If AI can write your update in ten seconds, what was the rest of your job supposed to be?
Gallagher’s 2025/26 State of the Sector report found 75 per cent of communication functions are still stuck in early-stage, ad-hoc AI experimentation with no formal framework behind it. What that number is really showing is a pre-existing gap. The same report found only 18 per cent of comms functions operate as genuine strategic consultants to the business, even though 73 per cent say that’s what they want to be. AI didn’t create that gap. It’s making it impossible to hide.
I use AI in the space between strategy and send: first-draft ideation, research synthesis, adapting one core message across formats, turning raw data into something a leadership team can actually use. The value I care about is personalising communication at scale and stress-testing a change narrative for risk before it ships, not producing a faster first draft of the same tactical output.
Where I hold the line completely is anything published in a named leader’s voice. Employees can tell when fluent has replaced authentic, and trust in leadership communication is fragile enough already without an AI-generated apology or a townhall script that sounds like nobody in particular. AI amplifies whatever state your function is already in. It sharpens a strategic team and speeds up the noise from a tactical one.
If your team disappeared tomorrow and got replaced by a well-prompted AI, what exactly would leadership miss?
