“Can’t AI Just Write This?”

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I had the opportunity to speak with a corporate affairs leader recently, and she asked me a provocative question about the future of communications — and I gave an answer that, I think, surprised her.

This isn’t verbatim, but close enough: “If AI can draft fast, mimic tone, and generate passable copy, can’t that just replace communications work?”

My answer was yes — kind of.

(Don’t panic.)

LLMs can do a meaningful portion of the drafting work. In many cases, a first draft is increasingly a machine task. If a leader has a body of past speeches, posts, memos, or remarks, an LLM can analyze that material, identify patterns in tone and structure, and generate usable drafts quickly. And therefore, in some cases, the “writing” step can begin with almost nothing: a few bullet points, a rough voice note, or a loose idea captured in speech-to-text. From there, AI can turn fragments into multiple solid starting points.

But if that’s how you view “communications work,” well, you’re going to fail at communicating. Because the highest-value work in communications was never the typing. It was the judgment. The real question is not “What should we say?” but “Why are we saying it, why now, to whom, and should we say anything at all?”

That’s what I said to the corporate affairs leader — and she agreed. AI can help produce language. It cannot reliably own consequence. It does not carry accountability for timing, stakeholder reaction, reputational risk, internal politics, or strategic tradeoffs.

So yes, AI can write. Sometimes it can write pretty well. But writing is only one thin slice of the communications function, and probably not the one that matters most. In that sense, AI doesn’t eliminate communicators. It exposes which communicators were adding value through judgment and which were adding value through labor alone.

Our profession is not disappearing, but it is being sorted.

In the near future, communicators may spend less time drafting from scratch and more time shaping inputs, refining outputs, coaching executives, spotting risks, and deciding what deserves to exist in the first place. In fact, I think that’s happening already. And many companies are going to assume that, because we’re “writers” first, we’re a luxury that can be easily trimmed. If you position yourself as a writer, you run the risk of being sorted out.

But we’re not writers. We’re issue-spotters, counselors, risk managers, narrative strategists, and more.

And now’s the time to make that clear.

If you’re thinking of yourself as a writer, no worries — but now’s the time to reposition yourself. Here are three ideas to help you get started:

🕑 Start Upstream, Not at the Draft
The biggest shift is simple — but easier said than done, to be fair. We need to be engaged before someone says “can you write this?” — way before. Our value isn’t in polishing language — it’s in shaping the thinking that produces it. Push into conversations before decisions are finalized. Clarify the objective, the audience, and the risk. Ask better questions: Why now? Who is this really for? What happens if we say nothing? In many cases, the most valuable contribution you can make isn’t improving the message — it’s redefining, or even stopping, the ask.

🎲 Own the Inputs, Not Just the Outputs
If AI can generate drafts, then the leverage shifts to whoever defines the inputs. That means framing the brief, pressure-testing assumptions, and encoding the right context before a single word is generated. Weak inputs produce generic outputs. Strong inputs — grounded in strategy, audience insight, and risk awareness —produce work that actually matters. In an AI-enabled world, prompting isn’t a technical skill — it’s strategic thinking, made visible. Even better: build your own AI-powered solutions, so you not only drive the car, you hold the keys.

🎙 Be the Voice Behind the Voice
The highest-value communicators aren’t the ones who write the most — they’re the ones leaders trust in consequential moments. That means coaching executives, anticipating reactions, and adjusting in real time as situations evolve. It means understanding internal dynamics, external perception, and the gap between intent and impact. AI can generate language, but it can’t read a room, navigate tension, or recalibrate on the fly. That layer — judgment under pressure — is where communicators become indispensable.

The job never really was “writing.” It’s deciding — and AI only makes that more obvious. Let’s lean into it.

Most AI creative tools fall short for one simple reason. You can generate tons of ads, but they aren’t up to par.

Refining copy, adjusting layouts, or nudging a CTA into place shouldn’t require rewriting prompts over and over. It slows teams down and breaks the creative process.

