... or, why LLMs have no place in internal communications of high-performing organizations.
Organizations depend on their inner relationships. The quality of these relationships often make or break an organization’s mission: Is there enough trust between peers to collaborate? Are leaders able to motivate and inspire? Are we willing to make sacrifices for each other?
Relationships are shaped by communication, with all its facets. People read far between the lines, looking for authenticity and care, not just raw information, in every signal. Relationships suffer when we’re unable to connect to the person behind the signal.
Communicating with the intent to connect requires authenticity. Being authentic can be difficult and uncomfortable, especially in writing1. Writing well takes time and practice, and unfortunately, there are no shortcuts. But whatever you do, do not reach for LLMs.
LLMs are hopeless at producing communication fit for building relationships. There is no chance an LLM can get enough context about a specific situation and the involved people to consistently produce authentic text.2 We would have to provide books worth of context, not to mention that not everything can be described with words.
LLMs don’t know about shared history or values, prior conversations, the individual needs of involved people, the little social cues of the day. When we speak to someone, we tap into those things intuitively. When using LLMs, it’s unreasonable to provide so much context upfront, and it’s not enough to add a personal touch onto an LLM-generated draft3.
LLM-generated text erodes relationships. Weaker relationships lead to weaker organizations. It’s really that simple.
Don’t send LLM-generated walls of text to your colleagues. They don’t care that much about grammar. They don’t care about crucial. They care that you care, and they are trying to see you behind the message.
Don’t summarize texts your colleagues have put time and energy into. You’re missing out on a chance to connect to them, if only by understanding them better. If a text is too long, let the author know why you think that. Show them that you care about what they wrote.
LLMs will always, by design, be perfect strangers, through which we cannot hope to communicate with honesty and care. LLMs may or may not be fit for other things, but using them to communicate within organizations is indefensible.
The power of a high-performing organization is in its network of relationships. People that feel connected and cared about will care about the organization in return. Taking the time to really communicate with your colleagues is the most important sign of care, and must not be replaced. ∎