I've been doing a bit of learning in the AI space recently. There is an ocean of info to absorb across a myriad of sectors and use cases but I'm trying to avoid rabbit holes and stick to my knitting...3 thoughts / use cases on ways that comms pros can start using AI tools and the impact across different parts of the comms spectrum...

1. Proactive comms: AI will connect content calendars, analyse media opportunities based on data / sentiment, social scheduling and content generation into seamless public info workflows (yes, this has been happening to varying degrees for some time, but we are moving into steroids territory now). Organisations can enable content creation to be delivered by agents and while AI handles the routine stuff, authentic human-created content becomes more valuable. Audiences can spot machine-written material, creating a real premium for genuine voice, design and creativity.

2. Reactive comms: AI systems won't just monitor coverage and sentiment - they automatically adjust content and media strategies based on stakeholder response and data. This means we can run truly adaptive communications at scale. Agentic workflows will also enable automated media response generation based on a key fact and organisational knowledge base with human intervention during the approval process.

3. Incident and Crisis Comms: Strategic decision-making and human instincts will be central, with AI tools providing early warning signs based on data. Specialised agents will be trained on an organisation's incident management plan, enabling public and stakeholder information to be generated and rolled out faster as events unfold (and based on mass analysis of media coverage and stakeholder sentiment). Teams will also be easily guided through an incident management process by agents with more fluid scenario response creation. AI tools will also deliver war-game incident management training sessions with far more adaptability than existing programmes.