G'day, I'm Lee Hopkins.

My friend and IABC colleague Adrian Cropley OAM recently put a shot across the bows of we business communicators.

He asked us if we were paying attention to developments in the AI, or Artificial Intelligence, business space.

Up until that moment, the meeting of AI and business comms had not occurred to me, but of course it is going on apace. I got all excited, as it reminded me of the heady days of social media when it was just starting to enter the Australian business landscape.

So I'm going to follow this AI/business comms space and report back to you when I find something interesting.

And today I do have something interesting.

A brief look at how AI will, in the very near future, impact us all in meetings.

Imagine, if you will, a meeting taking place in a meeting room. As each participant in the meeting enters the room, they are recognised and greeted by an AI bot, and each participant's communication and data device—phone, tablet, laptop—is automatically sent data files relevant to the meeting, plus each person is logged in to the chat software so that prompts can be automatically sent out by the bot. This would happen when, for example, a snag in a process is identified and someone needs to take ownership of finding a solution. The bot could allocate the person with the best fit for the task, we'll call him Dave, send them any necessary additional files, liaise with other bots belonging to suppliers and other organisations and with those other bots find and book meetings with other necessary parties.

Dave could leave this meeting with appointments already in his diary for discussions with third party suppliers and contractors. A third party supplier, based in a foreign country, is also in this meeting and receiving all of their files in their own language. The discussion in the meeting room is translated in real time for them. When the meeting is over, the next meeting is already in everyone's diary and the meeting room booked.

This is just one of a zillion different scenarios that AI in the workplace will have an impact on our lives.

But the really interesting part, for me, is who tells the bot what to say, in what language, with what intonation and what context? It can't be left up to the developers alone, there must be business comms input into these stages.

And that's just for internal AI use. Imagine the language and intonation complications that might arise when a corporate-designed AI bot meets Joe Public. Like, for example, a bot to help visitors navigate your corporate website.

Well, that's got me excited. Follow along, if you like, on my AI business comms journey by reading my blog or subscribing to my YouTube channel.

Until next time, carve some space out for yourself to enjoy your working life, and remember: communicate with passion.