The bots are here, but do we know where we are going?
Balancing the tech and touch around artificial intelligence (AI), understanding where communication professionals will go to find out about AI in the coming year and what skills are required of communication professionals in the digital economy are some of the themes of the inaugural Communicating AI Global Survey proudly supported by the Centre for Strategic Communication Excellence.
With only 35% of respondents communicating AI right now, we run the risk of an industry-wide lack of understanding of AI growing at a time when communication professionals are needed most in organizations. As the voice and conscience of the organization we should learn from our painful lack of preparedness with social media and prepare ourselves to navigate the amazing opportunities and challenges a changing world presents.
In this report, we explore the similarities and differences between those currently communicating AI and those who are not and highlight where our focus should be right now in building competence and perspective in AI. As Albert Einstein said, “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.” I invite all communication professionals to start now and explore how AI can make our work easier and spark our imagination while challenging us to choose only those opportunities that enable us and our organizations to flourish and excel.
We asked some of the CSCE faculty members and other senior professionals for their thoughts on the report and the role communication professionals should play in communicating AI.
AI Resources:
Feel free to contact us to add a source you found insightful.
Artificial Intelligence: An Issue We Can Address
80,000 Hours (You have about 80,000 working hours in your career) summarises AI as a global issue and why it was chosen in 2017 as the global issue to solve.
2018 Tech Trends Report – Page 22, Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations; Page 47 on AI.
2018 Tech Trends for Journalism and Media
Future Today Institute’s reports on trends in technology for specific fields as well as the trends themselves.
The Robots are Coming: AI, Automation and the Future of Corporate Communication
A discussion paper by Australian writer and communications consultant Wayne Aspland that explores the many ways in which automation could change both our organisations and our profession.
A Friendly Introduction to Machine Learning
Video. Great primer on machine learning.
“Humans still needed’ – research project reveals impact of artificial intelligence on public relations
The CIPR’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) panel has published new research revealing the impact of technology, and specifically AI, on public relations practice. It predicts the impact on skills in the profession in the next five years. May 2018.
AI and Ethics: Can machines learn to explain their decisions? Excellent source on chronology of AI and its current trending. Great reference section.
Communication in the face of the coming onslaught
A great article by communication thought-leaders Lee Hopkins and Jo Curkpatrick ABC on the coming onslaught of AI and some valuable sources for keeping up to date with AI developments.
