Happy Wednesday! Below, you’ll find:

Let’s get started!

That headline is a slight exaggeration, but only a slight one. Promise. Here’s the prompt:

Let me explain.

Often, I have a very general idea of what I want to do, and how my chatbot of choice can help. But chatbots work best with specifics — if you don’t provide them with context, a clear task, and constraints, you’re going to get junk. But if you had all that at the ready, you’d provide it. Me? I have that information somewhere in my brain (or in my OneDrive!) — I just need a bit of a nudge to get it flowing.

So, I ask the chatbot for that nudge.

The first time I did this, I thought ChatGPT would be super-smart and tell me that it’s good to go — it can read my mind. Instead, it gave me a list of six topics where it wanted more info, with three bullets and some sub-bullets each time. I went through the list quickly — emphasis on quickly — giving off-the-cuff thoughts over the next three minutes or so. And ChatGPT gave me a robust response that I’d call “thoughtful” but for the fact that AIs don’t actually think. I’ve used this sentence — or something like it, the sentence itself isn’t magical! — dozens of times since.

👍 Use this line when you:

⚠ The downside: This sentence can lead to generic-sounding results. You are, ultimately, asking the chatbot to create a structure for what you’re building together. And these chatbots are going to use the same basic structure each time. So when you’re done, remember to re-humanize whatever output you get.

👟 Your next step: Give this a try today. Take something you’ve been thinking about doing but haven’t yet. Tell your chatbot of choice about it and then ask “What other information do you need from me to get started?” And see where it goes!

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You’ve heard the term “growth mindset” (and if not, Harvard Business School has got you covered). It’s important.

As communicators, our job is to tell stories that get people to think, feel, and do what we need them to — we’re informers, persuaders, and sometimes advocates. Our toolbox historically skewed to writing. But AI changes that. Jim Prosser, a longtime comms pro who writes Person Familiar, argues that now, we need to be builders. Why? Because we see the value in being more than words, and always have:

But now, as Jim notes, “what’s different now is that comms people have the capabilities at their fingertips to do the execution themselves.” With vibe coding tools that let you build without traditional engineering — Claude Code, Lovable, Base44, etc. — we can prototype, if not outright build, the deeper experiences we’ve dreamed about.

Your next step: Give one of those tools a try. And if you’re looking for a primer on vibe coding for comms, Gab Ferree of Your Comms BFF has a free webinar on it coming in a couple of weeks.

I connected with Shira Fine, Partner and Head of Strategic Communications at Bryson Gillette. They’re a boutique agency that partners with nonprofits, foundations, corporations and social impact organizations working on high-impact work like immigration, gun violence, and child safety. We discussed how AI has impacted the Bryson Gillette team — and their clients.

Do you encourage your team to use AI? If so, how?

Yes! In my 20-year career, only the rise of social media has been as transformative as AI. We use it throughout our workflow, always with human oversight, to make us more efficient and free the team from monotonous tasks so they can focus on strategy and creativity. That includes things like media clip pulls, AI notetaking so people can be present in conversations, backgrounders, media training, and tailoring new business proposals. I provide tools and guidance, but each team member has the freedom — and the funds! — to use AI in their own way.

What do you wish clients understood about the impact of AI to communications work?

Some clients assume AI means faster turnaround or lower costs, and while it does speed up things like research and first drafts, strategic communications isn’t about speed. It’s about getting to the right answer. AI eliminates busywork so we can spend more time thinking and advising, not less. The value — and the cost — of communications is still in the judgment built on years of experience.

Can you share any specific AI tools in your toolbox?

Sure thing. Here are two we use internally the time:

Give me a prediction about AI before the end of 2026.

AI won’t replace strategic thinking — it will amplify it. The communicators who thrive will be the ones who know what questions to ask, what good looks like, and when to trust their judgment over the algorithm. By the end of 2026, the gap will be obvious between teams using AI to produce volume and those using it to produce better thinking.

ChatGPT is a superpower if you know how to use it correctly.

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And don’t forget MESSAGE, my custom GPT that works with you to create a great first draft for just about any comm. (Learn more about MESSAGE here.)

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Until next Wednesday,

Dan