{"id":401,"date":"2026-06-26T11:46:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T15:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solutionsreview.com\/edtech\/?p=401"},"modified":"2026-06-26T12:02:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T16:02:27","slug":"as-we-use-ai-for-writing-we-lose-confidence-in-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solutionsreview.com\/edtech\/2026\/06\/26\/as-we-use-ai-for-writing-we-lose-confidence-in-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"As We Use AI For Writing, We Lose Confidence in Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Preply’s’s Madeline Enos offers this commentary on how as we use AI for writing, we lose confidence in conversation. <\/strong><\/em>This article originally appeared in Insight Jam<\/a>, an enterprise IT community that enables human conversation on AI.<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

For the past year, the workplace conversation about AI has focused heavily on cognitive offloading. If we outsource too much thinking to machines, do we risk becoming less capable over time? If AI drafts the strategy, summarizes the meeting, writes the code, produces the brief, and answers the first question, what happens to the human muscles those tasks used to build?<\/p>\n

But there is another kind of offloading that deserves equal attention: social offloading.<\/p>\n

Work is not only a series of tasks. It is also a series of conversations, negotiations, disagreements, explanations, presentations, feedback loops, and small moments of human connection. Communication is how ideas become shared understanding. It is how teams build trust, how managers coach, how employees advocate for themselves, and how organizations move through uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Preply\u2019s recent research with Dataframe<\/a>\u00a0suggests AI is not only changing how workers write. It may also be changing how confident they feel communicating without help.<\/p>\n

In a survey of more than 1,000 U.S. workers, Preply found that 71% use AI at least a few times a month to help write work messages or documents, and nearly one in three use it multiple times a day. This makes sense, workplace communication is constant and AI can help an employee clarify a message, soften a difficult point, translate an idea, or find language when they feel stuck.<\/p>\n

But the data also points to a deeper tradeoff. More than half of workers, 51%, say using AI to help write messages has made spontaneous conversation feel more difficult. Among Gen Z, that rises to 66%. Nearly half of workers, 44%, say they sometimes freeze up in in-person conversations because they cannot review or edit their words first.<\/p>\n

That may help explain why some workers feel less confident when they have to communicate without AI.<\/p>\n

AI gives us an edit button for communication. It lets us test tone, clean up awkward phrasing, and remove uncertainty before anyone sees the message. That can be helpful, especially in high-stakes or cross-cultural settings. But human conversation does not work that way. In a meeting, performance review, client call, interview, or difficult conversation, people need to listen, interpret, respond, recover, and adjust in real time.<\/p>\n

These conversations are the foundation of social skills and emotional intelligence.<\/p>\n

The survey suggests workers are increasingly using AI in exactly the moments where that intelligence matters most. Preply found that 63% of workers have used AI to avoid a difficult conversation at work, including 29% who have done so many times. Another 70% say they at least sometimes turn to AI to communicate ideas they previously would have handled on their own.<\/p>\n

This is not a small behavioral shift. Communication, like language learning, develops through practice. Confidence comes from doing, not just observing. It means employees are using AI not only to improve communication, but to replace some of the uncomfortable practice that builds communication confidence in the first place.<\/p>\n

The result is an emerging AI polish gap, the space between how polished communication appears and how confident people feel communicating without AI. Among AI-using workers, 82% say AI makes people appear more skilled or articulate than they really are. At the same time, only 32% of workers say they can communicate confidently without AI across the situations tested in the survey.<\/p>\n

That gap should matter to every business leader.<\/p>\n

A polished message can make someone sound capable. But leadership, collaboration, management, sales, customer service, and innovation all require more than polished language. They require the ability to explain thinking, defend a point of view, ask good questions, handle disagreement, and connect with another person in the moment.<\/p>\n

They may gain short-term fluency while having fewer opportunities to build confidence through practice. They may sound more articulate in writing, but feel less prepared when the conversation becomes live, emotional, ambiguous, or unscripted.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI is becoming a powerful communication aid, but it shouldn\u2019t become a substitute for communication practice,\u201d said Zach Capers, head of research at Dataframe. \u201cThe most important finding here is that many workers are beginning to feel less confident when they have to communicate without AI. For employers, the opportunity is to treat AI as a coaching and preparation tool while still investing in the human skills that build trust, judgment, and confidence in real interactions.\u201d<\/p>\n

That distinction is critical. The goal should not be to discourage AI use entirely. In many cases, AI can make communication more inclusive and effective. It can help non-native speakers get quick access to translation resources. It can help managers consider and organize sensitive feedback before delivering it. It can help people learn faster, do more, and build better things.<\/p>\n

But AI should be used as a bridge to better human communication, not a bypass around it.<\/p>\n

Organizations need to make communication development part of their AI strategy. That means training employees not only on what tools they can use, but on how to use them well. AI can help draft the message, but the person still needs to own the meaning. AI can help rehearse a conversation, but the person still needs to have it. AI can suggest language, but the person still needs to listen, adapt, and respond.<\/p>\n

This is where language learning offers a useful model. Learning a language is not only about producing the correct sentence. It is about practicing in real situations, making mistakes, reading cues, building confidence, and connecting with another person. The same is true for workplace communication. Technology can support the process, but it cannot replace the human exchange at the center of it.<\/p>\n

At Preply, we see this every day. People don’t become confident communicators by learning vocabulary and grammar alone. Confidence grows through practice, feedback, and real conversations. They become confident by practicing, receiving feedback, listening, trying again, and learning how language works in context. AI tools can help that journey, but human interaction gives it meaning and drives real progress.<\/p>\n

Communication and language are not just professional skills. They are part of what makes us human. They allow us to understand one another, challenge one another, persuade one another, comfort one another, and build together. If we lose the ability to speak with confidence, listen with empathy, and respond with judgment, we lose something far more important than productivity.<\/p>\n

The answer is not to reject AI, but to use it wisely. Let it help us prepare, learn, translate, clarify, and improve. But AI works best when it supports human communication, not replaces it. It can help us prepare, learn, translate, and improve. The confidence to communicate still comes from practice, real conversations, and the willingness to engage with another person.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Preply’s’s Madeline Enos offers this commentary on how as we use AI for writing, we lose confidence in conversation. This article originally appeared in Insight Jam, an enterprise IT community that enables human conversation on AI. For the past year, the workplace conversation about AI has focused heavily on cognitive offloading. If we outsource too […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1458,"featured_media":422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[53,54],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAs We Use AI For Writing, We Lose Confidence in Conversation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Preply's's Madeline Enos offers this commentary on how as we use AI for writing, we lose confidence in conversation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/solutionsreview.com\/edtech\/2026\/06\/26\/as-we-use-ai-for-writing-we-lose-confidence-in-conversation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"As We Use AI For Writing, We Lose Confidence in Conversation\" 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