Agile Communication: The Final Essential Human Skill in the Age of AI

In one of my upper level Psychology courses one semester, a group was presenting their final project. As they got up to speak, one student quickly took control, moving through the slides rapidly, explaining most of the content, and leaving little room for the others to contribute.

I always leave time at the end of presentations for questions, and as I engaged each team member, it became clear that the student who dominated the presentation had also done most of the work on the presentation. But what surprised me came in the follow-up conversations with that team. When I met with the other students individually, I learned they hadn’t intended to do less, they just didn’t know how to assert themselves. They showed up. They created slides. But they didn’t know how to shape the conversation, negotiate roles, or claim their voice.

That presentation didn’t fall short because of a lack of intelligence or preparation. It fell short because communication, especially in collaborative environments, isn’t just about talking. It’s about listening, timing, presence, and ethical clarity.

And in the age of AI, when messages can be generated instantly, but meaning is easily lost, the need for agile communication has never been greater. In a world where tools can generate flawless paragraphs in seconds, it’s tempting to assume that communication is no longer a challenge. But, we’ve all read those AI generated paragraphs that don’t really say anything. It sounds good, but after reading it several times, you realize that there is no meaning behind the words that have been strung together. Anyone who has led a team, facilitated a classroom discussion, or collaborated across differences knows that clarity is an essential part of building connection and shared understanding.

So, here’s what we need to remember when it comes to agile communication: what AI can do is generate words. What it can’t do is read the room, build trust, or translate values across contexts.

That’s why agile communication, the ability to speak and write with clarity, empathy, and ethical presence across platforms and settings, is one of the most vital human skills we can cultivate. In higher education, this means our work has evolved to move beyond grammar or technique. Now our work is about forming communicators who can adapt, collaborate, and lead in uncertain spaces. In the Age of AI, it’s been predicted that when our current university students go into the job force, they will have less one-to-one supervision, with supervisors having increased numbers of direct reports as AI takes on more lower level tasks. This will make the ability to communicate well and clearly even more important in the day to day work lives of our graduates.

This kind of communication is created in a learning culture designed to shape voice, identity, and discernment. At Lipscomb, we are working to embed that formation into the very structure of our curriculum.

A Curriculum Focused on Building Agile Communicators

Yes, we’re preparing students to use tools, and we’re preparing them to connect with their audience and their purpose. That philosophy is embodied in the POWERS rhetorical sequence, two sign post courses in our Journey Core curriculum. POWERS has been specifically designed to develop agile communicators who can navigate multiple platforms, audiences, and purposes with integrity.

In Writing to Discover, students begin writing as a process of inquiry, where they are drafting, revising, and discovering their ideas. They analyze texts, engage multiple perspectives, and use both classical and digital rhetorical tools. In Communicating to Influence, they begin applying those strategies across different media, adapting messages for new audiences and purposes.

This sequence contains a Crossover Assignment, in which students are challenged to translate, or to take ideas developed in one context and reimagine them in another. Whether through podcasts, proposals, or social media campaigns, they’re asked to think: How does my message need to change? What must stay the same? What will carry the most meaning?

Is this a bold, innovative curricular move? Yes! Has it been easy to implement? Of course not! Just like anything new, we are learning a lot as we put our bold ideas into practice. But we believe the effort is worth what our students will get from this experience.

This is what agile communication looks like in practice:

• Contextual awareness
  

• Ethical voice
  

• Adaptive medium
  

In an age when AI can generate surface-level coherence, what matters most is relational clarity. When creating communications, it’s vital for us to think about and understand our audience. While AI may generate some narratives, students must still do the work of listening, discerning, iterating, editing, and responding wisely. The POWERS sequence is one way we’re helping them learn to do that.

Designing for Voice and Connection

As educators and leaders, we know that communication is a foundational skill, not a soft skill. And in this technological moment, where voice can be automated and audiences are fractured, our students need to practice the kind of agile, intentional communication that AI cannot replicate.

That means we must:

• Create space for dialogue across differences.

• Teach students to reflect on their message and their medium.

• Invite them to translate, adapt, and revise, not just to be correct, but to help their ideas connect with others.

These things are vital, because the truth is, even the most technically skilled students will struggle if they can’t listen well, respond with care, or lead with clarity. Agile communication isn’t just about what you say, it’s also about how, when, and why you choose to say it.

Reflection Questions for Leaders

If you’re preparing students for leadership in the age of AI, consider asking these questions. Our faculty have been wrestling with these ourselves as we continue to work to prepare our students for flourishing in this complex age:

1. How are we helping students practice voice, not just write or speak, but communicate with awareness and purpose?
   

2. Are our assignments designed to teach connection across difference, or just compliance with a rubric?
   

3. Where in our curriculum do students get to wrestle with the complexity of translation between platforms, audiences, and ethical perspectives?
   

4. How might we embed formation for agile communication not just in first-year writing, but across the entire educational journey?