Communication Skills for Generative AI: A Practical Guide for Humans (Human–Computer Interaction Series)
Communication Skills for Generative AI: A Practical Guide for Humans is the first comprehensive book to treat communication with generative AI as a distinct human competence--analogous to digital literacy, media literacy, or academic writing skills. Instead of framing the field through the narrow lens of "prompt engineering," this book introduces a broader, deeper, and more natural paradigm: human-AI communication. It argues that as generative AI becomes embedded in daily life, professional work, research, education, and creative practices, humans must learn not merely to instruct AI systems but to communicate with them effectively, collaboratively, and safely. The book covers the foundations, principles, techniques, and future directions of communicating with modern AI systems. It begins by explaining why the rise of generative AI requires a new set of human capabilities, then outlines the psychological, linguistic, cognitive, and interactional mechanisms that shape human-AI dialogue. It provides a systematic structure of principles (clarity, intent, iteration, cognitive alignment, ethical responsibility) and practical techniques (contextual communication, constraint-based approaches, multimodality, iterative refinement, tone and persona control). The book also examines pitfalls and sources of misunderstanding--such as ambiguity, hallucination, overtrust, and guardrails--and offers strategies for detecting and resolving them. A central contribution of the book is its treatment of collaborative and co-creative communication, where AI is understood not as a passive tool but as an active cognitive partner capable of supporting reasoning, generating ideas, and co-creating text, visuals, and solutions. Another unique perspective is the chapter on metacommunication, which teaches readers how to talk about the communication process itself-- expressing preferences, adjusting strategies, and aligning expectations during the dialogue. The book concludes with a forward-looking exploration of the future of AI communication: post-prompting paradigms, persistent personal assistants, intuitive and emotional interfaces, hybrid reasoning models, and the evolving competencies humans will need as AI becomes increasingly autonomous and embedded. This book relates to existing literature on prompt engineering, human-computer interaction, and AI literacy but significantly expands beyond them. While traditional books focus on crafting prompts or operating tools, this work builds a conceptual and methodological foundation for treating AI as a communicative partner. It introduces a unified framework for understanding interaction across text, multimodal interfaces, and emerging real-time systems. This broader perspective positions the book as a pioneering contribution that addresses an urgent gap in current academic, professional, and educational discourse.
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