Redefining the conversation between comms and IT on AI

In just a few short years, AI went from a far-future concept to a major part of many people’s workdays. A new report sheds some light on just how critical AI is to employee workflows in 2025 — and by extension, how workplaces are discussing (or avoiding discussing) these tools.

A new report from Gusto found that four in five employees are using AI in their day-to-day roles, with 36% of employees feeling that AI use is essential to their productivity. The data revealed that a majority of employees in the study are taking their AI use into their own hands, with 66% of respondents claiming to be paying for AI workplace tools out of their own pockets.

In addition, the data revealed that many employees are using AI in a secretive fashion. Nearly half of the employees in the study reported clandestine use of AI in the workplace, with close to one in five claiming that they charted their own AI path due to a lack of guidance from their organizations.

The data shows that if employees aren’t hearing about how to use AI within their roles, they’re often going out and just doing it on their own. Unchecked AI use at work can prove to be a major security risk, but not all is lost. By closely working with their colleagues in IT, communicators can ensure workers understand how to safely and transparently use AI tools.

Collaborating with IT to communicate AI risks and policies

The most impactful communicators are ones who know how to work cross-functionally. Since IT leads the charge on what tech tools employees can use, comms should collaborate to ensure that AI-related internal comms addresses the security risks inherent in unchecked AI usage. That’s especially important when so many people are paying for AI tools on their own and not getting them through their companies, where there’s a chance for them to be vetted for safety concerns.

This can look like:

• Allow IT to write the policies and comms to shape them for an employee audience. Lean into each function’s expertise — IT knows the tech, comms knows the message. Let IT draft the policies that need to be in place to protect employees and the organization. Comms can then take those guidelines and craft them in a way that makes them easier to grasp for employees. IT can also help communicators focus on areas of risk and what those mean for employees.
• Create an accessible guide on AI use at work. Having an easy-to-read, easy-to-find guidebook on what employees can and can’t do with AI at work is a must. AI guidelines aren’t any good if they aren’t understandable or simple to find. When rolling out an AI guide, comms pros should collaborate with IT to share their messaging in plain language that’s not wrapped up in tech speak. Tell people what they can and can’t use AI for, how it applies to their job function and where they can ask questions. Most importantly of all, don’t bury this information in an intranet file somewhere — have a well-defined comms cascade that ensures everyone knows where the company stands on AI use.
• Talking about AI can help employees open up. Clandestine use of AI only serves to create risks and erode trust between employer and employee. IT and comms can collaborate to reassure employees that in many cases AI use at work is just fine — but it needs to be done safely and within the values of the company. For instance, AI and IT can hold question-and-answer sessions with employees to help start a constructive dialogue about AI usage. IT can answer the technical questions, while communications can tie policies back to company culture and norms.

It’s incumbent on communicators and their colleagues in IT to define what is and isn’t fair game in terms of AI and to communicate it way that’s transparent and easy to grasp. Doing that effectively can be the difference between a company that’s making a significant technological leap and one that’s got major security risks in play.

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports and hosting trivia.