Rethinking communication in the age of AI

What does the future of communication at work look like?

As AI becomes embedded in how work gets done, the way teams exchange information, make decisions, and align expectations is quietly changing.

What does good communication mean when work becomes more visible and retrievable, talking becomes prompting, and part of our “colleagues” are no longer…human? Are our current habits enough for what’s coming?

Our team at Rework has partnered with London Speech Workshop - a communication coaching service provider - to look into how communication has and should evolve in this age of AI.

What AI teaches us about communication - The logic of clarity

Have you ever felt frustrated working with an LLM, not because it’s incapable, but because it takes multiple prompts before it finally produces an answer that feels usable? At some point, many people conclude that it’s faster to just do the work themselves.

Most of us experience this at least once.

But the truth is, the issue isn’t always AI’s incapability.

At a fundamental level, large language models don’t understand intent the way humans do. In practice, this happens through a prediction process.

When you give the AI a prompt, it doesn't actually "think" about what you want.
Instead, it looks at your input and predicts what response would most likely come next, based on millions of examples it learned from during training.

If your prompt is vague, the AI defaults to the most common, generic responses it has seen before. When your prompt is specific and clear, you're helping the AI narrow down to more relevant, targeted responses from its training.

Think of it like this: the AI has access to every possible response, but your prompt is the filter that determines which ones it considers. A weak filter gets you generic results. A strong filter gets you exactly what you need. Garbage in, garbage out.

What’s interesting is that this frustration feels strangely familiar.

How many times have you had to ask an employee to double-check or reconfirm a task?

How often does work need to be redone, not because it was done poorly, but because it wasn’t what you meant?

How many times have people quietly tried to guess their manager’s real intention?

We see the same pattern emerge: when we don't provide clear input (specific instructions, examples, success criteria), we get generic output (work that's technically correct but misses the mark). AI simply exposes this problem more brutally.

Humans can ask follow-up questions, but they often don't; either because they don't want to seem incompetent, or because they think they understand when they don't.

Just like with AI, human communication breaks down when we skip the specifics. We say "make it better" without defining what “better” looks like. We set deadlines without clarifying what done means. We give feedback like "this doesn't feel right" without explaining what right would be.

As an AI-first operational system, our Rework team has been digging into how AI works and how to best design a system where AI and human workforce can collaborate effectively. It comes down to defining a structured input and output.

This structured input and output technique that makes AI more effective works exactly the same with people, but we’ve been neglecting them. When you tell someone, "write a proposal," you get generic results. When you say, "write a 2-page proposal with budget breakdown, timeline, and 3 comparable case studies," you get what you actually need.

Learning to prompt AI effectively forces us to think more clearly about what we actually want. Each time we refine a prompt to get better AI output, we're also learning to articulate our thoughts more precisely.

This clarity becomes essential as we enter an era where teams include both humans and AI. You can't have one communication style for your AI tools and another for your team members; the same principles of clarity, specificity, and explicit criteria apply to both.

In the end, in a world where both humans and machines are part of our workforce, clarity has now become the foundation of effective leadership.

Reclaiming human connection - The empathy layer

If clarity is the foundation, human connection is what keeps communication alive and effective. In the age of AI, that connection is under pressure.

Structured, AI-enabled systems are exceptionally good at removing ambiguity. But when human communication doesn’t evolve alongside this structure, teams risk sliding into a different kind of dysfunction: disconnection.

As London Speech Workshop founder, Emma Serlin, puts it:

“AI gives us extraordinary clarity about what’s happening, but it doesn’t tell us how to be human with one another when things get hard. When structure increases and emotional skill doesn’t, tension intensifies.”

When the “what” becomes automated, but the “how” is neglected, we don’t just lose emotional depth–we lose alignment, morale, and trust.

In fact, the clarity AI brings creates a powerful opportunity, not to replace human connection, but to reinvest in it. When roles and workflows are visible, teams are freed to focus on deeper questions: how we listen, how we respond, and how we create trust when things are difficult, not just when they’re easy.

The Serlin Method® – a framework designed by The London Speech Workshop – is built around this reality: not resisting structure, but helping people work humanely within it. These programmes help leaders and teams reclaim the human touch in environments driven by metrics, efficiency, and speed.

At its core are three capabilities.

Genuine Connection shifts communication from purely transactional to relational. In clarity-first environments, conversations can easily become purely task-driven: updates, deadlines, metrics, outputs. Genuine Connection reintroduces the human signal into that system: listening beneath the words, responding with empathy, and building rapport intentionally, so colleagues don’t just feel informed, but seen, valued, and understood.

Authentic Presence ensures structure doesn’t flatten confidence or individuality. In highly visible, feedback-rich environments, people can become guarded or performative. Authentic Presence helps individuals communicate calmly and credibly under pressure, creating safety for honest dialogue rather than strategic silence.

