AI & Communications: Balancing Aspiration with Practicality
Over the past several months, I have had opportunities to work on projects that shared a commonality of remodeling or creating a communications program for organizations. Most of the focus was on critical and foundational aspects of building an effective communications internal apparatus. Included in this were organizational principles of support, investment, and collaboration that are often missing or degraded. Another aspect was ensuring the right infrastructure was in place internally as well for the program to operate and literally exist within the organization in a healthy and productive manner. Staffing, skills, and internal communications were also addressed.
Beyond these aspects, I also discussed and helped create the portfolio of tools and support systems these programs needed to function properly in each company. Inevitably, after incorporating software, hardware, subscriptions, and other instruments that ideally communications professionals should have to execute their duties effectively, artificial intelligence and its place in a communications office arose for debate.
If you are in business long enough, you become accustomed to a cyclical pattern that plays out a few times every decade. A new technology, program or instrument debut on the market with a wave of paid publicity, earned media hype, and lots of speculation that announce the latest and greatest innovation that will be revolutionary for work if not for life itself.
Most often, the actual meaningful impact of the new instrument is somewhere in the middle. It is not delivering an existential change or is meaningless. It is a nice tool that delivers more efficiency, faster production and execution, and saves time by deleting another onerous piece of drudgery that consumed too much time and energy.
I have seen the emergence of the ‘world wide web,’ email, smartphones, tablets, and video conferencing that fundamentally changed the workplace for communications (good and bad.) I have also seen myriad new products, services, and tools ranging from do-it-yourself press release distribution, media software databases, and digital research, editing, writing, and design packages that provided some time-saving support and supplemented the talent in the offices to be more productive (quicker execution.)
Artificial Intelligence in the world of communications, for me at this moment after working with it and seeing it tested and implemented to some degree the last year, is at best somewhere in the middle and trending in my opinion to be good support tool but not groundbreaking or earth-shattering.
On the other hand, I have seen AI utilized in other industries, departments, and parts of operations for companies and it clearly serves a more productive and practical role that has more tangible advantages (think database management, coding, research, engineering, compliance, accounting, and manufacturing / production.)
So far, my experience with AI in communications has been more often disappointing than enlightening. I think the reason for this are some basic mistakes in the utilization of it for communications. It seems organizations are tempted to see AI for communications as the old adage every communications professional, writer, creative or designer has encountered in their careers with someone saying ‘anyone can do it.’ Sure, anyone can ‘write’ and by that, I mean string words together that incorporate mandated keywords and maybe even themes. But the end product lacks nuances, professionalism, style, and the ever-important human touch of understanding subtle underlying messages, tones, and arguments.
This is AI in communications today. It is a useful tool that can help a writer research technical or extensive subjects that are not in the person’s wheelhouse, possibly provide alternative words, ideas, or themes that the writer did not generate him/herself. AI can be as useful to study what competitors have done or are doing, find ‘successful’ models to build off on, gain insight into educating oneself quickly on matters that are not necessarily needed for the job everyday etc. But then again, a plethora of tools already exist that do these things very effectively now anyway.
On the design and production side of things, AI is also lacking right now. Just go to YouTube for example and discover all the AI-exclusive content that has been created and you see a clear pattern: whether video or audio, graphics or music, voice or visual, you can easily detect AI generated work because it is lacking a lot of small things that add up to a lot to be desired. In particular, one example is the growing number of YouTube channels that are dedicated to themed playlists of songs completely created by AI. You will notice pretty quickly that the music is either too perfect where every line literally rhymes with the last as if a fifth grader wrote it or it tries too hard to make lines relate to each that results in words or phrases that are totally out-of-place and at times have nothing but the slightest connection to the theme.
It is the Wikipedia effect. Wikipedia at face value has the potential to be a great source of information and outlet to learn about a topic and pull details that would have taken a lot more time to research without it. But, like AI, Wikipedia is only as good as the data put into it. And, it is well-known a lot of data in Wikipedia is not factual, biased, complete fiction or has been corrupted by rogue editors or writers. If you are relying on Wikipedia exclusively, you are placing a lot of risk on producing something that is not accurate or at best partially acceptable.
The CEO of Spotify recently communicated to staff that AI must be implemented across the organization and be integrated as a tool in operations. An important qualifier in that message was that before a unit leader or supervisor came calling for additional headcount support, the company wants to see if AI can be effectively utilized to assist that department and its staff execute and produce more effectively. I think that is fair and is nothing different than in past years when new software, hardware and other tools were rolled out and some folks remained under-performing or insisted on more support, including people.
AI’s effectiveness really depends on where it is being utilized and then how it is being used – like every other tool. I have been responsible for a lot of executive communications over the years ranging from composing speeches for invites to address committees in Congress, to investor relations and media interviews. I would never rely on AI to craft communications and let it be sole source or creator. But, I would use it to help me explore supporting themes and research. Creativity is too often overlooked or disregarded in communications and yet it is one of the most valuable attributes an organization is paying to possess. Human intellectual property in communications and in other creative disciplines is now even more valuable with the onset of AI on the scene.
Supporting that human intellectual property to get the most of out if is understandable and reasonable. Replacing it with AI or having AI lead seems to be a misdirected and misappropriated use of the latest and greatest instrument that will eventually become for many office and business operations that need the human touch another brick in the wall.
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