AI has rapidly evolved from a curiosity to an essential tool for communicators. As more and more organizations and communications practitioners adopt AI, there is a growing library of guidance on how to use AI tools. Why and when to use AI isn’t as clearly defined. And it’s in this grey area that communicators and the organizations they serve can get into real trouble.
Jamie Anne Vaughan is a PhD student at the University of Calgary studying how generative AI is reshaping leadership communication, trust, and ethics, across organizational stakeholders. Vaughan, who is also an Assistant Professor at Mount Royal University and Founder of Westwood Strategies, spoke to Members of IABC/Calgary on this topic on May 11.
“We’re in this grey zone right now where we have a gut feeling on it, but there’s no set-in-stone guidelines for how we’re actually navigating these things,” she said.
When viewed as a tool, the question isn’t whether to use AI or not. The question becomes what kind of professionals do we want to be when we use AI tools? Without clear guidance from professional organizations, government, or industry, communications professionals are left to answer this on their own.
To do that they need to determine when and what to disclose about their use of AI? Where does the human judgment begin and the tool’s output end? And what does it mean to be accountable for communications that one doesn’t fully author?
Answering these questions will help to define what the value of a professional communicator is in this new AI-mediated world. And in doing so, prepare the profession for the future.
“The profession’s strategic standing–not just individual jobs–is contingent on how communications leaders respond to this moment,” said Vaughan.
Communications leaders need to ensure that their voices are heard alongside the executives, legal and IT leaders who are making the decisions on what tools to use, when and why. Leaders need to advocate not just for the communications-specific needs with AI tools, but for the continued need for communications teams.
Vaughan said that AI’s value to communicators comes from making us more efficient. AI handles content creation well. It can create first drafts, edit for tone, summarize vast amounts of information and complete routine tasks.
This means that to stay relevant, strategic counsel, ethical judgment, relational intelligence, and contextual interpretation need to be the driver of the communication profession.
By focusing on strategy and the human element, communicators can provide their organizations with strategic guidance to use AI tools ethically to fulfill the core value of communication, building connection and trust with their audience.
Event Speaker Bios:
- Jamie Anne Vaughan
Jamie is an Assistant Professor at Mount Royal University, a PhD Student at the University of Calgary, and Principal and Founder of Westwood Strategies.
AI Assisted–Human Reviewed
AI was used to summarize event notes, presenter materials and other original source materials used by the human author as well as ideation and proofing before final publication review.
