The king’s speech: Using AI to analyze King Charles’s first address as monarch

King Charles’s first address as monarch will likely be one of the most iconic moments of the 21st century. He needed to strike a difficult balance between mourning his mother’s death while pledging his duty as successor to the throne during a period of political turmoil.

We ran his speech through Yoodli’s free AI platform (www.yoodli.ai) and had one of our expert human coaches add their comments. Here’s what we found (check out the results here):

Speech coach analytics on King Charles’ speech

• Filler words and weak words: 0%
• Non inclusive language: 0%
• Pace: 109 words per minute (much slower than conversational pace)
• Top keywords: Life, family, queen, service (right on theme!)

Deconstructing King Charles’ content

A well worded, strongly delivered, and time appropriate speech. The audience can immediately relate with King Charles — his tone is somber (staying below conversational speed likely made sense given the occasion). He doesn’t raise his pitch, makes direct references to family members and his faith, and emphasizes his gratitude to the UK and broader Commonwealth. He artfully handles time management by splitting the 8 minute speech into two halves — the first four minutes entirely dedicated to the Queen’s legacy and the remaining 4 describing the road ahead. In his final sentence, he’s able to bring us back to the gravity of this moment by directly addressing his mother as she makes one final journey.

One minor area of improvement is to handle eye contact more effectively. If you’re reading from a script, ensure you speak only when looking at the camera as opposed to while looking down. Speaking without notes could have been more powerful but it’s unfair to expect that King Charles had the time to memorize this speech as he deals with intense grief.

We send him our deepest condolences and wish him the best for the journey ahead.