Startup investor. Serial entrepreneur. Mentor. Founder & CEO of Roonyx Inc.—blockchain, fintech solution development.
Large language models peaked in 2023, and have changed how we communicate with software systems forever. If before it took you years to learn how to code to be able to become a “machine whisperer” (a.k.a. programmer), today you can formulate your commands in plain English. As Andrej Karpathy has recently noted on his Twitter account, “The hottest new programming language is English.”
However, AI systems are changing more than just human-machine interaction. Human-human interaction is also profoundly affected by the new patterns that arise as a result of wide proliferation of chatbots and other systems.
Can AI really influence human communication?
When talking about technology, what is often missed is how we learn certain behavioral patterns from communication with computer systems.
An article by David L. Altheide, PhD, professor at Arizona State University, proposes the concept of an “ecology of communication” to describe the complex web of interactions and influences that shape communication in a given environment. He suggests that the expansion of information technology into more areas of social life makes it hard to ignore the impact of these technologies and “accompanying logic” on a host of social activities. Information technology and communication formats operate in this new environment and modify social interactions, adding or eliminating existing practices.
Sometimes we prefer to interact with technology rather than humans.
Primitive chatbots have been employed in customer service since the 1990s. However, the appearance of transformer models have improved communication logic and provided for AI to understand the context and become much smarter.
Several years ago a group of researchers conducted a study investigating whether customers prefer to interact with humans or technology-based self-services at the hotel checkin/out and throughout the stay. They have found a higher preference for human interaction, although people who did prefer technology said that “the speed of delivery” and “ease of use” were the determining factors for their preference.
In 2023, 62% of consumers would prefer to use a customer service bot than wait for a human to answer their requests. It demonstrates how advancement in technology and their ability to provide good results are slowly owing the respect and trust of customers.
Fast response is key to successful communication.
Being constantly exposed to technology, such as chatbots and Google search, made us very impatient when expecting a response. According to statistics, 59% of customers expect a chatbot to respond within five seconds. When talking about messages from a human being, 64% of the respondents said that people most typically respond to their messages immediately or within a few minutes.
More than 40% of people prefer online communication and only 26% still prefer face-to-face communication. To be able to keep up with the speed of online communication, we have to change how we speak. The average sentence length has decreased in the past 500 years: from 20 to 15 words in a sentence. However, many text messages are even below that rate: they use abbreviations, slang and chopped-off sentences, as well as stickers, memes and emojis to simplify syntax and increase the speed of response.
Learning a foreign language is no longer necessary.
AI incorporated into browsers, social networks, email services and messengers automatically translates content in a foreign language. Such systems are even able to translate and generate audio translation in real time, making it possible to watch videos in a foreign language or even have a Zoom meeting.
In the near future, I believe we will be able to fully rely on translation systems to communicate with people from all over the world. However, here comes the disadvantage too: learning other languages isn’t only a good hobby, but also a tool of encouraging intercultural communication and collaboration. When we learn a foreign language, we don’t just learn grammar and vocabulary but also immerse ourselves into the nation’s history and culture. Without that cultural exchange, it may be difficult for people of the future to understand each other, even when natural language translation will be out of the way.
AI can change what we consider acceptable in communication.
One study that analyzed Gmail’s automatic suggestions when writing emails found that the prompts it offers have a much more positive tone than what humans usually use. Smart Compose introduced by Google and QuickType by Apple are just some examples of technologies that use AI to predict what we might be trying to say.
These algorithms can suggest the next words in a sentence as we write, and new AI-technologies, such as ChatGPT, make it extremely advanced. Since prompting saves time and effort when writing standard emails and is already used by many, I believe the style and tone that it provides may become a widely-accepted standard of communication.
Final Takeaways
The rise of AI is transforming the way humans communicate with one another. While some fear that AI will replace human interaction altogether, others believe that it can enhance and improve communication. No matter what, I believe AI will have profound impact on what clients expect from communication, and business leaders have to adjust to these requirements if they want to grow their business.
In my opinion, outsourcing customer service to chatbots is a must-do practice. Leaders must understand the importance of reduced response time and preference for human-machine communication. It can also provide you with a solution to seamlessly communicate with customers from different countries, regardless of the language barrier. Moreover, conversational AI can help you set universal communication standards, where all messages to the client are friendly and professional.
However, you need to make sure that your chatbot solution relies on the latest innovations in the field of conversational AI, such as GPT-systems. The new generation of chatbots provides a qualitatively different experience that can be improved in the future as the technology evolves. To integrate conversational AI into your business, you can build a chatbot from scratch or do your research to find the right ready-made service tailored to your business needs.
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