A new study, conducted by American researchers, has found, that AI models can help with email writing, but the constant involvement of LLMs in these tasks will make these emails insincere and less competent.
The results of the survey conducted by D., a researcher at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business Anthony Coman and co-author of the study, D. in philosophy from the University of Southern California Peter Cardon, have demonstrated, that while the use of AI can make executive email more elegant and professional, the reliance on LLM models such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, or Claude, can undermine employees’ trust in management.
“We see a contradiction between the perception of the quality of the message and the perception of the sender. Despite the positive impression of professionalism in AI-assisted writing, managers who use AI to solve everyday communication tasks, are putting their own credibility at risk by using medium and high levels of AI assistance”, — Anthony Coman notes.
The survey involved 1,100 specialists from various companies. They were asked to evaluate the level of email writing by artificial intelligence. The emails were written with a low, medium, and high level of AI involvement. Participants evaluated not only the content but also their perception of the sender.
According to Koman, employees are about equally likely to evaluate their own use of AI, whether it was a minor or major involvement. At the same time, they are more have a specific attitude towards the use of AI by their own managers. While minor AI assistance, such as grammar or editing, was generally acceptable, more intensive assistance was perceived negatively.
Employees perceive the increased use of AI by managers with doubts about the authorship, honesty, and competence of their superiors. Only 40-52% of employees thought their managers were sincere, when they actively used AI, compared to 83%, when they reported low levels of AI assistance. 95% of managers with low levels of AI assistance considered the messages of executives to be professional, this figure dropped to 69-73% when executives actively used AI tools.
The survey results also showed, that employees often recognize AI-generated content and interpret it as a manifestation of laziness or indifference on the part of managers. When leaders actively use AI for messages, such as team greetings or motivational messages, employees perceive them as less sincere and doubt their leadership skills.
The authors of the study emphasize, that managers should carefully consider the types of messages, the level of AI support in them, and the context of the interaction. While AI can be appropriate and professionally received for informational or mundane messages, such as appointment reminders or factual announcements, relationship-oriented messages that require empathy, praise, congratulations, motivation, or personal feedback are best handled with minimal technological intervention.
The results of the study were published in the journal International Journal of Business Communication
Source: SciTechDaily
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