How Artificial Intelligence Will Impact Corporate Communications

I have seen a glimpse of the future impact of artificial intelligence on corporate communications – and it is good. AI will bring a new level of trust to information, improve the way information is delivered (i.e., via augmented reality and virtual reality apps) and provide better insights and predictive analytics for decision making by corporate communications professionals.

My exposure to artificial intelligence has primarily been in the trusted identity technology industry, where AI is starting to revolutionize the digitization of identity and access management, physical access control and cybersecurity, especially as a proactive approach to threat and fraud detection. The management of identities, either physical or digital, is changing rapidly, requiring new ways of thinking to add trust.

Trust is an important topic for corporate communications, too. If people do not trust the information coming from a corporation, credibility is lost. If people think the communications team is out of touch with market realities, is too slow to take action or doesn’t have a vision for the future, then corporate communications unwittingly gets relegated to a tactical corner, subject to the misperceptions and misgivings of narrow-minded, tactics-obsessed, transactional people.

We as corporate communications professionals should expect more from ourselves and our teams. I challenge my colleagues in this field to embrace the opportunities AI presents to augment our communications function in the long term, rather than being defensive, reactionary or ignorant that change will happen.

For the sake of sparking a new stream of dialogue in the communications field, I am going to lay out my case for how AI could help corporate communications in the years to come. I hope readers challenge my points and stretch our collective thinking so we can have an honest discussion about how to harness AI in a productive way to serve our strategic communications goals.

AI does not need to define us or replace us; we have the opportunity to define AI in the context of corporate communications, which includes both external and internal communications. AI technology itself is neither good nor bad. In fact, it is a reflection of the heart of the person using it or unleashing it through automation. Just as the internet has done for more than two decades, it can reveal as much moral clarity as it can moral depravity. Someone can use the internet to spread false or misleading information just as much as to post truthful information.

However, at a higher level, AI’s real value is in enhancing, supporting and amplifying human truth, human experience and, ultimately, human freedom. And I believe that organizations will increasingly become the purveyors of these things in the future. Ironically, AI can help enhance what it means for us to be human.

Full article at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/people/anthonypetrucci/#1f86c7269f50