Companies Risk Message Drift With AI Assistance

Companies spend significant time crafting key messages, such as mission lines and vision statements, to ensure they accurately reflect the company's intent. However, as these messages are edited and rewritten for different audiences, their meaning can start to drift, according to PR Daily. This drift can occur when colleagues edit the message for various purposes, such as partner newsletters or board memos.

The use of AI can accelerate this process, making each handoff faster, but also increasing the risk of message drift. This is similar to the telephone game, where a message is whispered from person to person, changing slightly each time, until the final message is significantly different from the original. AI can facilitate this process, but it does not guarantee that the message will survive the journey between hands.

A recent workshop with a communications team highlighted the importance of considering the potential risks and consequences of using AI to assist with messaging. The team was asked to sort recurring tasks into three piles: do it myself, do it with AI's help, and hand it off entirely. The reasons behind their decisions revealed four key questions to consider when using AI for messaging.

These questions include whether a mistake can be fixed, whose voice is being used, whether the content is original or repurposed, and whether doing it by hand builds a necessary skill. For example, a mistake in a newsletter may be easily corrected, but a leader's mistake in front of an audience can damage the company's reputation. Similarly, while AI can assist with short news blurbs, anything that influences someone's point of view must be kept in human hands.

The workshop also highlighted the importance of using AI as a copilot, rather than an autopilot. Most tasks were split in half, with AI assisting with tasks such as pulling analytics numbers, but a person explaining what they mean. This approach allows companies to leverage the benefits of AI while maintaining control over the messaging and ensuring that it remains true to the original intent.

To mitigate the risk of message drift, companies can take a proactive approach by regularly reviewing and checking their messaging. One approach is to use AI to adapt a core message for different audiences and then compare the results to the original version, marking any lines where the meaning has started to drift. This review checklist can be shared with the team to ensure that every altered piece is checked before it is released.

By taking a thoughtful and intentional approach to using AI for messaging, companies can minimize the risk of message drift and ensure that their key messages remain consistent and effective. This requires a careful consideration of the potential risks and consequences of using AI, as well as a commitment to regularly reviewing and checking messaging to ensure that it remains true to the original intent.