AI is complex. Honest communication makes it clear
Communicating openly and honestly about AI is the most powerful leadership skill you can show right now.
How you talk about it, how you share progress, how you model the approach…all these things build trust among teams and show the outside world that you have a strategic vision for the business that goes far beyond short-term excitement around the latest shiny tool everyone’s talking about.
There’s a lot of AI-nxiety around at the moment. The pace of innovation means that each day an abundance of new tools and features come out. You can’t move on LinkedIn for gurus confidently declaring that “AI won’t steal your job, but someone using AI will.” Billions of dollars are being invested, with eyewatering salaries being dangled by tech giants – while they casually lay off thousands of staff at the other end of the spectrum.
This is causing a lot of tension in the working world. Existential dread, even, with so many people feeling like they’re running to keep up but whatever they do, they’re left behind. Senior leaders included – you’re under pressure to know about the latest AI tools and tech so you can make critical decisions, but you don’t have time to learn.
I’ve spent this summer intentionally upskilling in AI, learning more about ethics and what good governance looks like. And I’ve come to the conclusion that you don’t have to know everything about AI – but how you communicate about it is of vital importance to your team, the market, and your customers.
How can you communicate with your team?
Get an AI police in place
Upskill your teams in AI
Build a playground and encourage experimentation
How can you communicate with the market?
Demonstrate good governance
Explain your business strategy
Emphasise your values
How can you communicate with customers?
Amplify the human in customer interactions
Place real value in human creativity
Remember what motivates today’s customer
I’ve set out these thoughts below and created an audio overview using NotebookLM - so why not listen as you read!
You can also download: Make sense of AI: Tools, terms and good practice.
How can you communicate with your team?
It’s important to bring in clear AI guidance from the top for everyone to follow throughout the organisation, upskill teams through AI training, and build an environment where people feel they can experiment and share their learning openly.
1. Get an AI policy in place
The problem is, people in your business are already using AI in a hundred different ways! I’ve stood and watched staff upload confidential financial reports into ChatGPT without realising this information could surface elsewhere. With the post-pandemic shift to hybrid working, you can’t even see how the work is being produced. Everyone is trying a shortcut. It’s like herding cats!
We introduced an AI policy at Sookio in spring 2024, and I’ve had to update it multiple times since. Things are moving so fast! You could actually ask AI to help you draft a policy that fits your business, get a legal person to check it, and then turn it into an audio overview. A great way to bring company policies to life, particularly for new team members.
Your AI policy should guide teams on how they can use AI - and how they shouldn’t.
Data handling How you collect, store and process data, and stay compliant with GDPR.
Privacy What can you share with AI systems – and what is out of the question?
Security How do you avoid cyber threats, phishing attacks, and accidental leaks?
Copyright Rules around creating images, video and text through generative AI.
Human oversight AI is here to support decisions, but you, as a human, remain accountable! Think critically, fact check, and watch for bias.
2. UPskill your teams in AI
Setting up AI training for teams so they can improve their AI skills shows that you’re interested in their professional development. It’s good for business too; along with high levels of motivation and staff retention, you’re tapping into the knowledge and perspectives of a broad range of people rather than just dictating from the top.
To complement the AI policy, make sure any AI training includes:
1. Ethical practices, so everyone thinks critically about the responses given by AI tools and become adept at prompting, spotting bias, and fact-checking results.
2. Cyber security. Accidental data leakage from sensitive information pasted into AI tools is a big problem. Phishing attacks are becoming harder and harder to spot, due to hackers using AI to draft realistic emails.
3. Privacy. AI notetakers are hugely popular now, but keep an eye on how Otter is faced with a lawsuit for recording meetings without consent.
3. Build a playground - encourage AI experimentation
An environment where people can collaborate and share ideas openly acts as a foundation for a business that keeps innovating rather than getting set in its ways. How about a monthly show and tell?
And don’t forget to upskill yourself! Model good practice by taking time to learn. This helps you keep things in perspective, and see AI as a tool that can play a hugely positive role in your business, but makes mistakes too.
Sharing your learning as you go supports a company culture where curiosity is celebrated. A sense of trust and transparency radiates throughout the organisation. People feel more able to ask questions without feeling stupid or raise a red flag if they think AI is being misused in some way. So stop worrying about looking infallible, and be honest about your progress too.
“Model transparency. Get clear AI guidance in place for everyone to follow, and build a culture of experimentation throughout the organisation – and don’t forget to admit that you’re learning too.”
How can you communicate with the market?
You’re under a lot of scrutiny! Investors want reassurance that you’re making smart choices around AI that lead to sustainable growth. Competitors and your peers within the industry are curious to see your next move. Regulation around data, privacy and copyright is tightening up, so you need to stay compliant to avoid reputational risk.
So how do you communicate with this wider ecosystem around your organisation?
1. Demonstrate good AI governance
As well as the internal AI policy, you can create a more publicly available AI statement for your website, publish blog posts from the founder, and share thought leadership posts on this topic on LinkedIn, so that stakeholders see you are being responsible and compliant.
Written in plain English to impart a feeling of transparency and refreshed at regular intervals, it might include:
Purpose Why and where you’re using AI in your organisation, for example to become more efficient, to innovate with products, or to improve services.
Ethical principles Fairness, inclusivity, transparency, accountability and the boundaries you set around generative AI and the creative process.
Privacy and data Your commitment to protecting personal and sensitive data.
Security The steps you’re taking to reduce risk of a cyber attack.
Sustainability How you choose tools and suppliers and encourage environmental responsibility.
Human oversight Assurance that humans remain in control of decisions.
