{"id":2537,"date":"2026-05-14T04:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T04:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/?p=2537"},"modified":"2026-05-14T04:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T04:02:15","slug":"the-more-and-efficiency-of-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/?p=2537","title":{"rendered":"The \u2018More\u2019 and \u2018Efficiency\u2019 of AI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-2538 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/May-14-Shifting-Sands.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"567\" height=\"330\" srcset=\"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/May-14-Shifting-Sands.png 567w, https:\/\/commsnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/May-14-Shifting-Sands-300x175.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 567px) 100vw, 567px\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>By Sandra Stahl<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The communications landscape is changing every day. \u00a0Sometimes, change takes place in the background. We know what\u2019s going on, but it doesn\u2019t impact our day-to-day and is almost part of the \u2018wallpaper\u2019 of our profession.\u00a0 Other times, the change is more noticeable. Which is the case with AI.<\/p>\n<p>Not sure I\u2019ve ever written a bigger understatement.<\/p>\n<p>AI is a source of great opinion, debate, competition, and aspiration. Two topics seem especially top-of-mind. One is the sheer volume of output. Is more better? And the other is the association of AI with efficiency.\u00a0 Is faster a goal? And if so, what is the impact on roles, responsibilities and the value of the research deep dive? Of experience?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost careers will be upended in unexpected ways by AI,\u201d said Sree Sreenivasan, CEO and co-founder of Digimentors, a social \/digital\/events + AI training firm.\u00a0 He is also former Chief Digital Officer of NYC, the Met Museum and Columbia University and co-host of the annual Nobel Peace Conference.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe truth is that once AI is embedded in the day-to-day of anyone\u2019s professional life, it becomes real. It\u2019s exciting. Every industry is or will be affected. \u00a0It opens eyes and doors to what\u2019s new and now possible. But we also need to be vigilant about the entire picture,\u201d Sree continued.<\/p>\n<p><u>\u201cMore\u2019 requires stronger narratives and content <\/u><\/p>\n<p>The sheer plenty of information at our fingertips doesn\u2019t make us smarter or more knowledgeable or more confident.\u00a0 Indeed, \u2018more\u2019 can overwhelm, distract and confuse. It can also breed distrust when some information says one thing and some information says another, or worse still, the opposite.\u00a0 As with most things, more by itself isn\u2019t better. The value is what we do with it.<\/p>\n<p>The way algorithms work provides communicators with opportunity for handling \u2018more.\u2019 \u00a0One opportunity is the increasing need for strong narratives and content. These need to work harder and provide:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Clarity<\/li>\n<li>Messages that are simplified and that make the complex (like science) simple<\/li>\n<li>Explainers<\/li>\n<li>Repetition<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It has also increased the value of third-party voices and earned media (traditional, social, Substack), LinkedIn articles and \u00a0clear, informative, content with heart on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Spotify, etc.<\/p>\n<p>All of this (just to name just a few deliverables) is squarely in our comms wheelhouse.<\/p>\n<p><u>Efficiency<\/u><\/p>\n<p>Sree and I also discussed the various sides of \u2018efficiency\u2019 associated with AI.\u00a0 The darker associations are less attention and respect for experience, nuance and detail, reduced headcount, reduced budgets and speed at the expense of quality and authenticity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEfficiency really can be a scary word. It makes it seem that faster and cheaper is better, \u201c he said. \u201cWe know, of course, this is not so.\u00a0 I always keep in mind a conversation I had with a former boss of mine who told me, \u2018Sree, what I\u2019m paying you for is your best, most thoughtful counsel.\u00a0 I\u2019m not interested in Insta-counsel.\u2019\u00a0 My boss was looking for me to give him original thinking and creative and evidence-based solutions.\u00a0 He wanted a depth of intelligence from my experience and that of my contacts and research. He knew my work was my own.\u00a0 This is why he trusted me.\u00a0 While I needed to deliver in a timely fashion, the value was never about efficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A way forward is to be realistic about AI, learn more and try it. The benefits are just as important as the land mines. Before AI, for example, there was rarely a question about the human behind the work.\u00a0 Consider the scandals now in the literary world \u00a0when books have been cancelled once it was discovered they were AI-written.<\/p>\n<p>Part of being realistic comes down to what it is about our experience, thinking and individualism that is valuable to a brand, a company, a leader, a client.\u00a0 What about us or what we\u2019ve got to offer is unique, will make a difference to brand impact and growth, provide information that impacts decisions and next steps?\u00a0 And then leverage AI. This is an approach I\u2019m taking with a new offering, because \u2018more\u2019 requires the kind of actionable synthesis that can only be driven by deep (in my case 30+ years) human experience coupled with technological savvy.<\/p>\n<p>Sree put it this way, \u201cThe best endorsement of your work, AI-supported or not, is the trust in it and in you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>_______________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The views and opinions published here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the publisher.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Sandra Stahl The communications landscape is changing every day. \u00a0Sometimes, change takes place in the background. We know what\u2019s going on, but it doesn\u2019t impact our day-to-day and is almost part of the \u2018wallpaper\u2019 of our profession.\u00a0 Other times, the change is more noticeable. Which is the case with AI. Not sure I\u2019ve ever written a bigger understatement. AI is a source of great opinion, debate, competition, and aspiration. Two topics seem especially top-of-mind. One is the sheer volume of output. Is more better? And the other is the association of AI with efficiency.\u00a0 Is faster a goal? And <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shifting-sands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2537"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2539,"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2537\/revisions\/2539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}