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🧠 Comms strategist Sara Miller, like the rest of us, is always on the lookout for AI slop — but Sara has a great take: it’s our fault, not the LLMs. AI slop, she argues, happens when people let AI do their thinking for them, producing content that all sounds the same. In her words: “The ones who treat AI as an expert writer instead of a thought partner tool end up producing content that sounds like everything else out there. The smarter approach is to write first, then use AI to pressure test, challenge your assumptions and sharpen your thinking, while bringing human judgment, personal experience, context and unique stories to the page.”

Your key takeaway: If you rely too much on AI as a writing partner, your work becomes generic and forgettable. The advantage now shifts to people who can bring original ideas, real stories, and a clear point of view — because that’s exactly what AI can’t replicate. But LLMs can — and should — be used to help you see past corners, identify blind spots, and all of those other buzzy, jargony ways to say “the stuff you may be missing.”

⚙ IBM CEO Arvind Krishna told the Wall Street Journal how he is pushing to use AI to cut down the number of handoffs and steps it takes to get work done. Instead of work bouncing between multiple people or teams, AI helps streamline processes so fewer touchpoints are needed, making things faster and simpler.

Why it matters for communicators: Fewer touchpoints means fewer chances to shape or adjust the message along the way. That puts more pressure on getting things right earlier — and being closely involved in how information is created and shared from the start.

📣 PR leader Sarah Evans shares an example where a media wire story was picked up by ChatGPT in two hours. The LLM explicitly cited the press release itself as the source, showing how visible and traceable “AI notices” can be when they’re structured and distributed in the right way. The speed is incredible — and shows the power of earned media even before you hit the “earned” part. (Are press releases and “AI notices” now part of the owned media universe? Seems like it.)

Why it matters for communications: This shifts how comms teams should think about visibility. It’s no longer just about whether journalists see a release — it’s about whether AI systems can discover, understand, and cite it. That means structure, clarity, and how and where you publish now directly affect whether your message shows up inside AI answers at all, not just in media coverage.

Six self-paced courses built specifically for comms pros. No tech background required. Start anywhere — or start from the beginning. Each course takes about 90 minutes.

📡 AI Made Simple — Your first 10 days with AI. No hype, no jargon. Learn what AI actually is, how to write prompts that work, and how to build a personal workflow that sticks.

⚡ AI in Practice — Apply what you've learned to the formats you use every day — press releases, internal announcements, social posts, exec ghostwriting, crisis drafts, and more.

📬 AI with Confidence — Using AI well means knowing when not to use it. Quality control, hallucination defense, brand voice protection, legal guardrails, and how to bring skeptical colleagues on board.

💭 AI as a Thinking Partner — Move beyond drafting and into strategy. You’ll learn to use AI as a strategic partner, not just a writing tool.

🔁 AI Across the Organization — Learn to communicate through change, coordinate across functions, and respond effectively in moments of pressure.

🥇 AI-First Communications — Lead your team into the AI era. Build governance frameworks, design team workflows, evaluate tools, measure impact, and make the case for AI as a strategic capability.

Want free access to the intermediate courses? Refer a colleague to The Comms Stack!

Here are things I’ve built while figuring out how communicators can use AI well — shared here so you can experiment with them too. I’ll keep adding to this list over time.

The work that got you here won’t take you further.

Without support, it’s easy to stay stuck doing everything long after you’ve outgrown it.

Download Operator to Owner: How to Exit the Middle to learn how to refocus your time on the work that actually deserves you.

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Looking for a role at the intersection of communications and AI? Here are some opportunities to check out:

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Quick question: how can I help?

What workflows are you struggling with? Where does AI still feel mysterious or overwhelming? What has worked that you’d like to share with others?

I’m a builder, and I’d love to help you and the rest of The Comms Stack community find great new ways to use AI.

Reply and tell me.
I read every response.

Even a one-sentence reply helps. For example:
“I wish AI could help me with ______.”

Until next Wednesday,

Dan

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