Tag Archives: AI

How AI can’t be the friend you need in a PR crisis

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It’s 6pm on a Friday. The mobile phone rings and there’s a journalist waiting to speak to you, armed with a story that can shred your company’s reputation as soon as it’s published on Saturday morning.

Is that when you reach for ChatGPT to give you an answer to the reporter’s questions or when you ask your trusted communications advisor to provide a response that helps head off a potential crisis?

In a business landscape where crises can ignite in minutes and spread globally before leaders have even gathered in a room, it is tempting to believe that AI could one day manage the response.

But the truth is that crisis communication remains an inherently human discipline.

Technology can support, accelerate, and inform, but it cannot replace the judgment, empathy, and contextual awareness required when an organisation’s reputation is on the line.

Crises are not just information problems; they are emotional, social, and ethical challenges. They involve fear, uncertainty, conflicting interests, and rapidly shifting expectations. Only people can navigate that terrain with the nuance it demands.

AI excels at processing data, drafting language, and monitoring sentiment, yet it lacks the lived experience that allows communicators to read a room, understand cultural sensitivities, or anticipate how a message will land with different audiences. In a crisis, the difference between reassurance and escalation often comes down to tone, timing, and the subtle signals leaders send.

Those decisions require intuition shaped by years of navigating organisational dynamics and public expectations. They require the ability to weigh legal risk against moral responsibility, or to advise a CEO when silence is more damaging than an imperfect admission. No algorithm can fully grasp those trade-offs. (Not yet, anyway!)

Crises also demand trust, and trust is built through human presence. Employees and customers want to hear from leaders who sound accountable, empathetic, and real, not from automated systems. When people are anxious or angry, they look for signs of sincerity and care. They want to feel that someone is listening, not simply generating responses. AI can help craft these messages, but only humans can embody them.

The future of crisis communication will be shaped by technology, but I believe it will be led by people. The organisations that navigate crises most effectively will be those that use AI as a tool, not as a substitute, and that continue to rely on human judgment to guide the moments that matter most.

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

AI won’t kill corporate communications, it’ll make it impossible to ignore

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Those of us who work in communications hear a lot about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to eat our lunch by wiping out our jobs and taking over ‘everything’.

As is usually the case with sweeping statements like this, the reality is somewhat different.

It’s true, AI is rapidly reshaping corporate communications. But while it will take over some tasks, others are still up for grabs.

Yes, AI is going to take over low-value, labour-intensive activities, there is not much question about that. But it will drive communicators to more valuable, strategic tasks.

As automation takes over routine things, like drafting press releases, managing distribution lists, and carrying out a lot of template-driven work, communicators will be freed up to focus on higher‑value work, such as advising executives how to root communications in their values and business strategy, and focusing on driving stakeholder engagement and trust.

AI-driven content generation does make us more efficient. It speeds up everything from drafting press releases to optimising headlines and search engine optimisation (SEO). This also ensures messaging is consistently refined for maximum engagement.

At the same time, hyper‑personalization allows companies to move beyond broad, generic outreach. Communications can now be tailored to individual preferences, behaviours, and contexts, at scale.

Predictive analytics is becoming a cornerstone of modern reputation management. With real‑time monitoring and trend forecasting, organizations can anticipate issues before they escalate, shifting from reactive crisis response to proactive reputation stewardship.

AI also enhances operational efficiency by automating scheduling, reporting, and meeting summaries, freeing communicators to focus on strategy and creativity.

Global teams benefit from real‑time multilingual translation tools such as DeepL, which eliminate language barriers and support seamless cross‑cultural collaboration. And as audiences increasingly rely on AI-generated answers, visibility will depend on appearing in AI-powered search results, a step beyond traditional SEO.

What does all this mean for communicators?

It’s mainly good news. Communications teams will need fewer people. But the jobs on offer will be more valuable, more strategic. Human judgment, such as context, nuance, and emotional intelligence, remains irreplaceable, even as AI handles tactical execution. New skills will emerge as essential: AI literacy, data interpretation, and ethical oversight.

AI isn’t replacing communicators, it’s elevating us. Those who embrace this partnership will, I believe, lead the next era of corporate storytelling.

Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash

How communications remains highly relevant for business

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Corporate communications continues to play a vital role in organisations of every size because the ability to create shared understanding has become one of the few true competitive advantages left.

In an environment defined by rapid change, information overload, and rising expectations for transparency, communication is no longer a support function.

Instead, it has become the glue that holds strategy, culture, and reputation together. Even the smallest organizations now operate in a world where stakeholders expect clarity, consistency, and values‑driven behaviour, and where silence or ambiguity can quickly erode trust.

The argument that communications is becoming less relevant because “everyone can publish” misunderstands what the function actually does.

The challenge today is not producing more messages; it is making meaning out of complexity. Employees need to understand why their organisation is changing and how their work connects to a larger purpose. Customers want to know what a company stands for, not just what it sells. Investors look for coherent narratives that explain long‑term direction.

Communications is the discipline that translates strategy into language people can believe in, and that translation is essential whether a company has 20 employees or 200,000.

AI is not going to change these needs. If anything, the rise of AI and digital tools has only reinforced this demand.

Technology can accelerate production, but it cannot replace the judgment required to decide what should be said, when, and why. It cannot navigate the nuances of reputation, values, or human emotion. As organisations face more scrutiny and more channels than ever before, the ability to craft credible, empathetic, and consistent communication becomes a form of organisational resilience.

Ultimately, corporate communications endures because organisations depend on people, and people depend on understanding. As long as leaders need to align teams, earn trust, and move groups of humans toward a shared goal, communication will remain a strategic force at the centre of how organisations succeed.