How the New York Life’s comms team went from uneasy about AI to leading the company

In New York Life’s corporate communications meetings, someone usually gets a shout-out for something they’ve done with AI. But when the 70-person team started with AI, plenty were uneasy.

At Ragan’s Employee Experience Conference in Nashville earlier this year, Ed Mayer, corporate vice president of corporate communications strategy at New York Life, walked through what’s behind those numbers.

“Our folks are telling us they have significantly more time now to focus and be more strategic, where it used to be just tactical,” Mayer said. “We’ve seen measurable data where our folks are telling us, ‘Yes, I’m happier now, because I’m able to be more strategic, and I’m not rewriting things as many times.’”

He added that the shift toward comfortability with AI all started at the top, with New York Life chief communications officer Paul Gennaro.

“He’s all in on AI; he even has his digital chief of staff,” Mayer said. “With his guidance, we’ve come up with what we call ‘the way.’ If you’re going to draft a press release, there are going to be parts along that timeline where it’s expected that you’re going to use Gen AI, while still being the human in the loop.”