Disembodying CEO leadership through AI-assisted speechwriting

This paper examines the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to generate a speech for the CEO of a hypothetical publicly traded coal mining company, intended to be delivered at that company’s annual general meeting. Using ChatGPT , we prompt this Large Language Model (LLM) to generate the CEO’s speech. We then analyze the speech using close reading, highlighting important language features, critical ethical considerations, and broader implications of AI-driven speechwriting for corporate leadership. By exploring four language features of the speech (metaphor, semantic tone, pronoun use, and readability) we find that the language pattern of the ChatGPT speech closely mirrors that of a speech prepared by an authentic human leader, inasmuch as it was customized to the controversial topic, the audience and setting, and possessed many “human-like” linguistic features. We highlight ethical concerns about the role of AI in leadership discourse and demonstrate the potential of AI to disembody executive authority. If AI’s contribution to speechwriting is not acknowledged transparently, CEO communication risks becoming a leadership charade. Any decision to use AI as a speechwriter should be reached after weighing the efficiency and convenience of doing so, against the potential erosion of authenticity in leadership communication.