Generative AI at Work: Mundane and Productive Articulation

This paper proposes a distinction between productive and mundane articulation in people's interactions with generative AI. While generative AI produces useful results for certain tasks and domains, for many types of work, experiences with AI are still dominated by generic and superficially relevant responses. People are often required to provide context and clarifications through several iterations to get usable output. This paper argues that generative AI will not become a true asset in the workplace unless it allows people to focus on productive articulation that helps them reflect on and refine the objectives of their work, by reducing the need for mundane articulation that makes up the rote work of setting up fundamental context for generative AI to deliver useful results.