AI in Business

Communication
Dr. Will Kurlinkus
Questions About Research Log
1: What Was A Challenge?
Which Topics Are You Most
Interested in For Report 1
What are some
common client comm
challenges you’ve seen?
Asking the
Right
Questions to
Start
Conversations
Case: Marketing Agency Pitch

A regional chain of coffee shops has asked your

agency to pitch a new branding campaign. In the first
client meeting, the owner explains: “We want
something fresh, but we’ve tried a few campaigns
before and they didn’t work.”

Instead of immediately jumping in with a

presentation, you want to draw out their experiences
so you can tailor your proposal. You ask…
Some Basics of Client Communication:
Building Receptivity and Trust
• Negotiating Expertise: Clients are experts at their company, you should treat them as such—they
want to know you are an expert too. It’s your job to balance showing them why you are making the
choices you are making with working efficiently.
• The right amount of interactivity: Clients (especially smaller companies) like to feel like they are in
control/feel heard though they don’t usually want to make decisions in your domain. It’s your job to
make them feel welcome and structure key choices.
• Trust Has a History: You don’t immediately have your client’s trust—find out what they trust and
don’t trust (what has happened in the past—with other collaborators/firms? What do they like and
not like?).
• A client had a bad experience where their previous advisor over-promised returns. You learn
that they now distrust “guarantees” and prefer transparency about risk.
• Goldberg Rule (don’t ask what’s the problem, ask what’s the story).
• When in doubt—restate: Restating what you think a client means in the most generous way
possible (or a negotiation partner) can clarify and calm situations.
Case: Trust Has a
History (Real Estate):
• A couple hiring you as their realtor
seems skeptical of your suggestions.
You find out that their last agent
pressured them into bidding way over
asking on a property, which they lost
after inspection problems. They now
distrust agents who “push too hard”
and are wary of “hidden costs.”
• What should you do early in the
relationship to build trust with them,
knowing their history? What
communication strategies might you
use to show you won’t repeat the bad
experience?
Managing Client Feedback

