The CommunicAItor's Digest: Edition 15

Helping you stay up to date with how AI is affecting the comms discipline.

Edition 15: I hesitate in saying that AI adoption in comms is maturing, but each week I see more and more AI integration into corporation-wide communications disciplines - from internal comms and content creation to enhanced productivity workflows. There's even some CEO AI-avatar experimentation which is fascinating to see and suggests a degree of quality and confidence in AI that we haven't seen before.

If you find any part of this digest useful, I simply ask that you share to ensure this reaches as many people as possible (a man's gotta eat!). Enjoy!

Content Creation

AI Workstations Reshape Hollywood Production

AI-powered workstations are revolutionizing Hollywood by automating complex tasks like visual effects and editing, streamlining workflows and reducing reliance on large teams. This shift democratizes content creation, allowing for more innovative and cost-effective productions. Source

Chicago Sun-Times Publishes AI-Generated Fake Book List

The Chicago Sun-Times published a summer reading list featuring non-existent books generated by AI (and a contractor). The outrage highlighting the risks of unvetted AI content in journalism and reinforces the necessity for rigorous editorial oversight when integrating AI tools. Source

Cloudflare CEO Warns Content Creators About AI Risks

Cloudflare's CEO cautions that AI technologies could disrupt content creation by enabling mass production of synthetic content, challenging the authenticity and value of human-created work. It's a valuable flag for creators to adapt and emphasize unique, high-quality content. Source

Google Launches SynthID to Detect AI-Generated Content

Google introduces SynthID, a tool designed to identify AI-generated content by embedding invisible watermarks, enhancing transparency and trust in digital media. The faster AI tools evolve and develop, the more crucial the role of tools that help content verification. Source

Google Veo3 Advances AI Video Generation

Google's Veo3 showcases significant improvements in AI-generated video, producing realistic clips with synchronized audio and visuals, blurring the lines between synthetic and real content and putting high quality video-creation tools in the hands of everybody. Source

Influencers

Publicis Acquires Captiv8 to Enhance Influencer Marketing

Publicis Groupe acquires Captiv8, expanding its influencer marketing capabilities with access to a vast network of creators and advanced AI tools, aiming to deliver more personalized and effective campaigns. This move signifies the growing importance (and maturity) of influencer strategies in marketing. Source

B2B Influence and Employee-Generated Content Rise

The B2B sector sees a shift towards leveraging employee-generated content and internal influencers to build trust and authenticity in brand messaging. It's a critical data point in the importance of culture and of employee diversity to help build stronger connections with external audiences. Source

Meta's AI App Integrates Advertising into Chatbots

Meta explores integrating advertising into its AI-powered chatbots, offering personalized ad experiences within conversational interfaces. Like Google, this innovation could redefine user engagement and monetization strategies in digital marketing. Source

AI Elevates Public Relations Over Traditional Advertising

AI technologies enhance public relations by enabling more targeted and data-driven communication strategies, potentially surpassing traditional advertising in effectiveness and ROI. This evolution emphasizes the need for PR professionals to embrace AI tools. Source

Corporate Communications

Communicators Embrace AI Amid Audience Shifts

At a recent Axios event, communication leaders highlighted the necessity of adopting AI to navigate changing audience behaviors and media landscapes, emphasizing personalized and data-informed strategies. Source

AI Enhances Media Pitching Strategies

PR professionals are utilizing AI to refine media pitches, analyzing journalist preferences and crafting more compelling narratives, leading to improved media relations and coverage success rates. This application of AI streamlines the pitching process and enhances effectiveness - but also raises both ethical and integrity challenges. FWIW I'm not a fan! Source

Measuring AI's ROI in Communications

Communication leaders discuss the importance of quantifying AI's return on investment, focusing on metrics like engagement, efficiency, and impact to justify AI integration in communication strategies. We know how crucial it is to establish clear KPIs but do we need AI metrics, too? Source

Virgin Media O2 Advocates for Focused PR Strategies

Virgin Media O2's communications head (a PR legend and my former boss!) advises PR professionals to adopt more focused and strategic approaches, leveraging AI insights to tailor messages and campaigns effectively. Having such rich data so easily at our disposal is both a creative and strategic advantage. Source

Internal Communications

Gallup Highlights Importance of Data in Internal Comms

Gallup emphasizes the role of data analytics in internal communications, advocating for evidence-based strategies to enhance employee engagement and organizational performance. Source

U.S. Army Implements AI Workspace Platform

The U.S. Army introduces an AI-powered workspace platform to streamline operations and improve internal communications, demonstrating the military's commitment to technological advancement. As I said in my intro, this seems to reflect the broader trend of AI adoption in organizational processes. Source

