LONDON — The way we communicate, create, and even think about media and messages is changing dramatically, and it’s happening fast. But what exactly does that change look like on the ground? How are communicators, agencies, and organisations using AI to transform their strategies and tactics?

Earlier this month, I chaired a webinar of AI experts from Folgate Advisors' new AI Nexus to take a deep dive into where the industry is now with generative AI in particular, and where it’s heading. My four guests from around the world have been in the trenches with AI: Jenny Nicholson, an AI evangelist based in North Carolina, who spent more than a decade in creative roles at McKinney and is SVP for creative and strategic innovation at Movement Strategy; Rob van Alphen, who is based in Vietnam and the UAE and helps marketing and communications teams across Asia integrate generative AI into their workflows; former Edelman and Ogilvy leader Matt Collette, based in Vancouver, who is the CEO of AI consultancy Sequencr AI; and Andrew Bruce Smith, based in London, who has guided more than 3,000 organisations through technology and AI changes.

Our conversation offered myriad insights into how communications professionals can leverage the technology to enhance both efficiency and strategic effectiveness.

Five key takeaways:

  • Shift from efficiency to effectiveness: PR professionals should focus on using AI to enhance campaign effectiveness, not just speed up tasks.
  • Leadership engagement is crucial: successful AI adoption requires leaders to personally engage with AI tools and understand their capabilities.
  • Curiosity drives innovation: experimenting with AI and asking insightful questions can unlock new ways of thinking and enhance creativity.
  • Combat “blandification”: AI-generated content must be used creatively to avoid uniform, formulaic messaging and stand out.
  • Strategic differentiation with AI: organisations should apply AI in unique ways to amplify their strengths and gain a competitive advantage.

Let’s look at these in more depth.

Shift from efficiency to effectiveness: AI’s strategic potential

A central theme of the conversation was the importance of moving beyond AI’s use for mere efficiency – doing things faster or cheaper – and exploring its potential to enhance the effectiveness of communications campaigns.

While many professionals still see AI as a tool for speeding up tasks like content generation, Andrew Bruce Smith said the real value lies in using AI to make campaigns more impactful. “The vast majority of people are still thinking about AI purely in terms of efficiency,” he said. “They're asking, ‘What do we already do? How can we do that, but faster, cheaper, and more of it?’ The real question is: how can we use AI to make the campaigns we run more effective, to enhance creativity and decision-making?”

Matt Collette pointed out that AI's strategic potential goes far beyond writing press releases or bylines, and that AI’s true power lies in its ability to process large datasets and uncover hidden patterns. “We need to think beyond using AI to write a byline article,” he said. “AI can help us analyse massive amounts of data and find patterns that we, as humans, might miss. It can uncover hidden signals within noise, leading to better insights for campaign planning and delivering higher quality outcomes.”

Leadership engagement and AI literacy are crucial

For AI to be successfully adopted within organisations, leadership engagement is essential. The panellists were unanimous in emphasising that while leaders don’t need to be deep technical experts, they must understand AI’s capabilities and limitations to guide their teams effectively.

Rob van Alphen stressed the importance of leadership buy-in, saying, “Leadership buy-in is crucial. If your leaders are not personally engaging with AI tools, they can’t guide their teams effectively. It’s not about knowing all the technical details – leaders just need to understand the basics and know how AI fits into their broader communication strategy.”

Jenny Nicholson agreed, explaining that leaders must experience the technology first-hand to drive its adoption. “If you're not using the technology that you want people to adopt, you can't effectively guide the organization,” she said. "Leaders need to understand how AI can act as a ‘sidekick’ – helping them think through decisions, gain second opinions, and spot blind spots they might not even know exist.”

Curiosity, experimentation, and the power of asking questions

It came thought strongly in the webinar that AI’s full potential is unlocked not only through automation and prompting it to complete tasks, but also by using it to ask meaningful questions and experiment with different uses. Nicholson encouraged participants to think beyond simple content creation and use AI to explore new perspectives and frameworks. “One of the things I find incredibly powerful is using AI to help you understand different perspectives,” she said.

“For example, I once asked AI to tell a story about a family getting a new cat, from the perspective of the old cat, the new cat, the kid who wanted the cat, and even the couch! The couch was anxious because it was used to the old cat and worried about the scratches the new cat would leave. That’s not something I would have ever thought of.”

She believes this ability to view a situation from multiple perspectives is one of AI’s most powerful features, offering new ways to think creatively and solve problems.

Van Alphen echoed the importance of curiosity, urging professionals to experiment with free AI tools to get a feel for what the technology can do. “Be curious! Start experimenting with free AI tools like Google AI Studio or ChatGPT,” he said. “Try using AI for a task you typically struggle with, and see how it can make that process easier. The more you experiment, the more you’ll understand what AI can really do for you.”

Bruce Smith encouraged the same mindset, saying, “It’s about diving in and trying things out. The worst that could happen is you get a dud response, but that’s an opportunity to learn and refine your approach. AI is still new, and we’re just beginning to scratch the surface of its potential.”

The risk of “blandification” and the need for creativity

A significant concern raised during the conversation was the risk of AI-generated content becoming monotonous and formulaic. Nicholson warned that over-reliance on AI for content creation could result in “blandification,” where all content sounds the same. “If every brand is using AI to generate press releases or social media posts, it's all going to start sounding the same,” she said. “AI can only give you what you ask for, and if everyone is asking for the same types of things, you’re going to get bland, homogeneous content. That’s the problem we face: AI can’t create originality unless you prompt it to do so.”

“We’re going right down the middle of the most boring thing and then using models in the most boring ways and then wondering why they give us such boring results,” she added, talking about how AI is often used in a formulaic way without pushing the boundaries of its potential.

Nicholson encouraged brands to disrupt this pattern by thinking creatively about how AI can be used in unique and unconventional ways to stand out. She pointed to KitKat’s innovative use of AI in a brand ad campaign as an example. “KitKat did something really interesting with AI when Mid Journey was first released,” she said. “They had AI create a KitKat ad, but it was intentionally bad. The message was that AI was behind the ad, and the takeaway was about the importance of taking a break. That’s using AI in a way that no one would have thought of without that creative mindset.”

Strategic application: AI as a tool for differentiation

The panellists also discussed how AI’s accessibility is making it more critical for organisations to use it in ways that provide a strategic advantage. As Collette pointed out, “When everyone has AI, no one has AI.” In other words, AI won’t be a differentiator by itself; the key to gaining a competitive edge is in how organisations apply the technology to their unique strengths and capabilities.

“AI can level the playing field, but it’s how you use it that will set you apart,” Collette said. “Think about how you can apply AI to enhance your team’s strengths and capabilities. AI should amplify what you’re already good at, whether that's data analysis, strategic planning, or audience engagement. It’s not about using AI for the same tasks everyone else is using it for—it’s about applying it in ways that are unique to your organisation.”

As Nicholson said during the conversation, the overall takeaway from the webinar was clear: PR professionals should – in the very best sense of the expression – “fuck around and find out”. Now go and play…