A new workplace problem is quietly growing: employees and managers are using AI tools to write and interpret messages for each other, creating a loop where no real human communication happens.
Leena Rinne, vice president of leadership, business, and coaching at Skillsoft, an edtech and skills management platform, shared a telling story. An employee received a message from her boss that she did not fully understand. Suspecting it was written by AI, the employee asked her own AI tool to interpret the message. The AI responded and then asked if she wanted a draft reply to send back to her boss.
The employee paused. According to Fortune, she told Rinne: "I literally think [my boss'] AI is talking to my AI. That is the actual conversation happening right now." She added, "I can't crack the code of working with [my boss], because it's just his AI and my AI going back and forth."
What is "socially offloading"?
Rinne calls this behavior "socially offloading." It describes what happens when people use AI to handle interpersonal tasks they would normally do themselves — like writing a thoughtful email, interpreting a colleague's tone, or crafting a sensitive reply.
Instead of building real understanding between people, the AI tools act as a middleman. The result is that two humans are not really talking to each other. Their AI tools are doing the talking for them.
Why this matters for workplace relationships
When AI handles the back-and-forth, employees lose the chance to practice and improve their own communication skills. They also miss out on the subtle cues — tone, empathy, and context — that build trust between colleagues.
The employee in Rinne's story felt stuck. She could not figure out how to work effectively with her boss because the real human connection was missing. The AI was filtering every message, both incoming and outgoing.
This is not just a one-off problem. As more workers turn to AI tools to save time, the risk is that workplaces become filled with polished, AI-generated messages that carry no real human warmth.
Our Take: AI should assist, not replace, human connection
AI tools are useful. They can help with grammar, speed up writing, and clarify complex ideas. But when both sides of a conversation hand over the job to AI, the relationship suffers.
The real danger here is not that AI writes poorly — it is that AI writes too well. A perfectly worded message from a bot can sound professional but feel empty. Over time, employees stop trusting the person behind the message because they are never sure who — or what — actually wrote it.
Managers and employees alike need to ask themselves: Are we using AI to communicate better, or are we using it to avoid communicating at all? If the answer is the latter, the human cost — lost trust, confusion, and isolation — will outweigh any time saved.
In our view, the best use of AI in workplace communication is as a helper, not a replacement. Write your own draft, then use AI to polish it. Read your colleague's message yourself before asking a bot to explain it. The goal should be to understand each other, not to let machines do the understanding for us.