• Teach Clients How to Give Feedback and Make

Choices: Clients aren’t experts on your processes, so
don’t expect them to ask the right questions or give
good feedback unprompted.
• Build opportunities for them to make choices based
on that expertise.
• Help them move from complaint (I don’t like
that color) to critique (many of of customers are
elderly and I’ve seen them struggle to read small
fonts)
• Help them understand what questions/answers
are important at this stage
• Give clients something to do, based in their
expertise.
• Be aware of invisible stakeholders (the swoop and
poop!)
• Don’t give surprise presentations—and “here it is all
done.”
Case: The Right Amount of
Interactivity (Tech Startup)
• You’re a project manager for a software development firm. The founder
of a small startup wants to sit in on every sprint meeting and weigh in on
line-by-line coding. However, they don’t actually have technical
knowledge, and their interruptions are slowing down the dev team. Still,
they’re the paying client and want to feel heard.
• How can you structure their involvement so they feel included but don’t
derail the work? What kind of decisions should you reserve for them?
Unstructured Choice vs.
Structured Choice
• Unstructured Choice: An early-career financial advisor asks a new client: “Do you want to
invest in growth funds, value funds, ETFs, or a mix of equities and fixed income?”
• Structured Choice: “There are a few common ways we can build your portfolio. One option is
to focus on growth funds, which can rise quickly in value but are riskier in downturns. Another
option is income-focused investments, which grow more slowly but pay regular dividends.
Most clients end up with a mix, so they get some growth and some stability. Based on that,
which sounds closer to what you’d like — more potential growth even if it’s bumpy, more
steady income, or a balance of the two?”
• How might we make that second version even better?
 Informational Interviews in This
Class: Must Interview Someone With
Some Experience in Your Field
• The goal of the interview is to learn about your interviewee’s daily communication
partners, the types of communication they use regularly, and the most difficult
interpersonal communication challenges they encounter in their workplaces.
• Choose 2 or 3 people in your specific career path (mentors, internship directors,
and linkedin alumni make particular good ones).
• We’re looking for stories and journeys.
• What questions might we ask?
“Our C-Suite works
really hard to listen
to and respect our
new employees, I
would say we have a
great vibe here.”
In Groups of 3 Review One
Another’s Email Case 1. Pay
Careful Attention to Our Email
PowerPoints as Well as the
Grading Rubric.
AI in Gen Bus 360
• You are allowed to use AI to help you write in this class.
• You are being graded on whether your writing is good and meets assignmet
standards—not whether of not you use AI.
• If you use AI for a piece of your portfolio you have to submit an AI
statement on how—keep your AI prompts.
• You are not allowed to pass AI off as your own writing and graders would
prefer if you did not simply copy and paste the prompt and turn in the
answer.
1. AI tends to produce very similar responses, especially for things like
email cases.
2. If you don’t push it, AI tends to create very general and bad responses
(similar openings, words, etc.), hallucinates fake information, and
formats things in obnoxious lists when they are not needed.
3. Be very careful of asking AI to ”make this better” or “copy edit” or “fit
this word count” it will do other things (adding and taking away) that
remove assignment requirements—always double check.
The Best Uses of AI I’ve
Seen in This Class Are
For Ideation—Asking it
Questions, Rather than
Having it Write
+I wrote this draft for a business
communication class—I know my instructor
likes writing with use in mind, what feedback
can you give me?
+How can I make this topic more interesting
and focused?
+How can I make this topic more nuanced?
+What possible topics? What’s a topic not
commonly written for this prompt?
+What should I avoid?
+What am I forgetting?
How To Use AI to Write: FIXIT
Approach AI like a conversation partner: FIXIT
• F(ocused) Problem: Be very specific in terms of your problem/solution you
want.
• I(deate) Individually: Choose what you want before coming to CHAT-GPT.
What’s your challenge, what is your specific situation, etc. What makes you
unique?
• X (context): what is the specific context you are writing for. A class, a client,
etc. What are the objectives of that context? You can have ChatGPT interview
for this information. “Are there things you would like to know more about?”
• I(terative): Never take the first answer—always iterate. Add more examples…
Be more formal… Come up with four possibilities…
• T(eam incubation): writing should always be a community process. It takes
place in discourse communities. Get other peoples’ eyes on it.
AI Tells in Writing — And What to Edit For
1. Overly Formal or Generic Tone • Fix: Tighten up. Cut duplicates and keep the strongest
phrasing.
• Tell: Phrases like "In today's fast-paced world…", "It is
important to note that…", or "This essay will explore…" 5. Unnecessary Definitions or Obvious Statements
• Fix: Replace with specific, purposeful openings or claims. • Tell: "Communication is defined as the process of
Add voice and intention. exchanging information…"
2. Repetitive Sentence Structures • Fix: Avoid dictionary-style definitions. Assume a
knowledgeable reader unless the term is highly technical.
• Tell: Sentences often begin with the same pattern (e.g., "This
shows that…", "This means that…") 6. Circular or Non-Committal Conclusions
• Fix: Vary syntax. Use transitions and different sentence • Tell: "In conclusion, this topic is very important and should
types (questions, short bursts, compound/complex). be explored further."
3. Vague or Empty Claims • Fix: Draw a clear takeaway. End with insight, a call to action,
or a sharp summary—not a shrug.
• Tell: Statements like "Communication is key in any
profession." with no support. 7. Sources That Don’t Exist or Are Vague
• Fix: Be specific. Replace with examples, statistics, or • Tell: Mentioning studies or researchers with no citation, or
tailored details relevant to your argument or audience. inventing plausible but fake facts.
4. Over-explaining or Redundant Restating • Fix: Only use sources you've verified. Don’t make up quotes,
names, or stats.
• Tell: The same idea repeated in multiple ways across nearby
sentences.
Bad AI: How to
Edit
AI Group
Small Group
Activity