Companies can leverage AI for better internal communications and training

DAVOS, Switzerland – Corporate affairs leaders are using AI to better understand and communicate not only with the world, but also their own employees.

Why it matters: Studies show AI can boost employee productivity. But, it can also provide an important feedback loop for businesses, said Coca-Cola Company EVP and global chief communications, sustainability & strategic partnerships officer Bea Perez.

Axios' Eleanor Hawkins moderated conversations with Perez, Lattice CEO Sarah Franklin, and Lattice chief communications officer Cheryl Sanclemente in Davos. The Jan. 20 discussions were sponsored by Salesforce.

The latest: The Coca-Cola Company has its own chatGPT for its employees to search internal documents, like company policies, which also allows the company to better understand what employees need.

• "Say you're a new employee to the company, you want to know what the entertainment and travel policy [is.] How much can you spend on a lunch? Well, you'd have to sift through lots of paper on a website in the past. Now you just go to Coca-Cola chatGPT, you ask the question, [and it] gives you the information," Perez said.
• She added that about 70% of their employees use their chatGPT or have used it in the last 90 days.

Reality check: Perez also emphasized the need to still have humans double-checking the work AI does.

• "We have found that we still have to make sure that you have real people looking at it and fact-checking" to make sure it didn't hallucinate.

Separately, Franklin said Lattice – an HR software company that uses AI – believes the technology can help propel people's success in the workplace.

• AI can help employees become more efficient in their jobs and understand what's expected of them, while assisting managers in making decisions, she said
• AI is "really helping power the people so that people are the most successful part," Franklin added.

Sponsored content:

In a View From the Top sponsored segment, Salesforce EVP and chief communications officer Carolyn Guss said 2025 will be the "year of AI impact," and pointed to the different ways Salesforce is using AI in its corporate affairs and communications strategies, including their new AI agent.

• Salesforce's comms team uses their own customer relationship management (CRM) tool to log their media interactions.
• "So we've built an agent — we're calling it 'PR Force'— and the agent is going to go through all our Slacks and our emails, [and] our meeting transcripts. … If I want to find out what was our last interaction with Eleanor and what were the vibes? I can just go in and find that and nobody in my team had to do the work of creating that for me," Guss added.