The Most Important Question for Communicators Right Now: “What Would You Build?”

Happy Wednesday! On the radar this week:

Let’s get started!

At one of my former jobs, the company ran hackathons. These were not small events — they were multi-day, cross-functional, with real executive attention and real outcomes. People came in with pitches and left with prototypes and sometimes those prototypes turned into actual products. The corporate intranet spoke about it for weeks, we sent multiple all-employee emails, and participants shared — and celebrated — the results in our internal social network.

I’m going to admit something: I never participated in these things. Coding? That’s not what communicators do. And I wasn’t alone in declining the invitation — very few of my comms colleagues joined these hackathons.

I've been thinking about why — and how things are different now.

The big one is the time commitment. Hackathons tend to happen in a compressed burst — two days, three days — and the communications team always had something going on. There’s always something to launch, a crisis to address, or a leader who needs your counsel at the drop of a hat. Let’s face it: our work doesn’t have a pause button. But honestly? I think that’s a bit of an excuse. Absent a fire drill (or actual fire!), we can find the time to do meaningful work in other contexts — we have, for example, team off-sites, and don’t just skip those because we’re busy.

The second one is the culture. Hackathons feel like an engineering event — it isn’t entirely clear what a communications pro is supposed to contribute. Are we the ones who help the engineers explain their projects at the end? Or write their pitches with them for the end-of-thon soiree? That’s hackathon-adjacent work at best. Especially in the pre-AI world, we were typically at the mercy of technologists when it came to, well, technology.

But that, too, feels less relevant now than before. Hackathons are, increasingly, centered on vibe coding tools — tools that don’t need you to have a background programming computers. And yet, I keep hearing from communicators that they’re not leaning into the moment.

My guess is that we don’t really believe we had anything to build.

That belief — that building is for the technical people, and communications is something different, something adjacent, something that helps describe the thing rather than making it — runs deep in this profession. I held it for a long time without fully examining it. I think a lot of us do. It's not an insecurity, exactly. It's more like an assumption about where the boundaries of the job are. But those boundaries are eroding.

So: here's the question I keep asking myself: if I were invited to a hackathon today, what would I pitch?

The question still feels overwhelming. But there are so many things we can do! Tools that search LLMs to see how our brand is appearing. Systems that take our internal communications data and turn it in into something useful. Even something simple like a clip logger — give the app a URL, and it adds the clip to a spreadsheet with a summary of what the story was about. Here’s the secret: with stuff like Claude Code and Lovable, we can actually build what we can dream.

I know. Because I have.

The trick is to shift your mindset. The invitation to the hackathon shouldn’t be overwhelming — it should be expected. Honestly: we have to stop expecting other people to build solutions for us. We need them to build them with us — us leading the way, them supporting us when we get stuck. The problems we care about are ours to own, because we are positioned to solve in a way that a developer without a communications background isn't. Judgment about what matters and why is, increasingly, the hard part, and that's the part we have experience in.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, this really isn’t an essay about hackathons. My core point is that the question of "what would you build?" is worth sitting with. Not as a thought experiment, but as a real question. Because the tools that would actually help communications teams do better work are not going to be built by people who've never done communications work. They're going to be built by people who have, and who got curious enough to learn something new.

We just need to get past that initial hesitation — and start building.

In a few hours, I’m hosting my first webinar. I’ll walk you through how to build a simple but genuinely useful web-based app that takes a press release, holding statement, internal memo, etc. — and gives you feedback on how to make it better. You'll use Claude Code to build it — and the tool itself will analyze your draft and give you feedback, powered by Claude’s AI. I hope you’ll join me.

All I ask is that you have Claude Code set up beforehand. It’s easy to do, and if you get stuck, no worries — Claude itself can walk you through it. Here's what you'll need to participate:

One more thing: you'll need an API key, but we'll set that up together during the webinar. To save time, create a free account at https://platform.claude.com/ and add a few dollars ($5 should be plenty) beforehand.

Ready to build? Sign up here. I’ll see you there!

Most AI tools forget you the moment the chat ends. SureThing doesn’t.

SureThing is an autonomous agent that can draft in your voice, triage what matters, follow up on things you forgot, and report back with what happened next.

Day 1, you onboard it.
Day 30, it knows your clients and patterns.
Day 90, it catches things you missed.

Try SureThing

We’ve all seen the obviously AI-written LinkedIn posts — and you know who isn’t a fan of it? LinkedIn itself. Their VP and Executive Editor, Laura Lorenzetti, published a blog post last week announcing that the social network is “taking meaningful steps to crack down on automation tools, dial back on generic content, and strengthen authenticity.”

That’s good — but don’t throw out your AI-powered post generator yet. In fact, do the opposite — it’s time to make it better. Give that post a careful read and you’ll see that the real target isn’t AI-generated content, but bad AI-generated content. Specifically, the post objects to

Does it matter if you write the first draft or ChatGPT does? Not really. Bad content is bad content, wherever it comes from. But — let’s face it — most AI content is bad content. The solution is to revise the LLM’s work.

Why it matters: AI slop isn’t a function of AI use. It’s a function of laziness. The lure of making the magic chat machine is real — it can give you polished work that sounds thoughtful but, with a dash of cynicism, doesn’t hold up. If you’re using AI to turn a handful of data points and errand thoughts into multiple iterations of first drafts that you edit together into a cohesive narrative, you’re fine. If you’re expecting something that sounds polished but, well, isn’t — expect LinkedIn’s algorithm to catch you.

Your next step: I think there are two things you should do. Bare minimum — you need governance around AI-drafted content. Never publish an AI draft as-is. Require three versions of every draft. Edit without the use of AI — make sure your final or penultimate pass is 100% you. And when in doubt, rewrite.

Also, it’s well past time to train your LLMs on the voices of the people you’re writing for. There are lots of ways to do that — my PostCast tool is one of them, but hardly the only one.

AI adoption is critical for communications teams — and I’m on a mission to help you get there. Let’s work together to get your team moving — or moving faster.

📅 A strategy call. Whether you're trying to build systematic AI adoption across your team or focused on AI search visibility for your brand or organization, I’m here to help. Learn more and book an intro call.

🎓 Self-paced learning. I’ve created six courses to get you up to speed on how AI impacts communications. Get started here.

📋 A prompt playbook. Need a kickstart? My communications-focused prompt playbook has more than 600 prompts to help you get started. Download it, free.

Most AI ad tools generate volume, not quality — and refining output means endless prompt rewrites. With Hightouch Ad Studio, AI gets you 90% of the way there. For the final 10%, use a built-in editor to quickly refine copy and design. Move faster without losing control.

See how Ad Studio works

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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