Beyond AI Hype: Finding Practical Communications Value in a Sea of Possibilities
In the midst of AI’s meteoric rise, there’s a conversation not happening nearly enough outside tech conferences and industry echo chambers. While Silicon Valley debates the philosophical implications of frontier models, most professionals are asking much more practical questions: “How does this actually help me serve my clients better?” and “Is this worth my limited time and resources?” and “What are the ethical considerations?” and “Which tool is best for me and worth paying for?” As a small business owner and consultant, I’ve felt this tension firsthand. Between client deliverables, invoicing, business development, and the countless other responsibilities of running a consultancy, finding time to navigate the overwhelming landscape of AI tools feels like yet another unpaid task on an already overflowing plate. Â The Implementation Gap The disconnect between AI’s theoretical potential and practical implementation remains substantial because the technology itself only gets you so far. The real challenge lies in meaningful adoption that delivers tangible value. (Not to mention another fundamental question: Is it possible to achieve this without wiping out jobs, careers, and entire industries? By using AI, am I simply training my replacement?) This challenge is particularly acute for communications and marketing professionals. We trade in human connection, authentic storytelling, and strategic thinkingâprecisely the areas where AI’s application requires the most nuance and oversight. For that reason, I think the most creative ideators will ultimately survive the robot invasion. Only time will tell. Â The Tool Explosion Problem The proliferation of specialized AI tools has also created the latest version of decision fatigue. Need to convert text to speech? Here are a thousand options, each requiring research, trial periods, and subscription commitments. As you develop proficiency with one platform, a new competitor emerges with different capabilities and limitations. Just when I thought I had mastered ChatGPT and Claude AI, here came DeepSeek with Magnus hot on its heels. (Claude AI is still my favorite for content creation.) This constant churn generates significant opportunity costs. Time spent evaluating and learning new tools is time not spent on client work or business development. This represents a genuine business challenge for independent professionals rather than just an adoption hurdle. Â Practical Pathways Forward For communications and marketing professionals looking to navigate this landscape thoughtfully, here are a few of my favorite ways to balance innovation with practicality: Start with pain points, not possibilities: Rather than exploring what AI can do in theory, identify your most time-consuming or creatively draining tasks. The best implementation often addresses existing frustrations rather than creating new workflows. Embrace the “second draft” approach: Let AI generate rough initial content that you significantly revise and elevate. This preserves your voice while eliminating the intimidation of the blank page for routine work. Build a focused toolkit: Rather than chasing every new release, select 2-3 versatile platforms that address your core needs. For many professionals, this might include a text generation tool, a multimedia creator, and a research assistant. Futurepedia is a great resource for exploring and determining the best tools and software to suit your needs. Create guardrails through prompting: Develop and refine standardized prompts that consistently produce useful starting points for your work. Well-crafted prompts incorporating your brand voice and strategic preferences become valuable intellectual property. Claude AI enables you to build “projects” that capture brand voice, messaging, tone, and format, giving you more time for strategy and content ideation, editing, and refinement. Use AI for expansion, not contraction: Apply AI tools to explore more angles, create more variations, or develop more comprehensive supporting materials rather than simply automating what you already do well. Treat AI as a collaborative partner: Frame your relationship with these tools as collaborative rather than transactional. The most valuable outputs often emerge from multiple rounds of human-AI iteration rather than single-prompt solutions. The real opportunity isn’t replacing our expertise with automation but extending our communications capabilities into areas previously constrained by time and resources. When approached thoughtfully, AI tools can amplify our distinctly human talents rather than substitute for them.
