AI is Changing Leadership Communication
Be careful what you ‘optimise’ in the rush for AI adoption
AI has made its way into almost every leadership workflow. CEO’s are cajoling their teams into using more, more more. It’s in board packs. Strategy documents. Investor updates. Internal communications. Even the first draft of the CEO’s keynote.
Sure, it’s a great tool which has many uses. But at what cost? Has anyone actually asked the harder question?
Where should it not be used?
Right now there is a sense of urgency around AI adoption. Every team is expected to “use it more”. New tools appear weekly. Processes are being rewritten around automation.
It feels a lot like the early 2000s when everything suddenly needed Bluetooth. Phones and cars I saw the benefit. Smoke detectors and microwaves got a little silly.
AI risks going the same way.
Speed changes behaviour
Don’t get me wrong, this post has been crafted using some AI to help with the initial ideas. There are real advantages. It compresses research time. It helps structure early thinking. It can scan large volumes of information in seconds.
Great stuff. Leaders who use it well can move faster through the early stages of analysis.
The problem is what happens next.
It spits out answers so quickly, in lovely tidy paragraphs, you can easily stop interrogating the thinking behind them.
And when whole teams start relying on the same tools in the same way, the work begins to look very very samey.
Strategy decks start to read alike, website copy sounds interchangeable, ideas begin to feel familiar. I’ve seen the word ‘quietly’, ‘subtle’, ‘silenty’ and all those other AI tropes for long enough now that I’m bored of reading digital media.
The Apple TV show Pluribus is a great example of the world we’re heading towards. God forbid.
Leadership Communication is the real asset
There are parts of leadership that should never be outsourced.
Performance reviews written by ChatGPT? Yuck. That is a fast way to lose credibility with your team. One leader told me her boss had done this and she didn’t even read the feedback she was so offended. A review should reflect observation, effort and attention. Your team deserve that from you.
Website copy written entirely by AI?
That voice represents the business. It should sound like a person who understands the company, the customers and the product, not some generic polished turd.
Decision rationales summarised by AI.
Also a problem. When a leader explains why a decision was made, that explanation carries responsibility. AI can assist with preparation, but it cannot carry the weight of judgement. If you’re not 100% behind the why of a decision, rethink your comms. People can smell bullshit a mile off.
The leaders getting this right
The CEOs navigating this well are approaching AI with intent.
They use it where communications don’t matter as much. But when it does, they craft something original. They edit. And they put their personality on show.
Here’s the boundaries I’m keeping:
AI can help research a market.
It can summarise a long report.
It can organise early thinking.
Original ideas, leadership voice and accountability stay with humans.
If you’re bored of reading the internet, imagine how bored your employees are reading your weekly blog updates or slide decks?
Bring some personality and originality to your communication. That human touch is what forms connections and keeps your culture alive. Don’t outsource it to a robot.
If every company starts producing the same ideas, the same language and the same thinking, the advantage will sit with the leaders who still bring something original to the table.