Navigating Conflict, through tools like CEDAR, gives teams a clear and compassionate framework for addressing tension, without resorting to avoidance or escalation. As AI makes performance gaps, accountability, and blockers more visible, difficult conversations arise. What matters is how we handle them. Frameworks like CEDAR help teams address friction directly, turning discomfort into clarity instead of letting it quietly erode trust.

Together, these capabilities form an empathy layer over operational structure. They ensure that as workflows become more precise, communication becomes more human. Because while structure may set the stage, only human connection delivers sustainable performance. Clarity in the age of AI should lead to cohesion rather than coldness.

Bringing it together - A new model for communication

When AI-driven structure meets human empathy, a new model of communication takes shape - one where clarity and connection are no longer competing forces, but complementary strengths.

Structure enables empathy because when managers have clear visibility into project status and blockers, they can shift from interrogating ("What's the status on everything?") to supporting ("How are you feeling about this timeline? What support do you need?").

Meanwhile, empathy strengthens structure as team members who feel heard and valued become more willing to give honest feedback about what's working and what isn't, creating continuous improvement rather than rigid adherence to broken processes.

Picture a weekly team stand-up where AI tools automatically surface project blockers and updates, freeing leaders to focus their attention on how the team is feeling and where support is most needed. Instead of spending energy deciphering problems, teams can invest their time in crafting thoughtful solutions.

For leaders and teams looking to evolve how they connect and collaborate in this age of AI, here’s how to begin:

1. Map one core workflow

Start with a single process your team uses often, which can be project handovers, client onboarding, or campaign reviews.

Gather the 3-4 people who touch this process most frequently. In a 60-minute session, map out what actually happens (not what's supposed to happen). Ask: "Where does confusion arise? Where do handovers break down? What questions get asked repeatedly?"

The goal isn't to fix everything immediately; it's to see the invisible friction that's slowing your team down.

2. Define inputs and outputs

Just like in high-functioning AI systems, defining inputs and outputs removes assumptions and sets everyone up for success.

For each step in your mapped workflow, define three things: What information/materials are needed to start (inputs), what specific deliverable should result (outputs), and who makes it happen (ownership).

Be ruthlessly specific. Instead of "client feedback," write "client feedback form completed with rating 1-5 for each requirement plus written comments." Instead of "marketing review," write "marketing director approval within 48 hours with specific change requests or go-ahead."

The test: Can someone unfamiliar with your team understand exactly what needs to happen by reading your process? If not, add more specificity.

3. Choose tools that support clarity

The wrong tools create more communication problems than they solve. The right tools make collaboration feel natural while providing the transparency that great teams need.

Use platforms like Rework to handle the structural communication (who's doing what, when it's due, what's blocking progress) so human communication can focus on meaning, context, and connection.

When implementing new tools, start with one workflow and prove value before expanding. Let your newly mapped and clarified process be the testing ground.

The goal isn’t more software, but better visibility.

4. Add feedback loops as human touchpoints

Once structure is in place, connection becomes the differentiator. And feedback is one of the most powerful and overlooked tools to build or break the trust.

In fast-paced, high-change environments, feedback isn’t just a communication function. It’s a strategic necessity - the mechanism that keeps people connected, accountable, and engaged.

But feedback is also where communication often fails first.

“Most people don’t resist feedback because they don’t care; they resist it because they don’t feel safe. The language we use can either open the door or shut it down,” explained Emma.

That’s why practical, emotionally intelligent tools like COAST and CEDAR become essential. These tools are grounded in neuroscience, behavioural psychology, and years of real-world coaching experience, helping people build consistent communication behaviours to create a culture where people feel not just informed, but involved.

5. Model transparent communication

This is where clarity and empathy turn into daily leadership behaviour, and it starts at the top.

Leaders model transparent communication through what they say, how they say it, and how they respond when things don’t go to plan. Tools like OARpology help leaders take ownership clearly and calmly–acknowledging outcomes, addressing impact, and moving forward without blame or defensiveness. This sets a tone where accountability feels safe, not threatening.

When tension or disagreement arises, tools like The Five Perspectives give leaders a practical way to broaden the lens, reduce emotional escalation, and guide conversations toward understanding rather than winning. Instead of shutting conflict down or reacting impulsively, leaders demonstrate how to stay open, curious, and grounded.

By consistently using these tools, leaders signal what “good communication” looks like in practice. They regulate the room, create psychological safety, and turn structure into support, which becomes the emotional barometer of the business. Over time, these repeated behaviours shape a healthy communication culture for the business.

Conclusion: A new era of communication is here – And it’s more human than ever

We’re entering a new era of communication – one where human connection isn’t replaced by AI, but rebuilt on more intentional foundations.

AI-driven structure brings clarity and visibility. Human communication gives that clarity meaning. Together, they allow teams to move beyond the false trade-off between efficiency and empathy.

This shift isn’t reserved for a few forward-thinking companies. Any team can begin by using structure to create space and filling that space with human connection.

If this resonates, explore how Rework brings clarity to everyday work, and how London Speech Workshop helps teams communicate with presence and empathy.