William Christopher Brown
Exploring AI Literacy in Business Communication
Conference: Modern Language Association Convention
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Dates: 09-12 January 2025
Full name of organization: Association for Business Communication
Contact email: wbrown@midland.edu
Due date for abstracts: 10 March 2024
Call for papers/abstracts: In the September 2023 issue of Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, Peter Cardon, Carolin Fleischmann, Jolanta Aritz, Minna Logemann, and Jeanette Heidewald argue that AI technologies “may significantly disrupt the teaching and practice of business communication” (p. 257). Consequently, students, instructors, and business professionals need to develop “AI literacy”; therefore, they propose a model describing this literacy that includes four components: application, authenticity, accountability, and agency (pp. 276-279).
We recognize that AI tools were prominent prior to ChatGPT. Universities have implemented chatbots. Recruiters have tools to analyze resumes. Schools, including at the primary level, have implemented writing assistants like Grammarly, which has options for generative AI. However, applications and availability are new. Further, as scholars in the humanities, we have a unique opportunity to explore how educators and practitioners might conceptualize, position, or describe AI. In a 2023 survey about generative AI, almost half of instructors reported feeling nervous or anxious about AI; and respondents made comments about changes for learning, assessing, and responding to academic dishonesty (Cardon et al., 2023). Further, Getchell et al. (2022) argue for frameworks for teaching students, particularly about ethical understandings of AI. On their part, students have reported feeling unprepared by business schools when considering AI and the workplace (Abdelwahab et al., 2022).
The proposal review committee for this coming year’s Association for Business Communication panel at the Modern Language Association Convention welcomes proposals that focus on the research, teaching, and/or practice of any of these components, which can be interpreted broadly and contextualized with research and application from presenters’ fields. A broad research question to consider is “How can AI literacy best be taught to students so that they can successfully transfer those skills to the workplace?” Potential papers could consider the role of generative AI and professional communication by faculty or universities; focus on pedagogy and generative AI in communication-related classes that are speaking and writing intensive; and/or could also consider other moments of technological change as represented in past written works and cultural or authorial responses to that change as a model for how to—or not to—respond now.
Submission: Submit a 300-word abstract, including references, for a 15-minute presentation to William Christopher Brown at wbrown@midland.edu by 10 March 2024. Junior faculty and graduate students are encouraged to submit proposals. Selections will be made through anonymous review. All identifying information should be removed from submissions.
Required memberships: To participate in this panel, all participants must be members of both the Association for Business Communication and the Modern Language Association by 07 April 2024.
References
Abdelwahab, H. R., Rauf, A., & Chen, D. (2022). Business students’ perceptions of Dutch higher educational institutions in preparing them for artificial intelligence work environments. Industry and Higher Education, 37(1), 22-34.
https://doi.org/10.1177/09504222221087614
Cardon, P., Fleischmann, C., Aritz, J., Logemann, M., & Heidewald, J. (2023). The challenges and opportunities of AI-Assisted writing: Developing AI literacy for the AI age. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, 86(3), 257-295.
https://doi.org/10.1177/23294906231176517
Getchell, K., Carradini, S., Cardon, P., Fleischmann, C., Ma, H., Aritz, J., & Stapp, J. (2022). Artificial intelligence in business communication: The changing landscape of research and teaching. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, 85(1), 7-33. https://doi.org/10.1177/23294906221074311
