The AI moment communicators have been waiting for

Diane Schwartz is CEO of Ragan Communications.

The messy middle at first sounds like a new show on Netflix. Yet it’s a term I’ve been hearing increasingly from communicators as they describe themselves as the people bringing clarity and meaning to their organizations during this — cue overwrought phrase — age of AI.

Why settle for the middle?

In my seven years as CEO of Ragan and more than two decades in the communications arena, I’ve never witnessed a more opportune time for communicators to leap to leadership roles that shape their organization’s future. AI is a career accelerant for communicators, but only if the right levers are pulled.

This is the moment to acknowledge the seismic shifts in how employees work and organizations are structured and to move into into the less familiar, yet infinitely exciting, next stage..

AI will have its casualties, unfortunately, but for those in comms who have champed at the bit to be less of an order taker and more of a meaning maker, this is your moment. Research from Ragan and other reputable outlets has not shown material growth in productivity or the bottom-line from AI for most companies, but adoption and understanding of the tools are still in the early stages. The prepared communicator will have the advantage.

Speaking your language

Let’s first take stock of reality: Large language models are ingesting content about your company and your executives at dizzying speeds. Culture is being encoded into machines. They are absorbing language patterns, inferring intent and risk.

If machines learn from our language, then someone needs to steward that language. If you’re reading this article, that someone is you.

The highest-value communicators will teach AI how to think, not what to say, and will shape meaning and anticipate the angles coming from these machines.

We’ve advanced in the past year to the point where AI is influencing decisions, culture and trust.

AI has changed what communications is responsible for and has moved the role from the middle to a critical top box on the org chart.

I’ve been so heartened and excited to see the innovations and progress communicators are making in ways large and small.

To wit, from the members of our Center for AI Strategy and the Communications Leadership Council, we’re seeing AI chiefs of staff being built, comms leading internal AI task forces and rewriting governance rules, better and faster go-to-market strategies, earned and owned media paying dividends, and product innovation backed by AI-driven research.

Machine as stakeholder

Communicators need to treat LLMs as stakeholders, not dissimilar to employees, customers, board members and the like. The AI stakeholder never sleeps, rarely forgets, never quietly quits or seeks promotions.

If you’re still describing AI as your thought partner, you’re just seeing one part of the future and not the full picture. ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot — they’re your new stakeholders.

Machines, just like other stakeholders, will be inconsistent, occasionally biased, incorrect and sloppy. Confusion, misinformation and ambiguity are data for the machines.

You can get caught up in the sci-fi nature of all this, or you can act on the idea that not all internal stakeholders from here on out will be of human flesh and blood. And if AI is another stakeholder impacting organizational reputation and risk, then it’s on you, the communicator, to guide your organization.

If AI is shaping how decisions are made, how trust is built and how organizations are perceived, then communicators need to put the order taking in the rearview mirror. Organizations that understand this will lead. The rest will wonder why their technology moved faster than their judgment.

Truth and consequences

While AI can generate infinite content, it can’t decide what should be said. It can’t interpret moral gray areas. It can’t understand consequences.

A key step in advancing your position is to own and curate the language layer of your company’s AI strategy.

It’s on you to define and set boundaries around how your organization speaks when it comes to decisions, values, employees and customers. Whether you’re in an internal or an external role in comms, it’s on you to anticipate how language cascades through systems and intervene before damage is done. Every leadership message, “quick note” and policy document matters more than ever.

Secondly, master how to write prompts, but don’t mistake this for strategy. More important is establishing your organization’s AI communication principles. Partner with HR to establish what good judgment looks like during crises, layoffs, mergers, executive transitions, regulatory risk and even the “good news” areas of promotions, product launches and company growth.

We all know that what’s internal is external in communications and vice versa. Extend that to your AI training and treat your internal messaging not as one-time announcements but as long-term inputs. AI platforms have institutional memory far exceeding that of your longest-serving employee or the annual report in your intranet library.

Communicators can step up their game by advising leaders on what not to say, stress-testing messages and flagging inconsistent language across LLM platforms.

Communicators are best positioned to protect reputation and meaning. You are the ultimate storytellers who understand the weight of words and the meaning behind them on reputation and the bottom line. Meaning is becoming a scarce asset; those who own meaning own trust.

You can get lost in the messy middle, or you can rise above it and own your organization’s relationship with AI.

For more on how to lead through this moment of communications opportunity, join Ragan for the AI Horizons Conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Feb. 2-4.