Is the comms industry doing enough to get on top of AI?
A panel of communications experts moderated by Streem’s CCO Leon Hudson has suggested that there is cautious optimism towards artificial intelligence (AI) within the industry, but that it’s not necessarily keeping up with other regions in its exploration of the opportunity.
Hudson was joined on the panel by ParaFlare co-founder and CEO, Adam McCarthy, FTI Consulting managing director of strategic communications, Asha Oberoi, and Lucy Newcomb, director of Salt & Shein.
Streem COO, Leon Hudson
Discussing the current situation, Newcomb said, “I actually spend a lot of time talking to a lot of our clients, in-house, government, agency. The agency space is probably investing more time at the moment. Perhaps you’re being pushed by your in-house clients, and you’re looking to be the experts in this.
“But really, everyone is sort of saying, look, we’re not doing enough. I mean, I’m talking to some teams as well in the US where comms teams are dedicating at least an hour a day to getting themselves familiar with these tools.”
Oberoi added that training and verification would become a key part of the proper assimilation of AI into the comms industry, suggesting that roles focused on verification could begin to emerge.
“I think we’re going to see an emergence of more verification roles for practitioners,” she said. “Practitioners will have to, whether they like it or not, be more comfortable with data analysis and fact-checking. If you’re moving from storytelling to fact telling then you’re going to have to be in the business of determining what is true and what is false. AI will change communications and it’s going to result in a very complex environment as we navigate through how the technology will impact our industry.”
(L-R): McCarthy, Oberoi, Hudson and Newcomb
Adding to the argument that perhaps the industry is not yet doing enough was the fact that similar technologies, such as machine learning, had been around for a while now and were well entrenched in the comms and marketing industries.
The term ‘machine learning’ was actually invented in 1959 by IBM employee Arthur Samuel.
“We’ve been using machine learning, statistical analysis and mathematical models for many, many years to detect threats much quicker,” McCarthy said. “I’m sure a bunch of social media platforms have been using models in the background as well. It’s just that large language models are much more accessible to everyday people by just going to a website. So it’s started to challenge people’s idea on what’s possible.
“The challenge is that it’s moving so quickly and I don’t think we’ve even nearly hit the peak of what this thing is capable of.”
Newcomb added that if the comms industry can get on top of AI then it could well become a superpower tool, but it must be able to digest data properly and work closely with communication and technology teams.
“I think the superpower will be not only creativity and storytelling, but I also think we’ve got to get better at being really comfortable at understanding data and analytics and taking that to the table and working with comms, working with the CTO in terms of not being scared of this AI, and how do we use it. Working more closely with risk and understanding the parameters in which you can operate by using this tool.”
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