Are you noticing how many of us are being more considerate in our interactions with gen AI than we are with our fellow humans? With AI, we carefully and thoughtfully provide prompts to AI. With our fellow humans, we often open our mouths and think out loud.

In other words, we need to communicate intentionally with AI; with our fellow humans we may blurt out words spontaneously, which can cause confusion and even conflicts.

In this Forbes Coaches Council article, Why humans and AI bots work better with clarity, curiosity and care, published online on Jan. 21, 2026, I explain three reasons why this communication conundrum is hard to solve.  Basically:

1. We engage differently between AI and humans, as mentioned above.
2. AI and humans also function differently. Being machine like, AI quickly responds to human prompts with an air of assurance. We humans on the other hand have to manage our personal processing system, i.e., our brain, which is a living organism. While this brain is amazing, it has a number of operating constraints that can get in our way of thinking and working with other humans.
3. It’s also easier for us humans to feel psychologically safe with AI than with each other.

There are some actions we can take to work better with our fellow humans, but they’re not foolproof. If you have ideas other than what I share  in the article, please tell us.

From my perspective, this conundrum could become even more extreme over time even though we humans are wired to enjoy social connections with other humans….