Imagine this scene
Monday morning. Inbox already full. A senior leader forwarded a vague note: “Need thoughts on this by noon.” No context. No audience. No clear ask. Now imagine you had a fast, tireless junior team member who could draft, rephrase, summarize, and brainstorm on command. That junior team member is AI.
AI tools like ChatGPT don’t think or reason the way humans do. They predict what language is most likely to come next, based on patterns from enormous amounts of text. For communicators, this is both powerful (because communications work is pattern-based) and dangerous (because AI doesn’t know when a pattern is wrong).
Key Insight
AI is excellent at language, not truth.
Communications professionals already do a version of “prompting” every day. You brief agencies. You translate leadership thoughts into usable language. AI doesn’t replace those skills — it rewards them. The better communicator you are, the better AI works with you.
Strong use cases: Breaking blank-page paralysis, generating structure, exploring phrasings, speeding up routine drafting. Poor use cases: Final approvals, sensitive content, anything requiring judgment or accountability.
The Mindset Shift
AI is not a shortcut to good communications. It’s a multiplier for good communicators.
Spot where AI fits into your real work — and try it once before the day is over.
Think of three recurring tasks in your communications work that feel repetitive or time-consuming — drafting, summarizing, reformatting, or generating options.
For each task, ask yourself: could a smart but inexperienced junior team member handle the first pass? If yes, AI probably can too.
Open an AI tool (ChatGPT, Claude, or similar) and pick one of those tasks. Give it a simple prompt and see what it produces.
Note what was useful, what was off, and what you had to fix. This is your baseline for the rest of the course.
Finish with one sentence: "I'm going to start using AI for _____ because it will save me _____ minutes per week."
