AI Is Rewriting Comms Work-and Reworking the CEO-Comms Leader Dynamic
A new HarrisX-Ragan survey of 400 CEOs and communications leaders shows the shift is already here: AI now does more than half of comms work in nearly one-in-three organizations. Leaders see efficiency and scale, but there's also a tug-of-war over voice, control, and what skills matter most next.
For PR and communications pros, the takeaway is simple: lean into AI where it gives leverage, double down on strategic skills machines can't replicate, and reset how you partner with the CEO.
What the numbers say
- 95% of organizations use AI in communications work; 96% of those report a positive impact.
- 30% say more than half of comms work is already done by AI; 55% expect that to be true by 2030.
- 57% of CEOs would pick a custom-trained AI tool to write an important speech over a top comms pro with no AI support.
- 31% of CEOs believe AI platforms will soon add more value than internal teams or agencies, yet 42% expect AI will increase comms jobs.
Skills: what CEOs value now vs. what's next
CEOs think AI fluency will define the function soon, but they're not hiring for it as the top skill today. Only 18% rank AI/tech fluency as most valuable right now.
Today's top traits: strategic thinking (42%), creative problem-solving (40%), and staying calm under pressure (37%). The move is to pair these with AI skills-prompting, data literacy, and workflow design-so your team delivers both judgment and speed.
How comms leaders view AI
- 70% say AI boosts their effectiveness and efficiency.
- Only 13% worry AI will replace their role; just 30% expect fewer jobs across the field.
- 68% say AI will increase the value of internal teams; 64% say the same for agencies.
- 63% believe AI will democratize great communications across brands and org sizes.
Translation: treat AI as a force multiplier. Codify your best practices into prompts and playbooks. Build custom models where you have proprietary voice, data, or workflows that matter.
Corporate voice: speak less or speak more?
- 58% of CEOs say their organizations speak up too often on social or political issues.
- 59% of comms leaders believe their companies should speak up more.
- 83% say their organization usually gets it right on whether to comment.
- Safest ground: hiring announcements, community investments, environmental initiatives.
Practical fix: align on a public stance rubric with pre-agreed triggers. Score by relevance to mission, stakeholder impact, and operational risk. Pressure test with scenarios, then prebuild statements and escalation paths.
If trust data helps your case internally, consider the latest Edelman Trust Barometer to frame expectations by audience.
Trust vs. control: who leads comms?
- 83% of CEOs highly value their comms teams. Access is strong: 98% of CEOs say comms leaders have sufficient access; 92% of comms leaders agree.
- But only 56% of CEOs always consult comms before major external announcements; 65% do so for important internal announcements.
- 74% of CEOs say they personally lead communications, while only 20% of comms leaders say the function is directly overseen by the CEO.
- 74% of CEOs want comms to report directly to them; only 31% of comms leaders agree.
Recommendation: reset the operating model. Define decision rights (who decides, who advises), service levels for executive support, and a risk-based approval workflow-especially for AI-assisted outputs.
90-day playbook for comms leaders
- Assess: Map every comms workflow. Mark tasks for AI assist, AI automate, or human-only. Prioritize by impact and risk.
- Upskill: Train the team on prompt design, fact-checking, and data fluency. Pair juniors with seniors in AI "pods" so judgment scales.
- Guardrails: Adopt an AI usage policy (sources of truth, approval gates, disclosure rules). Reference frameworks like the NIST AI Risk Management Framework.
- Voice control: Build a stance decision tree for social/political issues with CEO sign-off. Pre-approve language for low-risk topics.
- Executive alignment: Set a weekly 20-minute CEO-comms sync. Use a one-page dashboard: reputation signals, live risks, key messages, and AI utilization.
- Measure: Track cycle time, content quality scores, error rates, and message consistency. Tie wins to business outcomes (recruiting, sales enablement, policy impact).
Where to build skills fast
If you need practical training on prompting, workflow design, and job-specific AI use cases for comms and PR, explore curated learning paths and resources:
- Courses by job for communications and marketing roles
- Prompt engineering playbooks and tutorials
About the study
The 5th Annual HarrisX-Ragan Survey of Communications Leaders gathered responses from 400 U.S. executives-125 CEOs and 275 communications leaders-between August and October 2025. The overall margin of error is ±4.9 percentage points.
Bottom line
AI is now part of the comms stack. Teams that combine strategic judgment with AI-enabled execution will win on speed, consistency, and credibility-without giving up control where it matters most.
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