Around 40% of internal communicators say their top priority is to refresh and develop their internal communications strategy, according to a recent Gallagher report. This is a crucial step towards improving key success indicators, such as employee engagement and policy compliance.
However, this strategic work requires time. And with a third of all teams lacking capacity, time is a scarce resource.
As a result, many internal communications departments end up maintaining rather than strategizing. Over half of their time is spent on tasks such as creating content, editing copy, and attending meetings. All vital work, yes. But it does nothing to change the status quo.
In difficult situations like these, it’s important to boost efficiency wherever possible.
This is where AI can help.
In this step-by-step guide, we’ll outline the key opportunities of AI for internal communications and help you create a roadmap for success.
Artificial intelligence can take the brunt of your time-consuming “maintenance” tasks. This gives you more hours to spend on high-value projects and strategic work.
However, time savings and stress relief aren’t the only advantages of artificial intelligence. When implemented successfully, AI in communications can directly impact your key focus areas, too.
This includes:
The chances are, your team already uses AI.
Recent research indicates that 77% of internal communicators harness AI to support their workloads, with ChatGPT being the most commonly used tool. While this certainly shows initiative, this ad hoc approach may do more harm than good.
According to Gallagher, less than a third of internal communicators have guidance on when, how and where to use AI. And only one out of five have training in place.
Without proper guidance, your AI investments may result in a low ROI. More than this, improper use of unregulated tools could cause data security issues.
To ensure you reap the benefits of AI without compromising compliance, you need to follow a standardized approach. With that in mind, here are 7 steps to implementing AI in internal communications:
Like any digital transformation project, your AI implementation must have an overarching purpose. This should go beyond simply following the latest tech trends.
What do you hope to accomplish with AI in internal communications? How will it support your efforts and drive results across your success indicators? What problems will it solve?
Perhaps your team is too finely spread to update your company news channels. Or maybe you lack the time to plan for upcoming company changes or employee feedback loops. Whatever your goal, make sure you explain how AI can help specifically — whether it’s slicing hours off your working week or reducing employee turnover.
Step 1 will give you a good idea of why you plan to implement AI in your internal comms department. Now it’s time to be specific about what you plan to implement.
Uses cases could include:
With over half of internal communicators facing budget cuts, selecting an AI tool that’s efficient and cost-effective may be necessary.
So before you hunt for a new platform, assess the capabilities of your current internal communications tools. The chances are, you may be ignoring or underutilizing AI functionality that already exists — or is soon to be implemented by the vendor.
Take Claromentis as an example. Version 10 of our digital workplace solution contains native generative AI features and an AI policy management chatbot, available in every package and at no additional cost. This allows you to generate engaging blog posts, news articles and cover images, as well as summarize complicated policy documents.
If your current intranet or tech stack doesn’t contain AI, be sure to choose a platform that:
You may also be able to integrate an AI platform with your existing digital workplace. For instance, our partnership with Zylon allows you to create a completely private AI platform on-premises. This is especially useful for organizations that face strict regulatory pressure.
To spearhead your AI implementation and ensure employees follow best practice, you’ll need to assign project owners.
These are people who are responsible for mapping the implementation of the AI, setting milestones, and organizing feedback sessions. They will also work closely with stakeholders to communicate risks, bottlenecks and successes.
We would also advise involving your IT department as soon as possible. With their data security expertise and regulatory knowledge, they can provide essential governance support. This is crucial for maintaining compliance and mitigating the risk of a breach.
While we’re on the topic of governance, the next step of your implementation journey is to set boundaries for AI usage.
Consider the following:
Based on the rules outlined above, create policy guidance and an AI rulebook for your internal communications. Publish this guidance on your key comms channels via pinned news posts, policy documents, or even a dedicated intranet page.
To support AI usage, we’d also recommend hosting workshops and creating compulsory e-learning courses. These should encompass a variety of topics, including:
Like most digital transformations, AI isn’t a quick fix. To make the most out of your new capabilities, you should roll out your project gradually and monitor as you go.
Use intranet analytics to assess the impact of your AI-generated internal communications. Does your generative content receive more clicks and comments? If not, why? You may need to improve your AI prompts or pre-publication editorial processes.
To measure the success of other AI efforts, such as policy chatbots, we’d recommend conducting employee surveys. Find out if their policy and strategic knowledge is better or worse after AI implementation. If it’s worse, you may need to adjust your chatbot settings or provide more intensive employee training.
The pressure on your internal communications team isn’t about to ease any time soon. From stagnant employee engagement levels to regulatory upheavals and economic challenges, there are a lot of obstacles to overcome and strategies to set into motion.
So the last thing you want to be doing is spending most of your time on content creation. (A grueling reality for 51% of communicators.)
An AI-driven intranet and digital workplace platform like Claromentis can take these time-consuming tasks off your plate.
Our solution provides:
To see how our AI-driven digital workplace solution can boost efficiency and ROI across your internal comms department, book a discussion call with one of our experts. We’d be more than happy to give you a tour and discuss any pricing concerns you may have.