TLDR: The comms industry is having its moment. Liberal arts skills are being valued over engineering and the demand for human storytelling has never been higher. But comms people will only capture that opportunity if they stop confusing busyness with productivity and start building smarter infrastructure around the work that only humans can do.
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There’s a power shift happening in the comms industry, but we don’t know how long it will last. All we know is that those willing to lead and think differently about how we work will have the opportunity to capitalize on a market absolutely gagging for storytellers.
Why is comms so in demand? I think it’s because extracting feelings and meaning from people’s ideas, and then making others also have feelings and find meaning from those ideas, is really hard.
But the very moment our skills are most valued is also the moment they're most at risk. AI is threatening our creativity and critical thinking, and thus, our ability to make people feel through our words.
We’re also seeing marketers, comms people, designers, social media experts, and content creators all categorize themselves as storytellers. ‘Storyteller’ is a very large, busy train that all these roles are riding on. So who gets to be the Storyteller conductor? I think it can be comms people, but only if we can get out of our own way.
The comms Achilles heel
Yes, a lot of the things we do like messaging, influence, and creativity take time, but does it need to take THAT much time? Does the good work have to hurt?? Do we really need the perfect plan before action?
If anything takes down our industry it will be because we refused to change with the world around us. This doesn’t mean we automate our self out of existence. What this means is that the future of our industry is about building smarter infrastructure around the work that only humans can do.
How to shift from being busy to being productive
The amazing thing about this situation we’re in is that smarter infrastructure only requires a mindset shift.
This quote change my brain chemistry
If you’re wondering where to start with some mindset shifts to point you in the right direction, here’s a few places:
Not just understanding, but adapting to the fact that time and systems have changed. Document your work and identify systems that can be automated. Hint: that daily coverage report is one of them - AI can do it faster and better.
Using AI only for content creation. Stop that all together, actually. Did you know that you can build a custom media database through integrations, MCP servers and free media, podcast, and event database APIs that connect to and live directly in Claude? It’s time for us to think bigger about how we use AI.
Your 6-12 month comms plans need to go away. Treat your comms strategy the way product teams run product: iterating, testing, shipping. Whatever is in the news that day becomes your new opportunity. Be agile or be irrelevant.
Speak truth to power (your execs) about what good looks like in our new landscape
You can’t have a plan. But you can’t sit on your hands, either.
Comms people are masters of messaging, current events, influence, and relationships. We have a super power of knowing everything, everywhere, all at once.
Our opportunity is to use this superpower to help our clients, stakeholders, and even other teams in our organization transition into AI with messaging across people, time, and spaces. Applying this looks like:
Helping people remain human. Speaking to employees, media, investors, and customers all have different nuances, care, and requirements for how execs show up. Transparency and preparation that is uniquely required for each one is nuanced and critical to understand. AI will not do this well because it does not know when it’s done, and it does not know what good looks like.
Navigating the endless vortex of commentary swirl and - more importantly - knowing what is worth joining in on. When we decide to enter the chat, an exec’s unique viewpoint and opinions must put a stake in the ground and have a real connection for WHY they have entered said chat. No lofty pile-on messagings. Extra Bonus points for clear connection to the business.
Speed of market moments and cultural shifts means we’re evaluating our messaging and positioning weekly instead of quarterly.
Searchability innovation, platform landscape shifts, and media dynamics means agility in our strategies is critical.
The comms people who will lead this next era aren't the ones working the hardest. That used to get us far, but it’s just not where we are now. The ones that will find the most success will be building systems around their expertise, adapting faster than the news cycle, and positioning themselves as the strategic layer their organizations can't function without.
The window to define what this industry becomes is open right now. Whether you step through it is up to you.