Beyond Academic Integrity: Navigating Institutional and Disciplinary Anxieties About AI-Assisted Authorship in Technical and Professional Communication

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools are already being implemented for a variety of writing tasks in workplaces, where individual (human) authorship is valued less than the efficient production of text. But policies regarding AI use in higher education continue to prioritize academic integrity, focusing on narrowly defined notions of authorship that do not reflect the realities of workplace writing. Through an analysis of 100 university policies on AI, this article shows how AI tools create a tension for faculty in technical and professional communication who must operate within institutional or departmental policies for AI use but must also prepare writers for workplace authorship.