AI Will Never Replace Human Interaction…But It Can Dramatically Enhance It

As artificial intelligence has spread from industry to industry, automating some jobs entirely and transforming others, it’s brought two big, scary myths along with it. First, that it will take away all our white-collar jobs, leaving business analysts, hedge fund managers, doctors, and lawyers unemployed and adrift. Second, that it will wipe out humans’ need to interact with one another—that we’ll become so accustomed to doing business with robots that we’ll lose our ability to create and maintain personal connections. Respectfully, we at Quantified disagree with both.

In regards to the first myth—that we’ll all be jobless once the robots take over—we’ve written extensively about the perspective shift that’s required to ease that fear, so we won’t linger on it here. But in short, artificial intelligence isn’t a competitor—it’s a coworker. While AI is likely to automate and replace a substantial number of jobs, this will leave us with a wide range of new jobs that require an evolved set of skills — and for many of those jobs, human connection will be more important than ever before.

Let’s dig into the second myth—that we’ll lose the need for human interaction. Ideally technology should always aim to extend and improve on available capabilities. Replacing human interaction with an automated option often results in lesser quality and lower satisfaction. Therefore, a thoughtful balance between applied human and technology appears to be the best solution in many instances.

Quantified is built on two critical beliefs:

1. That human-to-human communication is vital to humanity’s social life, and it should be nurtured and enhanced in any way possible
2. That data and artificial intelligence provide a powerful opportunity enhance personal, human-to-human interaction and have more winning conversations.

This fear around adding AI to human interaction is based on the traditional view of AI as a substituting tool that renders humans obsolete to any task it takes over. But when we’re talking about human connection, we need to shift our perspective again. The kind of artificial intelligence we’re talking about isn’t meant to displace humans, but to complement them, integrating technology-derived insights with human intelligence to increase our success in every critical conversation.

How Does It Work?

Conceptually, it’s not overly complex. If you can identify the conscious and subconscious traits that define how an audience perceives a speaker (trustworthy, confident, authoritative, etc.) and then measure those traits as they appear in any given communication event, then you can build and train algorithms that use big data and artificial intelligence to measure a person’s communication effectiveness—and show them exactly how to improve their skills in order to achieve their personal and professional goals. You can add science to the art of communication.

How Does AI Become the Ideal Ride-Along Communication Coach?

Consider the shortcomings of traditional communication coaching methods:

• Too pricey to implement at scale: Executive communication coaches can cost upwards of $10,000 per day.
• Too general to solve nuanced communication challenges: Group workshops and traditional online courses are designed for the lowest common denominator. While they may include some great wisdom, they aren’t specific to the individuals’ or even the groups’ particular needs or scenarios, and therefore they’re unlikely to stick.
• Subjective: Even a highly educated opinion is just one perspective, and based on impressions that may or may not highlight underlying causes.
• Time-consuming: If communication training adds to busy employees’ and leaders’ to-do lists (as coaching sessions and workshops inevitably do), they’re liable to be met with resentment rather than engagement.

Businesses and teams need solutions that can provide nuanced, personalized training to every individual at scale. And individual employees need options that can integrate into their existing workflows and support them in real-life workplace scenarios.

That’s where AI-based communication training comes in.

The Quantified platform starts with — you guessed it — the human element. We built the world’s most comprehensive database of human communication scored for its impact by human audiences. Over nearly a decade, we have had diverse audiences evaluate and score videos of people communicating—presentations, keynotes, sales calls, etc.—for impact. Did they trust the communicator? Was the speaker credible, authentic, likeable? Would they buy from them? We then built a model based on the behavioral and social science of human communication and connection. This model identified the 24 key drivers of communication effectiveness across message content, vocal delivery, visual delivery, and the audience perception they create. Our human-trained, deep-learning AI then uses sight, sound, and language to assess over 1,400 behaviors in every communication to precisely quantify how effectively an individual communicates. Importantly, the combination of our unmatched communications database and human supervised machine learning means that Quantified can predict the audience reaction to a speaker with great accuracy. This allows our clients to prepare with precision and ensure that their most critical conversations are winning conversations.

The result?

• Team leaders can pinpoint development opportunities in both individuals and in the group in order to tailor coaching to specific needs, and they can identify what makes top performers successful and support others in developing those same critical skills.
• Individuals (human individuals!) can learn to connect more effectively with one another in order to drive better business outcomes — all in the flow of work and without the added time requirements of participating in another training class or expense of one-on-one coaching.

When Is Complementary AI Most Useful?

No matter how well-thought-out your argument, how persuasive your data, or how compelling your message, if you don’t communicate it well, it won’t affect your audience in the way you want it to. AI-based communication training can support better outcomes in any high-stakes communication event, from fundraising pitches to pharmaceutical sales to internal town halls and team meetings. We know it’s important to be as prepared as possible when money, relationships, or reputation are on the line, and fortunately, that now includes personalized, near-real-time, continuous support from your favorite new collaborator: artificial intelligence.

To learn more about what it takes to implement communication skills training that integrates seamlessly into employees’ workflow, provides ongoing feedback and training, and drives measurable, lasting results, we encourage you to download our free e-book, “The Buyer’s Guide to Communication Skills Training.” Then, when you’re ready, request a demo and one of our experts will be happy to walk you through the Quantified platform and process.