Shaping the Future: How Communicators Drive AI Strategy

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by IABC Toronto and is being republished with permission.

In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, more companies are incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into their operations. Communicators can play an important role in guiding their organization in the development of an AI strategy that fosters transparency and ensures the ethical implementation of AI technologies in their business.

The Case for an AI Strategy

Integrating AI into a company’s business plan makes good business sense. Expert research indicates that AI has the power to double yearly economic growth rates by 2035 and will continue to completely revolutionize how humans work, create, and communicate.

More importantly, companies that deal with data and are slow to adopt AI into their business processes are already lagging light years behind their competitors. For communicators, now is the time to assume a proactive approach to initiating a company’s AI strategic plan.

Communicators as AI Strategy Champions

Communicators are uniquely positioned to help an organization through the development and implementation of their AI strategy.

Beyond crafting messages, communicators bridge the gap between complex technology and human understanding. This is necessary to ensure AI initiatives align with organizational values, resonate with diverse audiences, and build trust.

Communicators are also positioned to work collaboratively across internal corporate silos to verify that each unit’s strategic AI initiatives are compatible with the company’s overall business goals. They are masters of aligning departmental goals and managing the implementation process of AI initiatives.

Finally, communicators are experts at developing internal messaging that promotes and pulls diverse units to implement AI initiatives that complement one another.

In short, communicators connect various stakeholders, including AI teams, business leaders, employees, and external audiences. This ensures everyone understands, supports, and thrives within the company’s AI strategy.

What Is AI?

AI is a technology with human-like problem-solving capabilities. The power of AI lies in its ability to quickly analyze large data sets based on questions posed to the AI platform. It then provides responses that simulates human intelligence using technology such as chatbots.

For example, AI technology can respond to human conversations in a customer support setting, create original images and text for marketing, and make smart gift suggestions to shoppers.

AI has already transformed the communications industry. By automating routine tasks like writing press releases and social media posts, communicators can now focus on creating powerful messages that resonate with both internal teams and external audiences.

Developing An Effective AI Strategic Plan

An AI strategic plan is a roadmap that sets out how an organization will adopt, implement, and leverage AI within their organization. The business goal is to use AI to create a sustainable competitive advantage that is:

• Valuable: Provides superior solutions to client problems compared to competitors
• Rare: Offers unique advantages that competitors can’t easily replicate
• Inimitable: Built on proprietary technology, brand reputation, or specialized knowledge that’s difficult to copy
• Non-substitutable: No viable alternatives exist now or in the foreseeable future

The power of an AI strategic plan lies in aligning an organization’s business goals with market needs. Once this is achieved, communicators can drive the development of an AI strategy that seamlessly integrates initiatives with the company’s core objectives and processes.

The Five Pillars of an Effective AI Strategy

A corporate AI strategic plan isn’t just about adopting the latest AI tools. It’s a structured approach that integrates AI into core business processes to enhance operations. An AI strategy provides a clear framework that helps organizational members make informed decisions on implementing new AI initiatives.

Analytics8’s five key pillars of an effective AI communication strategy (see Figure 1) visually outlines how to align AI capabilities with your organization’s key performance area.

Figure 1: 5 Pillars of a Generative AI Strategy

Source: Analytics8 29 July 2024
 

Pillar 1: Business Alignment

An effective corporate AI strategy goes beyond simply adopting new technology, it ensures AI is seamlessly integrated into business operations to drive meaningful impact. A well-defined strategy provides a roadmap for decision-makers, guiding the implementation of AI initiatives in a way that aligns with organizational goals and enhances overall efficiency.

Communicators play a key role in ensuring AI is positioned as part of the process, not the process itself.

Pillar 2: Actionable Roadmap

Building an actionable AI roadmap is not about readiness. It’s about alignment of the organization’s current processes with AI technology.

Smooth transitions are achieved when communicators know the company’s technology, people skills and processes, and existing data infrastructure.

When communicators collaborate with peers to create a prioritized list of actions and initiatives, current data is transformed into information that accelerates the value and pulls the company to new profitability.

Pillar 3: Optimizing Technology

Communicators become familiar with the technology driving performance, including the company’s tech stack. They collaborate with peers to identify opportunities to enhance technology, maximizes profits, and reduce costs.

Pillar 4: Data Governance

Communicators advocate for strong data governance when using AI. They promote technology’s interoperability across company departments and focus on addressing AI-specific challenges such as accuracy and security.

Pillar 5: Talent Management

Communicators push for employee training to maximize the effectiveness of AI tools. They focus on ethical issues and highlight the need for human oversight to eliminate inherent biases when data is machine interpreted.

Developing the AI Strategic Plan

Once these pillars are addressed, communicators can proactively implement the company’s strategic plan. This can involve several key tasks including anticipating societal and customer concerns and verifying the AI initiatives are trustworthy and sustainable. Monitoring and adjusting post-implementation activities for changes that track trends and eliminate fads may also be required.

The bottom line is that communicators are best positioned to coordinate the creation of a company’s AI strategy. They can provide guiderails that prevent executives from jumping on an AI bandwagon and ensuring there is a clear connection between AI tools and the business goals.