WWF Switzerland Uses AI for Multilingual Communications

WWF Switzerland employs AI translation tools to facilitate multilingual internal communications, enhancing collaboration and inclusivity within the organization. I love the idea of breaking down internal language barriers and helping bring global talent to the workplace, wherever they may be. Source

Appspace Introduces Orchestration for Workplace Communications

Appspace launches an orchestration feature to streamline workplace communications from creation to impact, aiming to improve message consistency and employee engagement. Source

Citigroup Deploys AI Tool for Employee Operations in Hong Kong

Citigroup introduces an AI tool to assist Hong Kong employees in streamlining operations, reflecting the financial sector's move towards AI integration for efficiency and improved internal processes. As agents become more commonplace, even this innovation may soon be outdated! Source

Internal Communications Recognized as Strategic Asset

Industry experts advocate for internal communications to be viewed as a strategic asset, emphasizing its impact on employee engagement, culture, and organizational success. Source

Executive Communications

Swedish Fintech Uses AI Avatar for Earnings Report

Not joking - a Swedish fintech firm employs an AI-generated avatar to deliver its earnings report, showcasing innovative approaches to executive communications and stakeholder engagement. It speaks a huge amount to the confidence the team have in the platform, and indeed, of the CEO to allow it to happen! Source

Investor/Analyst Relations

AI Chat Tool Enhances Financial Research

A new AI-powered chat tool is introduced to assist finance and investor relations professionals in conducting research, offering streamlined access to financial data and insights. Source

Journalism

AI Integration Spurs Journalism's Existential Reckoning

The journalism industry faces a pivotal moment as AI technologies challenge traditional reporting methods. While some fear job displacement, others see an opportunity for reinvention, emphasizing the need for journalists to adapt and uphold ethical standards in an AI-driven landscape. Source

AI's Impact on Emerging Journalists

The increasing reliance on AI in newsrooms may hinder the development of essential skills among early-career journalists. Without careful integration, there's a risk of eroding the foundational experiences that cultivate journalistic expertise. Source

Pulitzer Winners Embrace AI Tools

For the second consecutive year, Pulitzer Prize applicants disclosed their use of AI in reporting, with one winner and three finalists acknowledging its role. This trend indicates a growing acceptance of AI as a valuable asset in investigative journalism but also provides valuable best-practices from which peers may learn. Source

Perplexity Launches Publisher Program

Perplexity introduces a program aimed at equipping publishers with AI technology to enhance audience engagement. By partnering with notable media outlets, the initiative seeks to foster collective success in the evolving digital landscape. Source

Disinformation & Misinformation

Advertising Standards Authority Addresses AI Manipulation

The Advertising Standards Authority hosted an event titled "Advertising at the Edge," focusing on AI's role in manipulation and the future of influence. The discussion highlighted the ethical considerations and regulatory challenges posed by AI in advertising. Source

AI's Persuasive Power Surpasses Humans

A study reveals that AI chatbots can be more persuasive than humans in debates, especially when provided with basic demographic information about their opponents. This finding raises concerns about AI's potential to influence public opinion and the importance of critical media literacy. It also raises the question about how deliberate misinformation is handled by the LLMs as they ingest new content. Source

Google's AI Generates Convincing Fake Fortnite Clips

Google's advanced AI video generation tool has produced Fortnite gameplay clips that are nearly indistinguishable from real footage. Even if the gameplay aspect doesn't exist, this highlights the challenges in distinguishing authentic content from AI-generated media, emphasizing the need for improved detection methods (see Google SynthID snippet, above). Source

TBWA and CJR Launch PSAi Campaign

TBWA and the Columbia Journalism Review have initiated the PSAi campaign, utilizing AI to educate the public on identifying fake news and AI-generated imagery. It's a valuable initiative to enhance media literacy and combat misinformation in the digital age. Source

Available for work

Brenna Lasky has an update of her weekly post.

Andrea Donatucci has a great update here.

Amanda Ponzar has a great list of roles here.

Bridget Szuminsky has a great roundup here.

Kerri Blanford has a shortlist here.

Leah Rosenfeld has a comprehensive (80+ editions) of comms open roles here.

Marc Goldberg has a great list here.

Marni Gordon, PCC regularly posts role here.

Projects

I ran a little experiment to see how Gen AI could assess what the media picked up - and what the reaction was - to a specific spokesperson's spoken or attributed remarks on AI. I was pretty impressed. Judge for yourself here.

And again, please, if any of this was useful to you, please consider sharing it.