Artificial intelligence is not only transforming the tools used by communications professionals. It is also profoundly changing the way in which companies build their visibility, disseminate their messages and maintain their credibility amongst their various stakeholders.
On 8 October, We supported our client, Notified, in organising the conference «AI: New Challenges in Communication», bringing together a number of experts in Paris to discuss these changes and their practical implications for businesses.
Thibaud Chatelet, Investor Relations Officer at Sanofi, Sylvie Léchevin, Head of Communications at SAP France, Assaël Adary, co-founder and CEO of Occurrence Groupe Ifop, and Thomas Huchon, a journalist specialising in disinformation, exchanged views on the new rules of communication in an environment where AI is playing an increasingly significant role.
Four key lessons for communications and investor relations departments emerged from this morning’s session.
1/ AI can free up time for communications professionals to focus on strategy
One of the most interesting insights from the conference also concerns the changing role of communications professionals.
AI is already being used to automate a wide range of tasks: drafting initial versions of content, summarising information, analysing documents and preparing materials.
These productivity gains are significant, but they are not an end in themselves.
The real opportunity lies in being able to devote more time to tasks that require sound judgement, experience and a nuanced understanding of the human aspects involved.
Defining a strategy, advising senior management, balancing different priorities, anticipating a crisis or building relationships of trust with stakeholders remain profoundly human responsibilities.
As AI automates production and analysis, the value of the communications professional is shifting towards judgement, advice, contextualisation and the ability to build trust.
This transformation therefore represents less of a challenge to the role of communications professionals than an opportunity to strengthen their strategic position within organisations.
2/ Businesses need to understand what AI says about them
For a long time, digital visibility strategies have focused on search engines and the keywords used by internet users.
With conversational AI, user behaviour is changing. Users now ask full questions and expect answers they can act on straight away.
For businesses, this transformation means adopting a new perspective.
It is no longer enough simply to know whether an organisation appears among the top results on a search engine. It is now essential to understand how it is presented in the AI-generated results.
How does he present an organisation in comparison with its competitors? What does an assistant say when an investor asks about a company’s strategy? What information does he provide to a candidate who wants to find out more about an employer?
These issues must gradually become indicators in their own right within communication strategies.
It is therefore in companies’ best interests to test the queries made by their audiences, analyse the responses received and identify the sources used.
This approach makes it possible to identify any errors, missing information or discrepancies between the company’s messaging and the way it is portrayed.
It also restores value to certain formats, notably press releases (we’ll come back to these) and FAQs, which provide clear and structured answers to the questions raised by different audiences.
3/ In investor relations, AI reinforces the need for consistency
Investor relations is another area in which artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming working practices.
AI tools are now capable of analysing large amounts of financial information, comparing documents and summarising data in a matter of moments.
This means that certain tasks traditionally carried out by financial analysts can be completed considerably more quickly.
This development does not mean that human expertise is becoming secondary. On the contrary, it shifts the focus of added value towards interpreting results, understanding the issues at stake and the ability to exercise sound judgement.
For investor relations teams, AI also presents an opportunity to improve the preparation and reliability of financial communications.
In particular, it can help to verify that a new announcement is consistent with previous earnings releases, the outlook communicated to the market, or statements made at investor conferences.
In an environment where information can be analysed and compared instantly, consistency in financial reporting becomes essential.
This development naturally raises the issue of data privacy, which is leading some companies to develop their own AI solutions in order to protect sensitive information.
4/ The press release is regaining its strategic importance
Just a few years ago, some people were predicting the gradual demise of the press release, which was seen as a traditional format in the age of social media and instant communication.
The rise of generative AI could, however, well give it a new lease of life.
LLMs such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini draw on various sources to generate their responses. In this context, structured, reliable and easily attributable institutional content is taking on a new importance.
A press release offers several advantages: it constitutes an official statement, clearly dated, which makes it possible to identify the company behind a piece of news. The precision of the dates also helps generative AI to contextualise announcements and distinguish recent information from older content.
The challenge, therefore, is no longer simply to disseminate information to journalists, but also to produce content that can be identified, understood and indexed by AI engines.
This development underscores the importance of high-quality writing, accurate information and consistent messaging from companies.
The role of communications professionals has perhaps never been more important
These four insights all point to the same conclusion: artificial intelligence is not merely changing the way content is produced. It is also transforming the way in which information is discovered, prioritised, analysed and interpreted.
In this context, the creation of reliable, well-structured and credible content is becoming essential for businesses’ visibility, particularly when such content is reproduced, contextualised or analysed by leading media outlets.
This development also reinforces the value of media relations. In an environment where information circulates more quickly, is rephrased and can become diluted, the relationship of trust between communications professionals and journalists becomes even more essential.
AI can automate part of the production process or speed up analysis. It cannot replace a thorough understanding of a subject, the ability to identify the right point of contact, or the human connection that builds trust over time.
For businesses, the challenge therefore lies in adapting their practices to ensure the reliability, consistency and clarity of their messages, whilst preserving what gives communication its value: an understanding of their audiences, high-quality content and strong relationships with their stakeholders.
AI is opening up new opportunities for careers in communications. Above all, it serves as a reminder that, in an increasingly complex information landscape, the ability to produce credible information, make sense of it and build trust has never been more crucial.
CDR Grayling
- Manuel Chaplet, Account Manager
- Email: manuel.chaplet@cdrgrayling.com