Human Judgment in AI-Assisted English Communication: The Role of Executive Assistants’ Pragmatic Competence

AI tools are increasingly used to draft and revise workplace messages, including professional communication in English. Although these tools can improve efficiency, their outputs may not fully reflect communicative purpose, audience, professional relationships, or organizational context. This study examines the role of human judgment in AI-assisted English communication among executive assistants working in an English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) context. It focuses on how assistants assess the appropriateness of AI-generated expressions when communicating with colleagues, supervisors, and external stakeholders, and how pragmatic competence informs their judgments. The findings highlight pragmatic competence as an essential complement to AI-assisted writing. Executive assistants need to evaluate tone, context, and relationship-building goals to ensure that messages are appropriate and understood. These findings underscore the continuing role of human judgment in professional communication and suggest that workplace training should develop both AI literacy and pragmatic competence.