Series 2 Episode 5: What AI really means for corporate digital communicators
Data and insights from a major new survey of senior communicators
In this episode of Cutting Through, Jonathan Holt is joined by Ivan Pollard and Denise Dahlhoff from The Conference Board's Marketing and Communication Center – along with Bowen Craggs' own Scott Payton and Caterina Sorenti – to dig into new research on how AI is reshaping the communications landscape. We unpack the results from a recent survey of senior communicators and marketers and find out: why owned media is surging to the top of the priority list (hint: AI search is the hidden force behind it), why paid advertising and employee social media posts are falling out of favour and what all of this could mean for your team's size, structure and skillsets. If the rise of AI has you feeling a little overwhelmed and unsure what to do next, this episode will help.
About the research featured in this episode
The Conference Board surveyed 100 senior corporate communicators and 67 senior marketers as part of its CMO+CCO Meter series.
Bowen Craggs was a knowledge partner on the research, which reveals how senior communicators and marketers think AI will change their teams' focus and the skills they need in their teams.
21% of comms leaders said they expect to see overall headcount shrink, but 9% said they expect to hire more people because of AI.
Actionable takeaways for AI era success
- Prioritise AEO, or answer engine optimisation.
Making sure that your content is structured and authoritative enough to be surfaced in AI generated answers means that your company is visible even when users don’t click through. - Consistency is key
Ensuring that facts, figures and messaging are consistent across all of your online channels is a crucial trust signal. - Provide clear answers
Providing clear, detailed, authoritative answers to all relevant topics, even – perhaps especially – the difficult and controversial topics that leadership would really prefer not to talk about.
Humans will appreciate clarity as much as AI systems.
References and resources
- Report: The Conference Board "AI is transforming reputation building and the teams driving it" (registration required)
- Bowen Craggs article - New research: How AI is reshaping reputation – and the teams behind it
- Report: The Conference Board "Important human skills in the age of AI" (available to The Conference Board members only)
- Bowen Craggs article - To stay relevant in the AI age, develop these skills
- New York Times article - That Meeting You Hate May Keep A.I. From Stealing Your Job (behind a paywall)
- YouTube video - Hungarian politician Zsolt Hegedus dancing at an election victory celebration in Budapest
- Article - Boden back in the black on back of catalogue re-introduction
- YouTube video: Stephen Fry on the humanity of emergent technologies at Nokia Bell Labs, 2017
- Consumer Confidence Index by The Conference Board
- Find out more about The Conference Board
- Denise Dahlhoff on LinkedIn
- Ivan Pollard on LinkedIn