AI has dramatically changed education. You know that.
In a world where AI can generate polished essays and instant book summaries, it’s becoming easier for student work to look proficient—regardless of the skills behind it. As access to AI tools expands, traditional indicators of reading and writing ability don’t always tell the full story.
Rather than focusing on how to outmaneuver AI, we can focus on what remains distinctly human. Oral communication—the ability to think in real time, express ideas clearly, and engage in meaningful dialogue—continues to reveal authentic understanding. In an AI-enabled world, strong speaking and listening skills may be one of the clearest differentiators.
In other words, when you are asked to speak, AI can’t take your place. Let’s look at some examples.
Example 1: Some middle and high schools are moving to oral exams and having students defend their thinking in conversations with their teachers. Though time-consuming, this approach makes learning more interpersonal, improvised, and . . . human.
Example 2: After schooling ends, situations such as this occur:
Thank you for your interest in our company. We’d like to know more about you, so we want you to respond to ten questions. Your answers will be recorded and viewed by our hiring committee.
The questions will be presented on your computer screen, and you’ll have one minute to prepare a response and then one minute to speak. Longer responses will not be possible because the next question will appear.
Make sure your camera and microphone are enabled. When you are ready, click on the link below.
That is step one in the hiring process for a major travel tour operator. If passed, step two is a virtual meeting with listeners who evaluate how the candidate speaks. Note that the company is primarily interested in how well prospective employees communicate verbally. Tour guides must speak well. A unique situation. Or is it?
Example 3: I talked to the owner of several restaurants in California. When he advertises for help, he doesn’t accept resumes. He only accepts short videos of applicants explaining why they are interested in the job and what unique skills they can offer to make the restaurant successful. Not all his employees have customer-facing jobs, but he insists he can learn enough about every applicant from a five-minute video to know if he wants them in his restaurants in any capacity. Even a line cook needs to be a good oral communicator.
Oral communication is equally critical when you get the job. Think of how much speaking is involved in a teacher’s average day. Perhaps a teacher might use AI to generate unit objectives, but what makes the lesson valuable is how it’s verbally presented. Beyond the classroom, there’s a high chance that teachers with more practiced oral communication skills have more impact in meetings and on school culture.
Speaking is used more frequently than writing and reading in daily life, yet it doesn’t receive the same instructional attention as those language arts do. And in an AI world, excellent verbal communication skills are one way to set yourself apart. Teach students how to be well spoken, and they will have a voice that cannot be replaced. So how do we teach speaking?
In an AI world, excellent verbal communication skills are one way to set yourself apart. Teach students how to be well spoken, and they will have a voice that cannot be replaced.
Into Reading and Into Literature have a framework for understanding effective oral communication. The programs include lessons showing how to teach those skills, which are divided into two distinct parts: what needs to be done before we speak and what needs to be done as we speak. All speaking involves these parts: one-to-one, small group, or large group; formal or informal; in-person or digital. Before we speak, we think about the audience, create content, design aids, and dress for the occasion. AI can help us before we speak, but be cautious. Generic, AI-generated content won’t match your specific audience’s needs. Current AI-suggested visual aids commonly overuse bullet points, show too much text, and provide unnecessary graphics because AI learned these errors from the humans who continually make them.
But once the talk or presentation begins, you’re on your own. It’s the skill of the speaker that matters. What do good speakers do as they speak? They are poised and confident. They have voices that make every word easy to hear. They make eye contact with the audience members to engage each listener. They have lots of life in their voices so that listeners can hear appropriate emotions and be moved by the words spoken. They use their face and body to gesture, adding emphasis to their words. They vary their pace, speeding up to create excitement or slowing down for maximum impact.
Every one of these skills is teachable. For example, if you want to teach adding life to a talk, post a phrase such as this:
I can’t believe you did that.
Ask students to change the meaning by changing which word(s) are emphasized, in effect giving “life” to the full written phrase.
I can’t believe you did that. (I thought someone else might, but not you.)
I can’t believe you did that. (I expected you to do something else.)
I can’t believe you did that. (I’m upset with you.)
Students now see the value of adding life. Post a small speech where places to add life will be pretty obvious:
We were lost. The storm was raging, lightning was flashing all around us, thunder was crashing, and rain was coming down in buckets. My sister lost it.
“We’re doomed! Help!”
Challenge students to make those words come alive. Ask each speaker to raise the bar by adding even more life than the previous one. They begin to see how developing this skill is important for engagement—and fun.
Finally, ask students to add feeling to a talk like this one (generated by ChatGPT!):
The 2026 FIFA World Cup, being held in the United States (along with Canada and Mexico), is a big deal because it will be the largest World Cup ever, with 48 teams and 104 matches, making it the most inclusive and expansive edition in history, and the first time the tournament is co-hosted by three countries. The U.S. will host most games—including all quarterfinals onward—and the final is set for MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, putting the global spotlight on North America for weeks as millions of fans travel to watch the sport that’s watched by billions worldwide.
You know how students would read this before your lesson on life because you have heard many dull book reports, boring poetry recitations, and uninspired presentations of other types. After this simple lesson, you’ll be amazed at how students added life to make these World Cup facts impressive.
Students don’t master adding life from one lesson just as they don’t master any other skill instantly. But now they are on the path to becoming dynamic speakers. There are lessons to teach all the other skills of performance, too. In time, your students will stand out in all the varied speaking activities you assign, and, of course, later in life, in interviews, staff meetings, presentations, or customer service. No matter what becomes of AI across schools and careers, students will have skills that AI will never be able to replicate.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of HMH.
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Erik Palmer is a contributing author for the HMH Into Reading and HMH Into Literature programs and the author of Well Spoken: Teaching Speaking to All Students.
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