How AI can help comms pros polish their messaging

AI’s meteoric rise communicators offers quick research assistance and can tailor messages to specific audiences. But the constant is the human influence behind the technology.

At Ragan’s AI Horizons Conference earlier this year, Jennifer Fickley-Baker, director of global editorial for Hilton Worldwide, said that her team doesn’t fear AI as a potential replacement for comms pros. Instead, they look at it as a helpful assistant in sharpening content.

“We’re not afraid of AI,” Fickley-Baker said. “We’re curious about what it can help us do. It won’t replace our voice — but if it can take something off our plate so we can spend more time crafting a better story, we’ll use it.”

Fickley- Baker shared an example of how LLMs like ChatGPT have helped her team reduce time spent on tasks that might have previously been a slog to get through.

“We’ve used ChatGPT to draft budget justifications — not because we can’t write them, but because they’re tedious and time-consuming,” she said. “We use it for things like ‘polite no’ emails or templated internal responses. It helps us spend more time on the content that actually moves the needle.”