Axios C-Suite: Rethinking comms in the AI era
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images
Communications — internally, externally and now with AI — is getting much more complicated, much faster.
- All of us need to jump ahead of the unfolding change.
Why this matters to CEOs: Most of us have finally adapted to a world where our staff and customers learn about us and buy our products across literally dozens of disparate info-bubbles — from Instagram to MAGA podcasts. Now, we need to learn how to communicate with agents and LLMs as well.
- To me, communications is MORE important long-term than our tech stack or finance wizards.
- The reason: Our ability to guide staff through fast and sometimes scary change while positioning ourselves in the AI world hinges on doing this smartly.
There are three pieces to comms now: internal (how we align/motivate staff), external to humans (how we engage people) and external to AI (how we engage AI).
- This demands very sophisticated comms leaders. I spoke at the Page Annual Conference in Atlanta last month, and top communicators at the top companies are obsessed with this shift.
The good news: I think there's a way to align to all three. At Axios, we do it with Smart Brevity, using a common language structure — what's new, why it matters and the most important supporting points listed in order of importance in bullets.
- This structure resonates well with staff, readers and LLMs. All companies can do this with a style like ours or by finding your own.
- In every case, people and machines need clarity on the most important points alongside very clear signals and data points on what matters. People and machines remember less than more we ramble on.
Some concrete steps we can take:
- Demand sophisticated comms leaders. Are your top communicators aware of the three distribution universes and working on plans to master them?
- Form a common internal format and language. Consistency and repetition are vital everywhere. This does not come naturally to most businesses.
- Study up on agents and GEO. We can safely assume agent-to-agent transactions will be commonplace over the coming years. Generative engine optimization (GEO) will replace search engine optimization (SEO) for how we show up inside of LLMs, which one day soon will dominate the attention economy.
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