Want to know how AI will reshape comms? Start with your audience.

For those of us who are passionate about communications, the conversations often centre around large language models (LLMs) and their potential as content creators. Can they really mimic the best journalism and copywriting? Or are they just a churn machine for corporate hyperbole and gobbledygook? Should you use them for ideas, or should you embrace the blank piece of paper and rely on your own creativity first to stand out from the crowd?

These are important debates, but I’d argue we’re looking down the wrong end of the telescope – talking about what AI means for us. Instead, we need to be talking about what it means for our audiences. How are they engaging with AI and how should that change our approach as communicators?

Take AI search. It looks set to dramatically condense the channels people use to get information. Rather than visiting a corporate website, you can now get AI to summarise the main points about a company for you. Not got time to read lengthy articles? No matter, AI can do the work for you in seconds with a personalised summary of the news. Half of publishers polled recently said that it’s already dented their search traffic over the past year.

Expect the trend to grow. Google has announced a new AI mode feature in the US which will make interactions with its search engine more like having a conversation with a personal researcher.

The more curious, of course, might simply use these summaries as their starting point, following the links that AI presents to dig deeper into the nuances and technical detail of a subject. Others, however, might not go beyond the first impression they get of a topic or a brand. Understanding which camp your desired reader sits in will be vital.

There’s a lot to learn about how to influence AI search results and which sources it will prioritise, whether owned brand channels or media. The pace at which it is evolving can feel dizzying but communications teams should take heart because for all this flux, the core principles of our discipline still apply: know your audience, know what you need to say to them and where and how to do it.