Navigating the Ethical Landscape of AI in Communications and Marketing
As communications and marketing professionals, we’ve watched with fascination as artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed our industry. From chatbots to content generation tools, AI is undeniably powerful in helping streamline processes, boost productivity, enhance creativity, and improve audience engagement. The marketplace has been proliferated with tools and apps promising MAGICAL results (the symbol most companies are using to denote AI is magic sparkles âš). However, in many respects, the use of AI is more like a Magic 8 Ball than what you see in demos. The good news is that humans are still very much needed, at least for now. And as we’ve experimented with these technologies, we’ve also grappled with the complex ethical questions and challenges they raise for communicators and marketers. It has become clear that technology vendors are less concerned with ethics as they iterate and expand the features of their products. One glaring example is Open AIâs new voice assistant sounding eerily similar to actress Scarlett Johannson even after she declined their offer. Indeed, much of the reference materials fed into the large language models (LLMs) that AI platforms are built on were done so without the permission of the content owners/creators. While those instances are not the primary subject of this post, they leave those of us who use these platforms with a sense of caveat emptor when using them. With all that in mind, here are the several concerns organizations should keep in mind while considering the ethical use of AI: BIAS & INACCURACIES: AI algorithms are only as good as the data they are trained on, and they can perpetuate biases and inaccuracies if not carefully designed and monitored. AI tools scrape the Internet for content and canât always decipher what is true or outdated information. In some cases, AI has shown a tendency to âhallucinateâ, which is the cute term for simply making things up. This occurs in some categories more than others. For instance, a recent legal case was tossed because a lawyer used ChatGPT to draft a legal argument. You should never simply copy and paste an AI’s first draft because the generated content could be biased, inaccurate, or misaligned with your brand’s voice and messaging goals. TL:DR: Always proof and verify AIâs outputs. LIMITED CREATIVITY & EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE: While they can assist with data analysis, content optimization, and basic design tasks, they cannot replace a humanâs strategic thinking, intuition, empathy, and contextual understanding. The quality of the output depends heavily on the quality of the input. Learning effective prompting techniques makes a substantial difference in the generated content’s relevance, coherence, and overall usefulness. We recommend a deep dive into every AI toolâs features, because some can display bias when asked questions regarding emotional or social issues, while others are tuned to display humor. TL:DR: Learn the differences and features of AI tools, and donât cut corners on ideation and creativity into your prompts. TRANSPARENCY: It is essential to be transparent about using AI and not mislead people into thinking they are interacting with a human (e.g., on a chatbot) or engaging with wholly original content (e.g., art created on Midjourney). Failing to disclose the use of AI can erode trust and damage your reputation. For example, we use Grammarly and Claude AI to proofread and lightly edit our blogs, which we disclose in each post. Lack of disclosure also risks an âuncanny valleyâ response, which denotes when the receiver (e.g., reader, viewer, etc.) detects artificial-ness of the content, and it can provoke an instant feeling of revulsion. TL:DR: Always disclose the use of AI tools. DATA PRIVACY & SECURITY: AI tools often rely on vast amounts of data to learn and improve, and this can include sensitive personal information. Communicators and marketers must ensure that they collect, use, and store data ethically and securely and are transparent about how data is used. Organizations are broadly discouraged from uploading private and/or proprietary data to AI applications. TL:DR: Do your homework, and read the fine print to protect your audiencesâ data, privacy, and security.. ACCOUNTABILITY & RESPONSIBILITY: If an AI tool generates content that is ultimately inaccurate, offensive, or harmful, who is responsible? Is it the creator of the AI tool, the organization using the tool, or the individual who approved the content? For now, the buck stops with humans, and we must manage (rather than rely) on AI tools to ensure weâre serving our audiences accordingly. TL:DR: Good intentions are not enoughâhumans are ultimately responsible for the impact of AI tools on their audiences. The AI revolution is exciting, and we must stay alert and adaptable. Our north star must always be doing right by our audiences. If you need help choosing the right communications and marketing AI tools for your team or project, weâd love to strategize ethical solutions and train your team! GO DEEPER: 8 Questions About Using AI Responsibly, Answered (Harvard Business Review) AI Will Give Office Workers More Time to âCreate, Dream and Innovateâ (Financial Review) AI automated discrimination. Hereâs how to spot it. (Vox) The âEnergy Transitionâ Wonât Happen (City Journal) (AI disclaimer: proofed by Grammarly and lightly edited using Claude)
