How Comms can navigate the perfect storm: Part 2 of the AI Enablement Opportunity

22 April 2026

Wayne Aspland:

Research suggests that Comms teams might be lagging their colleagues in the AI race. That is bad news for both the organisation and our profession.

If you want to know more about why we need to be part of the AI conversation and how we get there, check out Wayne’s latest paper below.

If you ask me, the greatest life lessons book ever written is ‘Oh, the Places You’ll Go!’ by Dr. Seuss.

Those of you who know the book may well understand why I say that.

To those who don’t, it’s a book for children and young adults that describes life’s ups and downs in the most wonderful way possible. It reached number 1 or 2 on USA Today’s Best Selling Book list five times over 25 years. And it was so revered in the USA that it became a popular graduation gift.

Anyway, I was thinking about this book recently when I was looking at some disturbing data about the Communication profession. I was wondering whether our profession is stuck in what Dr. Seuss called ‘The Waiting Place’.

“Waiting for the fish to bite

or waiting for the wind to fly a kite

or waiting around for Friday night

or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake

or a pot to boil, or a Better Break

or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants

or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.

Everyone is just waiting.”

Comms seems stuck

You may have read the recent Strategic article on alignment from Zora Artis and I. It looks at the somewhat parlous state of strategic alignment today based on 55 interviews with senior leaders around the world.

One of the findings was something we called The Alignment Paradox. Everyone regards alignment as an important priority, but many (including Comms professionals) are unsure how to deliver it or even what it is.

A day or two later, I came across a BCG study into AI in Corporate Affairs and Communications. It seems we have precisely the same issue with AI as well.

While we all appreciate the importance of AI, our profession seems to be well behind in the AI race.

According to BCG, 68% of Corporate Affairs & Communications leaders regard themselves as AI laggards. At the same time, a staggering 88% “say they are not fully prepared to lead an AI transformation in their function”.

A serious risk for the profession.

On one level, this is a serious risk for our profession. If we can’t keep pace with our leaders and colleagues, we will lose both our relevance and reputation.

This is illustrated in a compelling way by BCG. Think about this for example. 50% of CEOs believe their job depends on getting AI right, while 68% of Corporate Affairs and Comms leaders regard themselves as AI laggards.

Do you see the mismatch there? How do we help our CEOs navigate this enormous priority when we haven’t even built the skills ourselves? 

An even bigger risk for the organisations we support.

But there is more to this issue than just us. The fact that we’re not up to speed with AI is a major risk to our organizations as well.

Over the last eighteen months, two things have become clear about AI.

• First, AI isn’t about productivity quick wins. It’s about long-term workforce transformation.
• Second, AI isn’t just about technology. More than anything, it’s about people.

If you consider those two things, it becomes painfully obvious that the organization’s employee enablers (including Comms, HR, Change and People Leaders) need to start leading the conversation. This means, among many other things:

• Advising on and embedding responsible AI guardrails
• Building a consistent tone of voice when communication is democratizing across the organization
• AI training and engaging employees
• Aligning people around the AI vision and roadmap
• Ensuring people leaders have the information, skills and tools they need to transform their teams.
• Driving change and helping people manage the impacts of acceleration.

If we don’t get our hands dirty, our leaders will struggle to drive meaningful change and hold our organisations together.

We’re not the only laggards

It turns out we’re not alone here. A recent report from SHRM Executive Network found that only 39% of organizations have implemented AI in HR.

But we shouldn’t take comfort in that. It only intensifies the risk.

We need to do three things and we need to do them urgently.

The first is AI-enable our Comms teams. That is, help them build the skills and the AI roadmap that will drive the team forward. If we can’t do that, we’ve got no hope of leading the rest of the organization.

Second, we need to reach out to HR, Change and perhaps Employee Experience teams (in exactly the same way that Zora and I advocated for alignment). Get together and form an AI enabled coalition.

Finally, we need to start raising the business case for why Comms, HR and Change need to play a much bigger leadership role supporting AI transformation over the next few years.

The bottom line

We have a critical strategic role to play moving forward. It will have a meaningful impact on the capability of our organizations as well as our professional reputation.

If we take this on, we can potentially drive the largest transformation any of us have ever seen. A transformation of both our teams and our organisations that will help us build:

• Simpler work with faster workflows so we can create the space to deliver new value.
• Smarter decisions resulting from more accessible information and smarter analytics
• Better outcomes for our stakeholders, be they customers, colleagues or other stakeholders
• And, ultimately, a stronger voice by establishing our organization’s and our team’s AI credentials at the same time.

 

This leaves us all with a choice. One we need to make soon.

The Waiting Place or the future?

Which is a good place to go back to Dr. Seuss.

“You’re off the Great Places!

Today is your day!

Your mountain is waiting.

So…get on your way!”

Note. Oh, the Places You’ll Go! is © Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. 

If you haven’t read it, buy a copy. It really is the most wonderful read.

+++

Here’s some help

On that score, I wanted to share with you my fourth research study into AI and communication. This one’s a bit different.

“People Matter: Why HR, Communication and Change Management are critical to our AI-enabled future” is an evidence-based business case. It explains why our professions need to be a major part of the AI conversation what we can potentially bring to the table.

It’s designed as a Powerpoint presentation with speaker notes so you can use it to start an AI conversation both within your team and with senior leadership.

If you’d like to get a copy, feel free to reach out via wraspland@gmail.com or Linkedin. I’d love to get your feedback… good, bad or ugly!

+++

Wayne Aspland, MAICD, FCSCE is a leadership, strategy and change communication professional. He helps organisations and teams realise their potential in today’s new world of work. A world where the opportunities created by AI are balanced against the strain of accelerating change and uncertainty.