In a world where geopolitical frameworks—and thus everyday life, norms, and expectations—change from one moment to the next, it is becoming increasingly complex to be a company or organisation.
You must succeed in navigating the maelstrom of conflicting expectations. At the same time, more than ever before, you must be held accountable not only for your own actions, but also for those of your suppliers.
Companies and organisations have therefore acquired what I like to call an unlimited moral chain of responsibility. You can no longer blame others when something goes wrong. If the product is yours, so is the responsibility.
This means it is becoming harder and harder to decide what to communicate and why. Who do we, as a company, want to be? What do we take responsibility for, and how? What should we take a stand on—something we also stand by when the storm hits? And how should it be expressed so that it fits who we are?
Regardless of how a company wishes to be, it is crucial to be razor-sharp about how this looks in writing, in speech, and in action—both in everyday life and when everything is in turmoil and no one is taking a deep breath. You must know how you want to take responsibility. You must be able to speak and write so that you are understood as intended and earn the reputation you deserve.
ChatGPT and other AI systems can offer an average take on that communications task. ChatGPT performs a probability calculation—what is the next word in this context? It therefore excludes the unusual—including both the unusually good and the specifically tailored.
AI can be used for many things in our field. The technology can read, understand, and structure a text. AI is actually quite good at that, and it can provide some sensible standard suggestions for communication in many situations.
But AI cannot answer what the right thing to say and do is when you are exactly who you are. It cannot shoulder the task of ensuring responsible, coherent, and credible communication that is exceptionally good. That requires human intelligence. All of us who love working with communication can take comfort in that, as we wait for the first crisis triggered by AI-generated communication—untouched by human hands, average, efficient, FTE-saving, but also inadequate.