Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing health care, education, and research. For communication sciences and disorders (CSD), the possibilities are especially exciting. AI offers new ways to understand communication, personalize care, and support clinicians and researchers.
At last year’s ASHFoundation Foundations and Innovations in Artificial Intelligence Summit, conversations among CSD professionals and AI experts highlighted both the potential of these technologies and the work needed to turn them into meaningful improvements for the people we serve.
More Time for What Matters
One promising use of AI is reducing administrative work. Automated documentation, report writing, and language sample analysis could ease workloads, giving clinicians more time for clinical reasoning, therapeutic relationships, and individualized care.
With AI, clinicians could potentially recognize patterns in speech and language faster, monitor changes, and identify concerns earlier. For children, this could mean more timely intervention. In audiology, combining hearing assessments with information about daily experiences could help explain why people with similar hearing profiles have different communication outcomes.
The goal isn't to let technology make decisions for us. It's to use information more effectively to understand each person's needs.
Expanding Access to Care
In communities with shortages of speech-language pathologists, audiologists, and specialized services, AI could help address gaps in care. Guided home practice, remote support, and tools that help providers gather information for clinician review could extend the reach of existing services.
AI may also support more culturally responsive care. Tools that recognize dialects and accommodate multilingual communication could help clinicians distinguish communication disorders from differences associated with language experience.
But these tools must work for everyone. AI systems need to be tested across diverse languages, cultures, ages, and communication profiles. Expanding access should never come at the expense of accuracy, quality, or equity.
New Possibilities for Education and Research
AI is opening new opportunities for students and researchers. Simulated clients and interactive case scenarios could help students practice clinical reasoning, explore unfamiliar conditions, and receive feedback. Students and clinicians will also need to learn when AI tools are helpful—and when they're not.
For researchers, AI offers new ways to analyze large datasets, identify patterns, and explore signs of communication changes or disease progression. Wearable technologies could also help us better understand communication in everyday life, beyond the clinic or laboratory.
Turning these possibilities into progress will require collaboration among CSD professionals, AI developers, researchers, and educators, with a focus on real clinical and research needs.
Keeping People at the Center
AI's promise comes with important questions. How reliable are its recommendations? Does it work equally well across different populations? How do we protect privacy and ensure accountability?
These questions must guide innovation from the beginning. AI should support professional judgment, not replace it. Children still need meaningful human interaction to develop communication skills, students need to think critically, and clinicians must be able to question an AI tool's recommendations.
Ultimately, success shouldn't be measured by efficiency alone, but by improvements in communication, relationships, participation, and quality of life.
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation (ASHFoundation) is helping advance responsible innovation through initiatives such as its Artificial Intelligence in Communication Sciences and Disorders Research Grant, which supports interdisciplinary studies that advance the ethical, clinically and scientifically grounded application and integration of AI into CSD practice and service delivery.
This year's ASHA Convention offers another opportunity to explore emerging technologies. The session “Neuroplasticity and Neuromodulation: Advancing Intervention and Assessment Research in Aging Populations (Parts 1 and 2)” will examine brain plasticity, language recovery following stroke, and emerging brain-computer interface technologies that may shape future approaches to assessment and intervention.
The future of CSD won't be defined by technology alone. It will depend on the questions we ask, the evidence we build, and our commitment to better care. AI can be a powerful partner if we keep people, professional expertise, and human connection at the center.
Rita Patel, PhD, CCC-SLP is Associate Professor of the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences; Department of Otolaryngology at Indiana University . She also serves in the ASHFoundation Board of Trustee.