor’s
latest presentation?

How You Say It: How Will Your Delivery Affect their Impression of You?

Similar technology enables the AI to evaluate how an audience will respond to the way you
deliver your message — your tone of voice, speech rate, facial cues, and body language. Will
your gestures make you appear confident or nervous? Will your tone convey topic mastery?
The data-driven insights the AI provides on the quality and effectiveness of your communication
are fully customizable, allowing you to tailor your feedback to the needs of your audience and to
the purpose of your engagement. Imagine being able to pinpoint your specific strengths and
development areas right away — without having to wait for survey results or wonder whether
your test audience was truly objective.

What’s more, you can use the same process to measure other communicators — your peers, your
competitors, your entire industry — at the same time, to find out exactly how you compare.

The Future
What’s the next step? The AI’s data-driven insights already make our feedback, rehearsal and
revision processes much easier. But what if it could do more?

Prescription: Machine Learning Guides Improvement

What if AI could pair those insights with automated recommendations based on your greatest
development opportunities? What if it could build an action plan to help you achieve the greatest
improvement in the smallest amount of time?

In their research on “An Executive’s Guide to Machine Learning”, McKinsey identified the three
phases of AI as description, prediction, and prescription. As the AI continues to evolve, (human-
supervised) machine learning will empower it to arm coaches, speakers, and writers with more
than just descriptive insights and predictive measures — it will begin to play a major role in the
improvement process itself.
Virtual Reality in the Rehearsal Room

When we prepare to give a speech, we can rehearse in front of family members, friends, and
coaches to practice speaking to an audience. We can rehearse in noisy areas to practice powering
through distraction. But the rehearsal room can only take us so far. Virtual reality may change
that.

As these platforms continue to become more immersive and more accessible, speakers will have
the opportunity to simulate speaking in their presentation space, in front of a packed audience.
Speakers and their coaches will be able to recreate multiple rehearsal environments such as a
lecture hall, a conference room, or even the TED stage. Users can leverage this technology to
practice interacting with an unpredictable audience, and to become comfortable presenting in the
room.

Enhancing — Not Erasing — the Artistic Experience

Let’s be clear. We’re not counting down the days until communication experts, editors, and
public speaking coaches become obsolete. We’re celebrating the ways artificial intelligence has,
and will, make their jobs easier and their methods more efficient.

Our own communication analysts and coaches have already embraced these new developments,
reinforcing their own subjective instincts and expertise to guide clients with objective data that
represents an audience of millions. This method is more expansive and more objective than any
focus group, and it allows coaches to present a clear view of how their particular audience will
react to the speaker’s message.

Briar Goldberg from our team shares the value she sees in applying AI to communications: she
can create stronger personal relationships with her clients when the AI is delivering the tough
love.

“Now, with objective data, the more difficult messages feel less personal, less confrontational,
which, as a coach, allows me to build my relationships from solutions and progress.”

One more reason for communication professionals to adopt artificial intelligence: studies show
that even though we spend up to 80 percent of our waking hours communicating, we’re
conscious of only 5 to 20 percent of the signals we’re sending others. Shouldn’t we be seeking
out as many tools as possible to make sure our most important messages are being heard?