6 Ways to Improve Organizational Communication—and Your Bottom Line—with AI

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Is unclear, inconsistent communication costing your business time, efficiency, and money? Is organizational communication a priority at your organization? It should be—along with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI). Collaborating with AI technology is a business opportunity that cannot be overlooked.

What Does AI Mean?

Let’s ask ChatGPT, an AI-powered conversational assistant, who will nail this question!

"Artificial Intelligence is the science of building machines that can mimic human intelligence—learning from data, making decisions, and adapting to new information. It's not just about automation, but about enabling systems to think, reason, and improve over time."
—ChatGPT, OpenAI Language Model

A Quick Snapshot of AI’s Journey

AI technology has come a long way since Alan Turing asked if machines could think back in the 1950s. The term “artificial intelligence” was coined in 1956, and early systems could play games or solve logic problems. Today, AI powers everything from voice assistants to self-driving cars, thanks to significant advances in how machines learn and use information.

If you’ve watched Netflix, posted on Facebook, accepted a suggestion while composing an email, or asked for directions to a restaurant on your phone, then you’ve collaborated with AI.

6 Ways for Employees to Leverage AI to Improve Organizational Communication—and Your Bottom Line

AI technology has transformative potential if fully utilized correctly in the workplace. Leverage AI to improve internal communications within teams and throughout the organization and also reap the benefits of AI.

“AI does not keep me up at night. What does? The idea that we might not use AI to its fullest, to help us collaborate and understand each other better.” —Eric "Astro" Teller, a scientist, entrepreneur, and the captain of moonshots at Google X

One of the top organizational best practices business leaders should make is to incorporate AI technology into employee workflows. Some employees may shy away from leveraging AI as they may view it as a threat rather than as a tool to embrace to help excel in their careers. Business leaders have a crucial role in easing these concerns and empowering their team members to collaborate with it. The following ways to leverage AI are quick wins and will build employee confidence in using AI.

#1. Completing tedious writing tasks

AI can offload everyday written communication job functions simply by sharing short notes and data. Here are several examples:

Scripting an email helps employees write polite, persuasive, or informative emails. leaving out any guesswork for the recipients.
Creating a presentation outline allows time to focus on prep work.
Drafting a meeting agenda saves time and will be clear and concise.
Summarizing meetings and action items keeping team members on the same page.

These simple AI use cases allow time for the employee to focus on higher-performing tasks and ensure clear communication.

“In the age of AI, human creativity and innovation will become even more valuable in the workplace, as machines take over routine tasks and allow people to focus on generating new ideas and solutions.” —widely attributed to Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google

#2. Sharing clear and concise information

Ineffective communication costs U.S. businesses $2 trillion per year in time and productivity, according to Harvard Business Review. This is due to unclear or overlooked communication.

27% of employees and 38% of managers feel overwhelmed by both the quantity of messages they receive and the confusion that unclear messages can create, according to a Gartner survey.

When team members can share their ideas more clearly and effectively, they can collaborate with other employees better, have more open dialogue, and produce better results. Employee engagement increases. This in turn builds stronger business relationships as team members connect better and faster. No more back-and-forth internal emails caused by unclear, vague, or incomplete messages. Communication issues are resolved. AI also helps cut through information overload making it easier to process and understand what matters most. AI makes a positive difference in the employee experience.

For example, a manager can use ChatGPT to write an email to their direct report to lead an initiative to drive more traffic to the company’s website. ChatGPT will generate an email within seconds. If the manager wants a more detailed response, the manager should add some context. By giving AI more information, it incorporates those parameters into its response.

Remember when using AI be sure to review before sending so it doesn’t sound unnatural. You know the message recipient better than AI does, so be sure tone and recipient are aligned.

#3. Ensuring consistency across communications

Business leaders should train AI in the organization’s brand guide to ensure all communications comply with the company’s brand voice. Using the same tone and terminology is important for consistency across all external and internal communications.

#4. Sharing different perspectives

Ask AI to read through the draft in different personas, like leadership, frontline workers, or customers, to get a variety of perspectives. This will help employees anticipate different reactions and communicate more effectively. Furthermore, AI can convey how a message will be interpreted across different cultures, departments, or backgrounds, preventing any misunderstandings. AI helps to create a company culture of open communication.

