UTA Researchers to Study How AI Assistance Shapes Workplace Communication

Tuesday, Sep 01, 2026 • Jayce K. Smith : Contact

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly common in the workplace, employees are using AI tools to help draft emails, proposals and other forms of organizational communication. But what happens when the person receiving that message knows AI helped write it?

Two researchers in The University of Texas at Arlington's Department of Communication are working to find out.

Dr. Monica Zhan and Dr. Roger Gans, associate professors of communication, have received a $9,600 research grant from the Waterhouse Family Institute for the Study of Communication and Society at Villanova University to examine how people respond to workplace messages created with assistance from artificial intelligence.

Their project was one of only 10 selected for funding nationally during the Institute's 2026–27 grant cycle. The awards were selected through anonymous peer review from the largest applicant pool in the program's history, resulting in an acceptance rate of just 9 percent.

"Our project examines how people in organizations respond to messages that may have been drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence," said Zhan, the project's principal investigator. "AI tools are already in wide use inside organizations, but we know very little about how audiences react to messages once they know a machine helped write them. This funding lets us test that directly rather than speculate."

When AI enters the conversation

The project focuses on a question with increasingly practical implications for organizations: whether people react to a message differently once they know AI played a role in creating it.

That question may be particularly important when employees use AI tools to communicate concerns, advocate for policy changes or propose new ideas within an organization.

Through a two-study experimental design, Zhan and Gans will test competing possibilities within communication research. AI assistance could potentially improve how audiences respond to a message, while knowledge of that assistance could undermine its credibility.

The researchers' backgrounds bring complementary perspectives to the project. Zhan's research spans public relations and organizational communication, while Gans' work focuses on organizational and health communication.

The two have previously collaborated on research examining organizational policy advocacy and inoculation strategies in organizational communication, including work published in the International Journal of Business Communication.

"We are honored to have our work recognized and supported by the Waterhouse Foundation," Gans said.

Studying communication as AI becomes commonplace

Rather than focusing solely on what artificial intelligence can produce, Zhan and Gans' research shifts attention to the people receiving AI-assisted communication.

As organizations increasingly incorporate generative AI into everyday work, understanding how audiences interpret its involvement may help researchers and practitioners better understand the role transparency, authorship and credibility play in workplace communication.

The Waterhouse Family Institute for the Study of Communication and Society at Villanova University supports research examining communication's role in building a more just and humane society. Its research grant program supports scholars and projects across the communication discipline