On the legal front, although AI innovation has accelerated so fast the law can’t keep up, it’s starting to make gains. Disney and Universal are suing Midjourney for copyright infringement, for example, so if you’re using generative AI in your brand campaigns, limit it to the discovery and draft stages rather than to create the final creative work itself to avoid costly legal challenges in the future. Make sure all this is clear in your company AI statement too, and get ready to revisit it regularly because the Tcs and Cs from OpenAI, Meta, Google, Anthropic et al keep changing.
2. Explain your business strategy
One of the biggest mis-steps I’m seeing companies making right now is focusing on the tool, not the problem.
Buying expensive licences for software no one internally knows how to use; wasting time introducing time-saving AI workflows that add complicated extra steps rather than remove them. And then you’ve got all the SaaS startups that are all AI tool and no market research, and who I suspect will have lost their investors a lot of money this time next year.
The more canny businesses are starting where there’s friction. Like logistics companies using AI to plan routes efficiently, saving fuel and helping drivers work shorter hours. Or a startup like Tandem creating an AI tool that enables medical professionals to dictate notes hands-free while they focus on caring for the patient.
What research, evidence, or data-led methodologies can you share to give the market confidence that your business decisions are based on clear, rational thinking, and that they support long-term growth that’s not tied to the hype cycle?
And what opportunities are you creating for entry level employees to ensure you have a skilled workforce 5, 10 years down the line?
3. Emphasise your values
Your vision and mission statements may talk about things like diversity and sustainability, but what does this mean in practice?
Can you explain on your Careers page and in job adverts how AI will (and won’t) be used in the hiring process, and how you ensure candidates aren’t unfairly filtered out?
Maybe you’re a tech company and in your case studies you can show how you avoid bias in your datasets. Or how your developers work on side projects in AI for climate tech.
In fashion or retail, you could explain how you use AI in the supply chain to reduce waste, but not quality.
If you’re in product or service design, can you explain how you test AI tools with diverse user groups to make sure the outputs are accessible and inclusive?
How are you talking about your values in all of your communications, in the context of AI?
“Be proactive and transparent with your comms and demonstrate good governance, strong principles and a responsible, sustainable business strategy – before stakeholders have to ask.”
How can you communicate with customers?
People need to feel reassured that they come first and that whatever tools you’re bringing in, it’s not going to negatively impact them, society, or the environment. It’s about having respect for the people buying your products and services, and not being so hasty to adopt the new technology that you forget about the things they care about, like good customer service and brands that are true to their values and don’t make empty promises.
1. Amplify the human in customer interactions
The more automation comes in, the more customers and clients will appreciate the human touch. While you’re experimenting with chatbots, AI-driven outreach emails, and AI tools for scanning CVs and even conducting screening interviews, you may find yourself backtracking when you start getting negative feedback or good candidates are getting missed. What does it say about you as a brand if you’re so careless and dismissive of your customers that you can’t even bear to talk to them!
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia replaced 45 call centre staff with AI-powered bots, for example, only to reverse the move when service levels dropped and customer dissatisfaction increased. They had to publicly apologise and give people their jobs back.
Make sure there’s a human in the loop in hiring, marketing, finance…well, everything!
2. Place real value in human creativity
You know those posts where someone boasts about building an ad campaign on their own that previously would have involved a creative team of 50 people, with thousands of dollars saved. Well, the output is rubbish. These people know the cost of everything and value of nothing, in my opinion!
As Vogue magazine found recently, there’s a backlash against AI-generated models. Scotrail’s AI announcer has had to be replaced following criticism from the original voiceover artist.
And that beautiful AI-influencer who was at Wimbledon and has built a following of 166k on Instagram; when I looked at the comments at the time it was full of creepy blokes rather than people who would be buying any product, and comments are turned off now - maybe the account was attracting too much negativity around unrealistic beauty standards?
Your customers are not stupid. So using generative AI for campaigns can send out a message that if you care this little about the craft of creating your campaigns, you don’t care about the product, or the people using it.
However, AI is brilliant for the brainstorming and draft stage:
Storyboards, ahead of a film or photo shoot with real people.
Audio voiceovers to check pacing in your script or audiobook – but using a real human to narrate the final piece, as we did in the Cavendish Laboratory audio tour.
Building customer personas to help you finetune your messaging and avoid making assumptions about their pain points and behaviours.
3. Remember what motivates today’s customer
Buying decisions nowadays can be swayed by how ethical, responsible and sustainable a brand is deemed to be. So when emphasising your values, it’s worth thinking about two audiences; how you communicate to industry peers and investors, and your messaging to customers.
Duolingo’s CEO announced earlier in 2025 that they wouldn’t be hiring any more contract staff, they’d use AI instead. Cue massive backlash and customers upset that human talent was being replaced.
How you treat people internally impacts how you’re perceived externally too, and customers will side with employees, not the CEO.
And when it comes to future employees, Gen Z wants to work somewhere with good values, as well as buy their products. So if you are ensuring ethical and environmentally cautious AI practices in your businesses, then shout loud about them through social media, video and case studies and you might just attract good talent as well as loyal customers.
“Share stories that highlight human + AI wins. Not AI replacing people. Never diminish the value and joy of genuine human creativity. ”
AI is complex!
Honest communication is your superpower in building trust with your team, showing stakeholders you’re focusing on responsible, sustainable growth, and reminding customers you care.
For a rational, ethical approach to communicating about AI in your organisation, discover our very human Consultancy services and get in touch.
And if you’re just getting to grips with the whole thing, why not download our explainer, Make sense of AI: Terms, tools and good practice.
