AI communication skills are becoming essential leadership skills. As more leaders use AI agents to draft, analyze, summarize, and execute work, the quality of our instructions will increasingly determine the quality of our outcomes. The same communication gaps that waste time with human teams—unclear expectations, missing context, and assumed understanding—can become even more costly when repeated through AI at scale.
Many people are poor communicators and poor managers.
You expect people to read your mind. You expect them to see the world the way you do. Poor communication results in wasted time, lost money, and poor morale.
We are completely unprepared for what will happen with AI agents.
If we’re bad communicators with other humans, what makes us think we’ll be good communicators with AI agents?
Picture this example, which I shared in a February article.
It was a Monday morning, and I was in a productive groove. I was writing something that required strategic focus. Halfway through the morning, I hit a roadblock: I needed to reference a document. Rather than stop and look for it myself, I messaged two members of my team and asked them for it, assuming they would talk to each other if they needed help finding it.
1 hour later, each one sent me a different document – and neither document was what I actually wanted. The problem was me: my lack of clarity. What I needed was clear in my head, but I failed to articulate it, and both employees interpreted my request in two different ways. I wasted the time of two talented team members because of my lack of clarity. That small mistake was inconvenient. At scale, it becomes expensive.
Why unclear communication becomes more expensive with AI
Now imagine giving unclear instructions to a swarm of AI agents. Are you ready to waste thousands of dollars on AI tokens, and thousands of hours pouring through AI slop, only to realize you didn’t give the right instructions to begin with?
Don’t scale poor communication skills.
Pause & breathe. Be thoughtful about what you’re looking to achieve. By all means, use AI: dialogue with AI about the outcome you’re looking for, and then ask for advice on the best way to explain your challenge. Ask what could go wrong and how you can better phrase your instructions.
In my keynotes, when I talk about the importance of using AI without losing your authenticity, the biggest takeaway people mention is intentionality.
Be intentional about the outcome you’re looking for, and what the potential obstacles are.
Before we get into a groove and simply ask an AI agent to do something, let’s stop and be intentional.
Let’s scale the best of human leadership.
That is exactly why I wrote AI for the Authentic Leader. The book helps leaders use AI as a thought partner while staying grounded in their own judgment, values, and voice. It offers a practical framework for communicating more clearly, thinking more intentionally, and leading more authentically in an AI-enabled world.
What would change in your organization if everyone treated clarity as the first step in using AI well?
Until next time,
~Allison
Allison Shapira, Harvard Lecturer. Executive Advisor. Hall of Fame Speaker. Bestselling Author.
P.S. If your leaders are adopting AI but losing the trust of their teammates in the process, fill out our contact form and we’ll set up a conversation. I’d love to discuss bringing my AI for the Authentic Leader keynote to your next leadership event.