The Rise of Copy/Paste Culture: How to Write and Communicate Using AI Without Sucking the Soul Out of Your Organization

By: Elissa Gurman

I am writing this blog without the use of AI. Revolutionary, isn’t it? Is the decision to sit down with my thoughts, unaided by ChatGPT or others of its ilk, a bold vote for the human voice, or a Luddite-style resistance to the future? How will I find the right structure, the perfect clever turn of phrase, the AEO/SEO targets, without the help of my trusty, ego-affirming AI? 

After spending my whole life as a writer, sitting with my words and my thoughts and a page, I suddenly feel naked and helpless without my new but very important friend ChatGPT. 

And I’m not the only one. 

In a recent survey we conducted in partnership with Remesh, we found that 79% of people leaders use generative AI for writing, summarizing, and content creation. The leaders we surveyed explained that this results in greater efficiency and productivity, as well as higher quality outputs. But they, like me, worry about the lack of “human touch.” What does it mean when all of our communication – and much of our decision-making – is mediated by AI? How can we balance the promise of AI with a commitment to the human interaction that shapes effective organizational cultures? 

“Every email my boss sends me is copied directly from ChatGPT”

I’ve been hearing about this from both ends of the spectrum lately. On the one hand, we have the frustrated employee, who asks a question or shares an idea, and gets a reply that is clearly copied and pasted from a bot. On the other hand, we have the leader who uses ChatGPT or CoPilot to ensure they respond professionally and quickly to even the most annoying of inquiries. 

Generative AI is redefining how we communicate in the workplace. 

It allows us to create faster, more professional, more polished, and often higher-quality documents and emails (barring hallucinations, of course). But it also reduces direct communication, serving as a mediator and translator, often usurping the role of human judgment. 

So, what can you do to use AI for communication, while maintaining the human touch essential to engaged, healthy workplaces? 

Use Generative AI as a Partner and Editor, not a Digital Version of Yourself

When we allow our AIs to generate a first draft without guidance or human thinking, we perpetuate a “copy/paste culture” that prioritizes speed above all else. When creating a document or responding to an email using AI, instead of getting it to “take a stab at it,” provide it with a detailed strategy that you think through. A basic version could include things like: 

“Here’s what I think (unvarnished)

These are my goals (short-term, long-term)

Here’s what I know about my audience

Other relevant context:

What else do you need to know to do this work well?”

There is a great deal to gain from using AI to write – for generative AI, this is one of its main use cases. But we can’t use AI to think for us; it must think with us.

Prioritize In-Person Interaction

When people decry the lack of human touch that’s a result of AI adoption, they are typically talking about the impact of AI on written communication. After all, it’s hard to feel a sense of connection to someone when your primary mode of engagement with them is AI-mediated emails. To ensure the deliberate and meaningful development of relationships, it’s important for teams to prioritize in-person interactions, where people can’t rely on AI to translate their thoughts, or do the thinking for them. Collaborative decision-making conversations, team bonding activities, live group simulations – all of these create opportunities for genuine human engagement without the intrusion of AI. This allows us to stretch the muscles of communicating honestly and respectfully, and of thinking critically on the spot.

Ask Questions

One thing we can all learn from AI is that it knows how to keep a conversation going with a good follow-up question. When we copy/paste a response or document, we often deliver it as a “final answer” – a finished product that closes the conversation. To keep critical thinking and human ingenuity in play, we can all stand to play the role of AI and ask good follow-up questions. Get an email that you think was pasted in without thought? Ask a question about it, or book a meeting to discuss it. Get a document that presents itself as final but you doubt the veracity of its logic? Ask a thoughtful question and schedule time to push the thinking forward. If we are passive and accept the outputs of AI as truth, we further erase ourselves from the work, reinforcing a culture that prioritizes efficiency above all else. 

Want some help in facilitating the tough conversations that get culture moving? Reach out anytime.