#5: Telling stories

"Generative AI is not just about creating something new, but about capturing what was once impossible to express." —Timnit Gebru

Storytelling in the workplace provides a good way of getting messages across as opposed to just presenting the facts. Ultimately, storytelling puts the details of day-to-day business into a clear, relatable narrative, helping employees better understand how they fit into the organization and how they can grow.

Just as a father can ask AI to create a personalized, imaginative story with his child’s favorite stuffed animal by prompting the AI with a fun theme and tweaking the story to include family member’s names or family events, employees can have fun using AI to create storytelling in the workplace.

To learn more about storytelling in the workplace, check out several of HSI’s blogs:

#6: Translating content

For global organizations or those who have frontline workers who may not be fluent in English, AI is to the rescue! AI helps translate content quickly and accurately across languages, enabling clearer cross-cultural communication and improving collaboration. Several AI tools for translation include DeepL and Microsoft Translator.

The Benefits of Collaborating with AI

By leveraging AI technology, employees can optimize their abilities, simplify business processes, and boost productivity. In a study for Harvard Business Review, H. James Wilson and Paul R. Daugherty found that in 1,025 businesses across twelve industries, those that managed to create collaborative partnerships between humans and AI saw not only increased profits, but reduced costs.

AI will not replace employees; it’s a collaboration tool. It provides additional support to make employees' jobs easier. Here are a few of the many benefits of AI in the workplace:

Boosts efficiency: AI takes mundane tasks off employees’ plates and frees up their time for higher-level responsibilities and more impactful initiatives. In turn, this provides learning and growth opportunities for each and every employee.
Provides clarity and consistency in organizational communication: AI alleviates confusing or contradictory messages that waste employees’ time and cause unnecessary conflict.
Enables insightful and strategic thinking: AI helps employees make more informed decisions and discover solutions to complex problems.
Sparks creativity: AI generates fresh ideas, uncovers patterns, and shares unique perspectives that inspire employees’ imaginations.
Ignites innovation: AI accelerates problem-solving, uncovers new possibilities through data insights, and in turn leads to creative innovative solutions.

In a collaborative study, Harvard researchers and Boston Consulting Group found that consultants using generative AI completed 12.2% more tasks, worked 25.1% faster, and produced 40% higher-quality results. Remarkably, lower-performing consultants improved their performance by 43%. This study shows AI's potential to narrow skill gaps and significantly boost productivity.

HSI Can Help

Now is the right time for all employees to start leveraging AI. Don’t let procrastination leave your company in the dust. AI must be a priority! Employees will be more efficient, more productive, and will accomplish more in a shorter period of time. This will not only lead to greater job satisfaction and a happier workplace but also enhance the employee experience and positively impact the bottom line.

"The future of work lies in the collaboration between humans and AI, where technology enhances our natural abilities, allowing us to think more strategically and creatively and empowering us to drive innovation in the workplace." —Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of DeepMind

Let HSI help reshape the way your employees work. Here’s just a sampling of lessons that HSI Blue Ocean Brain, a sub-brand of HSI, offers that will assist employees in undergoing the digital transformation:

The Advent of AI at Work
Can You Trust AI to Be Fair?
Enhancing Daily Life with AI
How to Solve Problems with AI
Communicating in the Age of AI
Collaborating with Artificial Intelligence
Developing an AI Strategy for Your Team
Promptly Generated: Using AI as a Writer
Stories @ Work: How AI Is Shaping the Future of Work

Much like AI, learning and development must be iterative, data-driven, and responsive to employee needs. L&D leaders must craft agile learning strategies. Digital transformation is going to be the easy part, but the human transformation where we concentrate on skills that employees need to develop and use more will be the real challenge. When organizations invest in AI they should also invest energy and time in training to develop employees' soft skills. Critical soft skills include a growth mindset, adaptability, emotional intelligence, and communication.

Explore a variety of free lessons from HSI and connect with us for a personalized consultation to learn more!

6 Ways to Improve Organizational Communication—and Your Bottom Line—with AI

What Does AI Mean?

A Quick Snapshot of AI’s Journey