Midwest Machines and Minds

Author: Jim Fahrenbach

We’re arguably nearing the end of the “storming” phase of widespread adoption of AI tooling for everyday productivity. Not implying that adoption is universal, but the business case around their adoption is becoming less contested and moving more towards a matter of budget and timing rather than having to prove their value.

What this implies is a lot of the communication we’re getting from co-workers and clients throughout the day may be the result of AI tooling prompts and not necessarily original work created by the sender. This raises an important question, how extensively should we be leveraging AI for business communications?

Don’t Promote AI Created Content as Original (People Can Check)

Since we’re at the point of widespread adoption of AI tooling, people can recognize when something is AI generated, even if you “wash it” through various AI tooling promising to “humanize” content.

There’s a quirk resulting from this, some of us naturally write extensively as part of our job or personal life, proof-read, write clearly, and spell check. In addition, AI “scoring” tools, which determine the likelihood that something is AI generated, have become widespread and are being built into some of the very same AI tooling. There’s a greater chance you’ll stick out positively and shine by sticking to your natural rigor and ability in your communications, as people may be checking its authenticity.

However, there’s nothing wrong in just pointing out when you’re leveraging AI content to provide more information or using it to determine the best approach to communicate something prior to authoring it.

Worth pointing out, there was a time, many years ago, when leveraging spell check, more specifically grammar check, was seen as “cheating” until the value of clear communication outweighed any misgivings around it.

Being authentic, while being able to communicate clearly, has dramatically more “brand value” than relying solely on AI tooling as your primary source of communication.

Leverage AI Tooling for Productivity, Research, and to Help Stay on Top of Tasks and Commitments

Leadership is expecting to see improvements in process workflow, productivity, and business clarity through the use of AI tooling to reap the benefits of their investments. Tools like Microsoft Co-Pilot do a fantastic job of allowing us to “stay on top” of where we are during the workday, what happened regarding a specific event or project, performing research, and making sure following-up on tasks (both known and implied).

Personally, and in the field, I’ve seen clients become dramatically more productive by simply allowing AI tooling do what it does extremely well. Monitor project workflow, recap how a situation or event happened, pointing out choke points, research, identifying people involved, and automating (either completely or partially) tasks.

By NOT leveraging AI tooling throughout your workday you’re hurting your ability to compete professionally, both internally and externally.

Unlock Extreme Value by Using AI Tooling to Verify or Enhance Your Work

Due to its ability to recap events, research, and provide clarity on project work, there’s an insane amount of value in using AI tooling to verify your output. The speed at which AI tooling (like Work IQ) can process vast amounts of your information means there’s almost no reason not to leverage a few prompts to verify what you’re sending before sending or delivering it. By doing so, you help smooth out your workflow, reduce cross communication and follow-ups, and it often only requires a few minutes of additional time.

AI Tooling Doesn’t Replace the Value of “Face Time”, Well Structured Meetings, and Business Relationships

Ultimately, people are still what drives a business and personal relationships. Meeting clients, co-workers, either in person or on camera, brings an element of familiarity and intimacy that AI can’t replace. Oddly, using AI tooling to determine when you last met someone either on camera or in-person has a lot of value and can help make sure you’re “tending your fields” in regards to your business.

To sum it up, navigating AI in our daily communication is not about choosing between human or machine generated content, but striking a balance. AI tooling offers unmatched capabilities in making us more productive, summarizing complex topics or events, reviewing our work and automating workflows. However, it can’t entirely replicate an authentic voice and create the trust built through genuine human connections.

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