In a recent presentation workshop I gave to sales professionals in the machinery industry, it became clear that ChatGPT is a real communication skills booster for some people. But not all people.

Workshop participant A: “I give this AI-written presentation a 9 out of 10. It’s much better and clearer than my English presentations.”

Workshop participant B: “I give it a 6.”

Workshop participant C: “I think it's a 7.” 

We can learn something important from these three responses. For the low- to mid-ability language user, the AI text will be better than what they could manage by themselves.

This is a powerful tool that can truly “democratize” international communications in English. With some training in making clear prompts, the user with a low language or communication ability can produce acceptable and very intelligible communications. 

So, what about high-intermediate and low-advanced level communicators, like many of non-native English writers in the sales, marketing and PR departments in Taiwan’s large international organizations?

Although their English “language” ability is quite impressive, their English “communication” ability is typically located at a sub-professional intermediate level.

This means they are especially susceptible to the Dunning-Kruger Effect: people of lower ability often overestimate their ability. Or in this case, overestimate ChatGPT’s communication ability.

By having too much faith in AI, these users may succumb to what I call the AI Dunning-Kruger Effect where the language looks and sounds accurate and fluent, but the communication may contain style, tone and word choice issues that can make the writing or speech sound inappropriate or unprofessional. 

This is not always important, but for high stakes communications like press releases, speeches, key sales emails, and diplomatic letters, this can make the organization or brand sound unprofessional, or worse, offensive to the target audience. 

If you need to communicate in a high stakes or professional context, AI may give you a text that meets the bare minimum requirements. But perhaps less. This is a real issue when an organization’s reputation is on the line. 

For effective professional communication, you need to understand two issues when using AI to enhance your communication ability: The specifics of the context, and the ability level of the AI user. 

The first issue involves the context’s communicator and target audience. The level of tone, formality, and specificity of information are key considerations for an effective message. The second is the language and communication ability level of the user. For low and high ability users, AI chatbots can provide clear gains in ability or productivity. 

Recent research published in the two apex research journals Nature and Science found that AI tools like ChatGPT can raise a lower ability communicator to an intermediate level one for tasks like email and report writing. For a high ability user, AI chatbots can save a lot of time creating raw material and even provide interesting new ideas that the user has the ability to evaluate. 

However, for intermediate level users, the situation is more precarious.

I work part-time as a proofreader in a large Taiwanese non-profit organization to make sure that speeches and diplomatic correspondence have the correct language, fluency and tone.

Although the writers of these documents have impressive English language ability, they are not trained in diplomatic or business communication, and are thus often only intermediate level communicators. Yet they usually have to write high-stakes communications that could affect the reputation of the non-profit. 

These writers have for several months been using ChatGPT to revise their writings. On the positive side, I have noticed fewer linguistic mistakes; however, I have also noticed some new problems that are more broadly related to communication style and appropriacy.

In terms of language style, AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Bing Chat prefer a generic, repetitive and wordy writing style. They also tend to use similar vocabulary and sentence patterns. One recent letter I revised used the same sentence pattern (a sentence with a list of A, B, and C) in four sentences out of five.

A few months ago, a writer came to me after her formal invitation letter was rejected several times by the Chairperson. The grammar was correct, and the language was fluent. But there were two important problems with the communication: It was twice as long as it should have been, and the main point of the letter was hidden in the third paragraph. 

I also edited a recent thank you letter to keynote speakers and immediately noticed a paragraph with adjectives and empty praise for their speech. It was clear the writer had not seen the speech, which is not the message the Chairperson would want to convey.

These are problems that go beyond superficial language correctness. They strike to the heart of effective communication—at least for high stakes contexts where reputation and decision-making are on the line.

AI should be an indispensable tool in a professional’s workflow—for low- to advanced-level language users and communicators. AI training is crucial for this.

But AI training is not sufficient for high stakes communication. An expert human in the loop is still required if the quality of communication and reputation of the for- or non-profit organization are at stake.

The first step is to realize the Dunning-Kruger Effect and guard against it. Otherwise, we are blindly following AI systems that can score a 9 out of 10 on language accuracy but only a 6 out of 10 on communication quality. 

(Source: Nigel Daly)

(This piece reflects the author's opinion, and does not represent the opinion of CommonWealth Magazine.)

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About the author:

Nigel P. Daly is a Business Communications Instructor at TAITRA’s International Trade Institute. He has a PhD in English from National Taiwan Normal University. 

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• The story behind Taiwan’s ChatGPT 

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