9 ways marketing and comms can use AI to boost employee engagement and productivity

AI has integrated quickly into internal marketing and communications — with 87% of marketing professionals and 85% of communications professionals already adopting it, according to a study by The Conference Board.

• Why it matters: AI will have a significant impact on how businesses operate, employees work, and day-to-day tasks are managed. And while most marketers and communicators say they think — and MIT research shows — AI will boost team productivity, some are less certain how it might impact work quality and worker creativity.

“If we design these [tools] in the right way, they can amplify people’s abilities,” Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei told Axios HQ in an interview. “AI is one tool, and existing human creativity is another, and there’s gonna be a lot of skill in learning how to put those together.”

That means the new gold-standard for internal marketers and communicators isn’t just understanding and embracing innovative technologies — it’s helping the teammates around them learn to use them their full, and safe, potential. The entire organization can get further, faster when they thoughtfully use AI to organize their thoughts, cut down on distracting clutter, streamline collaboration, and save time.

The growing demand for clear, concise, and context-rich internal marketing

The first step is to take an honest look at what’s working — and what could work better — inside your organization. For many, failing projects, splintered alignment, lagging engagement, or fractured trust track back to the same core struggle: ineffective communication.

• A staggering 38% of employees say they receive an “excessive volume of communications” at work, according to Harvard Business Review. And communication comes in excess, it becomes harder and harder for teams to understand what’s important and make measured progress.

The next is to appreciate that the ways we’ve always worked have served us incredibly well so far — but just like our economy, our industry, and our business are changing, so, too, are our people. The strategies we use to support and serve them need to evolve, too.

There’s reassuring data in early studies around business adoption of generative AI.

• It “substantially raised productivity.” The average time it took to complete a writing task decreased by 40% — and output quality rose by 18%.
• “Inequality between workers decreased.” And excitement to use it grew among users.
• Workers were more likely to stick with it. Folks exposed to generative AI were 1.6x as likely to report using it two months down the line.

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That means one of the greatest hurdles to any workplace change — securing buy-in and building new habits — is significantly lower when we talk about adopting AI. It also means that the core hesitation that some internal marketers and communicators share about integrating it into their workflow — quality — isn’t as much of a problem as they perceive it to be.

In fact, organizations that embrace AI stand to see an immediate boost in work speed and productivity while building excitement, engagement, and greater work product among the folks who use it.

How you can unleash AI’s potential in your organization

Internal marketing uplifts employee morale, motivation, engagement, and culture. It leads to increased satisfaction, improved decision-making, effective collaboration, and an overall boost in company performance and customer experience.

Where generative AI can fit in:

1. Brainstorming: Unleash your team’s creativity with long-term strategies or quick-turn ideas to fuel fresh thinking and problem-solving.
2. Market research: Employ detailed prompts to kickstart business analyses and competitive comparisons.
3. Research and writing: Leverage generative AI tools to create early drafts, including original images, sample production schedules, data reports, and emails.            
4. Personalization: Analyze employee roles, preferences, and habits to tailor comms and deliver content when and where it’s most relevant to your teammates.
5. Predictive analytics: Analyze historical data to predict trends and patterns related to employee engagement and productivity. Proactively address potential issues.
6. Feedback: AI-powered polls and sentiment analysis can process employee feedback from surveys, emails, and other sources to gauge areas of concern.
7. Learning and development: AI-powered communication platforms can meet employees where they are and help develop core skills — like clear communication — that benefit the whole org.
8. Automated tasks: AI tools can turn recurring tasks into routines and help tag collaborators in their recurring roles to bring projects, communications, or other vital efforts to life.
9. Language Translation: Break down language barriers and facilitate effective communication across diverse teams with AI-powered language translation tools.

When choosing AI tools to support your employee engagement and productivity goals, there are lots of checklists that can help you stay aware of what to look for — like picking technology that’s user-friendly, respects privacy, is aligned with company values, and acknowledges the necessary balance between automation and human intervention.

The bottom line: Generative AI is a powerful skill for organizations — especially deployed at the capable hands of marketers and communicators. It can enhance success, modernize skills, improve efficiency, and empower teamwork. We just have to keep an open and creative mind about how we help our teammates use it.

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