The role of comms pros at moments of technological or cultural change

Do you have a working relationship with artificial intelligence (AI)? How does your organisation view employees who use AI to enhance their work? Are your leaders visibly experimenting with AI and encouraging others to do the same? Perhaps employees are raising ethical, environmental or security concerns.

Or maybe there is a huge dose of scepticism at play in your company, with long serving colleagues resisting due to “never needing something like this” before.

Whatever your situation, we are at a turning point in the world of internal and employee communication.

AI experience – or enthusiasm – is being frequently included in job descriptions. AI is simultaneously being scrutinised for bias and transforming how people work. For many professionals it has the same potential to accelerate learning, improve decision making and create new career opportunities.

However, there is a tension between the possibilities and realities of what is happening inside organisations.

AI may be widely adopted by employees at home, where they use it creatively and to problem solve. But what happens when they get to work? Does that behaviour stop?

Employees do not leave their digital habits at the door. If they are using AI to plan holidays, solve problems, learn new skills and support decisions at home, many will naturally look for ways to apply those same behaviours at work.

If culture is ‘the way we do things around here’ (Deal & Kennedy, 1982), the way we are communicating and using AI means organisational cultures are changing.

A question of trust?

In the late 2000s and 2010s, companies were unsure about collaboration software and giving all employees a voice through enterprise social networks. I was working in-house at the time and conversations were focused on ‘what if we lock it all down and employees use social media on their phones anyway’ and ‘how can we trust employees with this?’

I remember publishing a guest article on my website in 2012 from Dean Royles from NHS Employers. He was known around that time for saying: “we trust our staff with patients’ lives. Why wouldn’t we trust them with social media?”

Today’s conundrums and conversations remind me of the questions back then regarding ‘internal social media’ or ‘enterprise social networks’ (ESNs) – which are phrases we don’t even use now, as the methodology has become embedded.

Note: Some organisations are still not at this stage yet. A few months ago, I advised an client who is considering turning on Viva Engage for the first time inside their organisation. The rate and speed of maturity and adoption matters and it varies from company to company.

Questions include:

• What is it for?
• Should I use it?
• How should I use it?
• can I opt out?
• Do leaders/employers expect me to know all about it?
• Who is doing what?
• How can I keep up?

The role of comms pros at moments of technological change

Whether we’re enthusiastic adopters or cautious observers, AI is already shaping the way people work and communicate.

We do not need to become AI experts overnight. But we do need to understand the conversations happening around us, challenge our assumptions and remain curious.

As IC pros, we have a choice. We can watch from the sidelines, or help our organisations navigate this moment with clarity, competence and humanity.

I am not an AI expert. In the same way I wasn’t an ESN, pandemic, furlough or hybrid working expert. As professional communicators, we cannot ignore the world around us, we need to develop ‘deep knowledge in the shallow niches’. (Regular readers of my blog will know I’ve used that phrase for years and attribute it to Edelman.)

That’s why I’ve been openly documenting my own experiments, reflections and learning journey. I’ve worked out loud via my blog since 2009. That’s 17 years documenting the past, present and future of internal communication.

As communication professionals, we have been here before. This reminds me of the world of internal communication 15 or so years ago. We’ve navigated the introduction of enterprise social networks, mobile technology, flexible and hybrid working and countless digital transformations. None of these came without questions, concerns or resistance.

AI is no different.

The technology matters. But how we choose to work with it matters more

As we take stock of now, I’m excited by the possibilities. We cannot afford to sit on the sidelines and observe AI from a safe distance. Our role is to understand it, explore it, question it and help our organisations navigate it responsibly.

AI may not be everyone’s priority today, but it is already shaping the environment we work in. Understanding it is now part of understanding the context in which organisations operate.

Why internal communicators?

AI is not simply a technology story. It is a trust story, a leadership story, a culture story and communication story.

Employees need clarity about what AI means for their work and skills to use it well. Leaders need confidence to talk about risks and opportunities. Organisations need fair and transparent approaches to governance and adoption.

These are not technology challenges alone. They are human challenges.

There is where we as internal communication professionals can make a significant difference. By listening, explaining, questioning, connecting and creating a shared understanding and meaning, we help organisations move from uncertainty to informed action.

We have done this many times before and will do it again. The question is no longer whether AI will influence the workplace, but how we choose to respond.

The future of internal communication will not be defined by AI alone. But it will be shaped by how well we help people navigate it.

As communicators, we have an opportunity to help shape that response. Not by having all the answers, but by asking better questions, remaining curious and making sure the human experience remains at the centre of the discussions.

I think that’s a conversation worth being part of.

Rachel Miller is the founder of All Things IC, where this blog was first published. Read our review of her book Internal Communication Strategy.