AI as a comms co-pilot, not a replacement

When the word ‘AI’ pops up in the news, it’s often quickly followed by verbs like ‘disrupt’ and ‘replace’. Tech companies boast about the market waves they’ll make and papers speculate on the jobs it will put at risk. But for all the noise around AI’s power to disrupt, it’s quietly offering businesses something else: stability. The real story isn’t about machines taking over, it’s about people learning to fly ever-higher with AI as their co-pilot. 

Enhanced decision-making, not displacement 

Nowhere is this dynamic more evident than in communications. New research has shown that the future of communications is going to be defined by judgement, storytelling, and credibility – all qualities that can’t be coded. In fact, two out of five PR, communications, and marketing practitioners say they expect their roles to be largely unchanged by AI, with artificial intelligence serving to support, not transform, their role. 

A clear example of this is seen in the area of media monitoring and social listening – a crucial part of any brand management strategy. Rather than tasking an account executive with trawling through X (formerly Twitter) to identify shifts in public feeling, machine learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP) can be used to crawl global coverage and interpret the media sentiment of the results. Such tools work at a level of speed and depth which a human would struggle to imitate, but their findings don’t decrease the need for a PR strategist. It’s simply a more advanced version of using Google’s search tools – excellent at information-gathering and, now, analysis, but not a replacement for a strategic role. Its findings enhance a practitioner’s ability to make effective creative decisions, yet these decisions must still be made by the PR professional alone.  

The rise of the data-storyteller 

This blend of analytics and imagination is increasingly casting comms pros as ‘data-storytellers’: practitioners who blend data with narrative craft to build cutting-edge assets and campaigns. They use the tools at their disposal to work with greater precision and efficiency but don’t rely on them to make crucial creative decisions for them. AI may be speeding up reporting and scaling personalisation, but speed alone won’t win attention.   

In a saturated content landscape, authenticity is a refreshing differentiator that makes brands stand out. Success depends on understanding which narratives resonate most with audiences, flagging where content fatigue may be setting in, and spotting the content that sparks genuine engagement over algorithmic optimisation. It’s teams that can distinguish between reach and resonance that will create campaigns that not only scale, but feel consistent, credible, and authentic. 

Agencies driving change 

When it comes to embracing AI as a co-pilot, its agencies that are taking the lead. Two in five (41%) agency practitioners expect their role will involve a strategic shift to an advisory position as AI handles content creation or execution, compared to just a quarter (26%) of in-house practitioners. It’s understandable that agencies are more front-footed in their approach: nearly half (45%) say they expect to face budget cuts, compared to around a third (34%) of in-house departments. With the opportunities AI provides to work at a higher level, and generate more value both for themselves and their clients, AI tools can help agencies do more with less – a boon for businesses tightening their belts. This offers companies crucial stability in a volatile economic market. 

However, the shift towards increased AI use won’t – and shouldn’t – occur overnight. True long-term AI success relies on formalising where AI is of genuine benefit, adding strict guardrails for accuracy and ethics, and upskilling teams to properly incorporate AI into tasks and processes. Rushing AI deployment, in an attempt to prove you’re keeping up with changing times is at best, unhelpful, at worst, damaging. 

GEO and the new currency of digital visibility 

Blending human intuition with data-driven insight is also crucial for communicators to find stability amidst the tectonic shift already causing tremors: Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO). Under GEO, Large Language Models (LLMs) retrieve and repeat what they find so in this new landscape visibility won’t come from gaming algorithms but from being trusted, cited, and credible in AI-driven ecosystems. GEO is entirely redefining the way users find brands and interact with their content – research has suggested that a site previously ranked first in a Google search result could lose around 79% of its traffic for that query, if results are delivered below an AI overview. This goes back again to the idea of trust raised earlier; visibility and success in this new AI era is not achieved by single-mindedly pursuing the highest figures, but by establishing a trusted, authentic connection between brands and their audience. 

The AI stability story may not grab as many headlines but it doesn’t make it any less true. AI is offering never-before-seen capabilities to professionals across industries, but the businesses who apply it best are those seeking AI as a co-pilot, not a replacement. Especially in communications, imagination and creativity will always be essential and that’s why humans are integral to the new world of AI.