Companies That Aren’t Using AI to Elevate Their Comms Strategy Are Missing Out: Here’s Why

Originally posted on AI Tech Park.

Artificial intelligence is not a sci-fi concept anymore; it has impacted many industries and even transformed organizations worldwide.

In fact, companies strategically scaling their AI are experiencing nearly two times the success rate and three times the return from AI investments compared to companies pursuing siloed proof of concept solutions. With AI tools becoming more advanced and human-like by the day, it’s clear that the tech is here to make the future of business more effective.

So much technology is evolving and becoming available to streamline information processing and other administrative tasks that more business leaders have felt compelled to adopt AI tools. As a result, AI tools for teams and machine learning have inevitably harmonized with the corporate world—in ways you probably don’t even realize.

One of the areas that will benefit the most from AI technologies is business communications, taking internal comms to the next level.

The Rise of AI for Business Comms

At a glance, internal comms seem less compatible with AI than other departments, partly because tools helping with content creation are perceived more as a threat than a productivity enabler. It’s easy to fall into the “Robots are coming!” anxiety, but the truth is that while AI is here to assist in repetitive or research-based processes, it can’t replace the human touch that is required to make real connections and recognize communication nuances.

In fact, in an era of digital transformation and the restructured workplace, AI and machine learning stand to improve some of the biggest internal comms challenges—including alleviating employees’ engagement fatigue—while keeping them updated and connected with relevant materials.

As more businesses invest in digital communications systems, a massive data cache is produced. As a result, the data captured includes workplace discussions, thought processes, employee preferences, and other actions that are ideal for applying AI technologies to better identify and classify the content that organizations communicate to their teams. At Poppulo, for example, we use natural language processing to identify which content topics resonate the most within an organization. Our AI tools help automatically categorize communications by theme, including learning and education, IT or HR-related topics, diversity, and inclusion, or other key themes at scale.

The goal should be for businesses to understand how their internal comms content is trending and where they need to adjust. And using an automated platform helps determine which topics spark the most engagement and how to organize categories based on levels of engagement.

For professional communicators, AI is another tool in their arsenal to help improve the flow of information between business leaders and their employees. These interactions can tell us much more about how and why business decisions are being made, enriching the insights provided in employee surveys.

A good business communication strategy is vital for any organization’s success because understanding what employees expect is essential for thriving in the market. AI can integrate into almost any IC strategy and optimize the plan of action, from marketing to operations to customer service—the applications are nearly endless. According to an Accenture report, three out of four C-suite executives believe that if they don’t scale their AI capabilities in the next five years, they’ll risk going out of business entirely. For many business leaders, it’s time to fully embrace AI and implement it into IC.

What AI and Machine Learning Can Do For Your Business Communications

Although we’re not exactly at the “robots taking over the world” phase in AI and ML, these tools will take over laborious and repetitive tasks and provide insights from the data they capture. These insights will help internal communicators supply employees with information specifically for them, making them more effective in their roles. Some AI benefits include:

• Assisting in relationship building
• Creating a positive work environment
• Boosting efficiency with automation
• Increasing productivity
• Reducing misunderstanding

By finding and delivering relevant information faster than humanly possible, artificial intelligence will help streamline communications and improve the ability of businesspeople to make smarter decisions. Here are a few examples of how.

Boost Engagement and Advocacy

According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2022 Report, only 21% of the global workforce is engaged in the workplace—with the other 79% withdrawn due to poor communication from IC. Communication is a necessary part of business, with different employees having their own personal preferences and expectations. From a business perspective, it’s imperative to nail down the proper messaging to minimize confusion and improve company culture. Using machine learning patterns makes it much easier for communicators to create accurate user personas for ad targeting and understand when employees will best engage with messages.

Leveraging AI to help with content creation frees up valuable time for internal comms teams to do the more strategic parts of their role. They pay more attention to the things that add the most value to organizations, like alignment with departmental priorities, channel planning, and meeting employees’ growing needs and demands without half of the struggle.

With the incredible amount of data we have at Poppulo, our AI-enabled platform provides business leaders and managers valuable insights into their company, helping them identify and address any issues affecting employee morale or satisfaction. Our clients send over 200 million email communications monthly with higher-than-average open rates. Since we offer AI-generated insights, we’re reducing the time it takes our customers to categorize and analyze those emails.

Improve Personalization

Internal comms utilizing AI for redundant tasks and personalization can ensure employees receive relevant content consistently and on time. AI can be used to segment employees based on factors such as job role, location, and interests, helping internal communications teams to tailor content to specific employee groups. This can also help employees feel seen and more engaged with the organization.

This approach saves time, and resources; and perfectly symbolizes the future of AI and IC—working hand-in-hand to streamline tasks yet deliver high-quality human communications. When an employee doesn’t need to do extra work just to find resources, information, and subject-matter experts to do their job, they feel happier and more productive, reducing the time spent searching through irrelevant information.

Enhance Customer Experience

AI and ML technologies augment the customer experience. These technologies allow you to deliver personalized and user-centric experiences catered to your target audience at every touchpoint. With all the advantages AI tools can bring to your business, the ultimate beneficiaries are the customers. Not only do they receive the payoff of your newly optimized business processes and productive teams, but they’ll also form a strong, positive relationship with your brand and be more likely to repeat business and bring referrals—a win-win situation for everyone.

Propel Internal Communications

Internal communication is the lifeblood of modern businesses, and automated advancements can bring your organization a competitive edge while augmenting internal operations. Crafting the right message for the right platform to garner maximum impact with AI and machine learning helps you understand what your employees want so that you can deliver on it—and then learn from that interaction to do it better next time.

In the near future, AI will be able to take extensive content, summarize it for you—even to a few lines for digital signage, extrapolate a mobile post to long-form text, and even make quick adjustments to messaging that will drive and optimize impact and response. Machines can filter through data and determine what information is most crucial to your employees, customers, and bottom line. Ultimately, AI is an incredible tool that will make the jobs of communications teams easier and more effective. But AI depends on the humans at the helm to strategically execute and lead businesses to stronger relationships both internally and with consumers.