The power of Attention, Understanding & Recall
My process – experimenting with public speaking AI
Contents
- An introduction - why am I so interested in using AI for public speaking?
- My goals when experimenting with public speaking AI
- Experiment 1 - Using AI to write a speech or presentation
- COMING SOON Experiment 2 - Using AI to improve my speech and presentation delivery
- COMING SOON Experiment 3 - Using AI to create a virtual presenter (and more!)
- COMING SOON My thoughts and musings on the future of AI in public speaking
This is the first of a series of articles outlining my experiments with using AI for public speaking.
I explore how we can use AI tools to create and deliver more effective presentations.
This first article introduces my journey into experimenting with AI in public speaking. It sets the scene for why I so badly want to answer key questions including:
Can AI generate more effective speech content than a human author?
Can it make us more effective presenters (in our delivery)?
How useful is AI for developing our public speaking skills?
And ultimately, slightly selfishly and most importantly…;
Will my role as a public speaking consultant become redundant as AI develops?
How I began experimenting with using AI in my public speaking
For me, 2023 was the year that AI got mentioned in nearly every public speaking training session that I delivered.
“Do you mind if I use AI to create my speech?”
“Do we really need to become effective public speakers if AI can just deliver a presentation for us in future?”
“Are you worried that AI will mean we don’t need public speaking experts any more?”
To be honest I had dismissed AI as something that I didn’t need to worry about within my working lifetime. It would surely just replace a few unfortunate call centre workers over the next decade, maybe a few office workers in the years after that, and by then I would be retired just in time to be cared for in my old age by super intelligent robots…
But by the end of the year the regular AI-related public speaking questions had not stopped coming. I reluctantly (initially) joined the masses in consuming every bit of AI-related content that I could find. Like most of us I was initially interested in knowing just how long we have before AI rises up and takes over the world.
(And yes, yes I know it’s either extremely unlikely or happening tomorrow, depending on what you choose to read…)
"Would these new AI tools make me, my role and my public speaking geekery redundant?"
But being a public speaking geek, my initial questions developed into a keenness to understand exactly how AI could help to make us all better presenters.
Every Google search I conducted found one of two things:
Articles on how AI could helps us as speakers (most of which seemed to be written using chatGPT)
Various AI-based products that claimed to be able to help me write and deliver the perfect speech.
Could these new tools actually help us to be better speakers? Would they make me, my role and my public speaking geekery redundant?
I didn’t want to wait around to find out the answer and so I got to work experimenting (playing about with) these tools to discover just how effective they are, and if I needed to start job hunting anytime soon.
What follows is the story of my experiments. I have added in my findings, thoughts and musings at each stage. I hope that you find them useful and engaging. I would love to hear your thoughts, feedback and recommendations for further research into this area.
You may wish to read all of my findings and musings in order. Or alternatively, the contents section below helps you jump to the parts that you think might be most interesting and relevant to you.
Jump to the next article
Read 'My goals when experimenting with public speaking AI.
or visit other sections including:
- Experiment 1 - Using AI to write a speech or presentation
- Experiment 2 - Using AI to improve my speech and presentation delivery
- Experiment 3 - Using AI to create a virtual presenter (and more!)
- My thoughts and musings on the future of AI in public speaking
About the author
Rich Watts
Public Speaking Geek
