How leaders can communicate AI-related changes as routine for employees

As 2026 inches ever closer, it’s a great time to look forward to what lies ahead for internal comms and HR pros alike. Last week, Gartner unveiled the top priorities CHROs will look for during the next year— and it should come as little surprise AI tops the list. As cross-functional colleagues, the concepts of the webinar also apply directly to internal communicators.

Mark Whittle, vice president of advisory at Gartner, told the virtual crowd that despite the unknowns ahead, there are still reasons to be hopeful.

“Take heart, because these uncertainties and stresses create opportunities for us like never before,” said Whittle.

Here are the biggest takeaways from the webinar for internal communicators.

Rethinking change messaging in the C-suite

In the webinar, Whittle said that HR pros need help equip the C-suite to lead the discussion around AI transformation. Communicators should be right there alongside them helping get the message right.

“In an uncertain world, it’s leaders we must turn to,” Whittle said.

Whittle also called back to the 2008-09 financial crisis and likened the uncertainty to the rise of AI. He said that back then, leaders didn’t step up and communicate, leaving far too many employees left sitting and wondering what would happen next.

“Effective leadership today is change leadership,” he said. “Navigating change and transformation is a leader’s most important responsibility.”

Whittle suggested that those helping leadership make a routine out of change. He gave a three-step process as an example:

• Acknowledge the journey: Recognize the normalcy of constant change and update employees along the way.
• Regulate discomfort: Help employees with their apprehension around change processes. Direct, transparent communication helps here.
• Train intuition: Build reflexes to react to change in everyday moments. Communicators can also play a large role in this area by creating a comprehensive change communications plan that employees see themselves in. With respect to AI, that can look like leadership talking about how specific teams can use automated tech to help their processes. The more your leaders communicate about change, the better chance employees have to adjust.

AI represents one of the most fundamental changes to the workplace in decades, and they’re going to need to step up to the moment. But thanks to HR and comms pros, they can have the materials and messaging in place to do so.

“When change intensity spikes, so do the expectations of our leaders,” Whittle said.

AI is going to become a bigger part of an employee’s experience

The rise of generative AI won’t just change processes on the job — it’s also going to alter the way organizations interact with employees. Whether that’s a chatbot that helps employees find their benefits packages more easily or large language models helping HR and comms pros refine their messaging, automation is going to be part of communicators’ employee comms equation going forward.

Whittle said that while AI has been limited in an employee-facing capacity so far, that is slated to change in the near future.

“So far the focus of AI has been on low-hanging fruit like chatbots,” Whittle said. “The question is whether AI will transform HR into something new. The answer is definitely maybe. Will AI mean an existential threat to the HR function? Will it merge with IT? Or will it become something else?”

The webinar also covered the fact that as AI becomes a bigger part of HR functions, it’ll also be a larger part of an employee’s everyday work experience. Whittle said that to make that happen successfully, HR (and comms) pros will need to intentionally embed culture in everything they do. That means discussing AI in a way that ties back to the company’s mission and values — even when it feels like things are changing rapidly, and even communicating the regulated use of AI to create a more unified front among employees.

“Whatever set of cultural attributes you’re using to drive performance, employees need to understand the organization’s culture, know what behaviors align with the culture and see their values reflected every day,” Whittle said.

Calming fears over AI replacement

Another takeaway from the Gartner webinar centered on the idea that some organizations are looking at AI as a replacement for human talent. In fact, many have already taken action on this front, trimming jobs and allowing automation to take over functions once done by people. During the webinar, Gartner shared the following data:

The numbers may not be huge now, but more and more companies are looking to AI to increase efficiency. That can come at a cost to employees, and that requires internal comms to have a plan. That can be a challenge, especially with the speed AI is advancing.

“Things that weren’t possible even 90 days ago are now happening with AI,” Whittle said.

He added that these rapid advancements are going to fundamentally change the way work looks. In turn, Gartner speculated that the shift will cause some impacts on the job market.

“AI is going to touch most forms of work and will reshape the enterprise operating model,” Whittle said. Many predict this might lead to more technology and fewer people. Will it? Gartner’s official position is that AI will create more net jobs rather than reduce them.”

From an internal comms perspective, communicators can provide managers with talking points about how AI will change roles on the team level. One-pagers or FAQ documents can do the trick here. When employees see how their jobs are changing on a day-to-day level, it can help increase understanding and reduce anxiety. And not all AI-related news that internal comms pros have to share is going to be rosy — if layoffs do come, share the news in a people-centric way that’s within the company’s mission and values. It’s also key to remember that these sensitive messages will say a lot about your employer brand going forward — be as transparent as you can about what’s changing, who’s affected and where the company looks to be headed going forward. That can go a long way for employees who remain at the organization through such a major change.

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications.