AI & Communications Research
Can AI improve communications judgement—not just help us write faster?
Over the past twenty-five years, I’ve noticed something. Most communications problems aren’t really communications problems.
They’re decision problems.
Someone hasn’t been clear about what they’re trying to achieve. Leaders aren’t aligned. The organisation isn’t ready. The behaviour people want to change hasn’t been defined. Sometimes communication isn’t even the right answer.
By the time Communications gets involved, we’re often trying to make sense of decisions that should have been challenged much earlier.
That’s the question that’s fascinated me throughout my career.
And now AI has made it even more interesting.
Why I’m doing this
We’ve spent the last couple of years talking about how AI can help us write. It can draft announcements, rewrite emails, summarise meetings and generate content in seconds. It wrote some of this copy, for example.
That’s impressive.
But I’m much more interested in something else.
Can AI help us think better before anyone starts writing?
Can it help us ask better questions?
Challenge weak assumptions?
Spot gaps in thinking?
Help communications teams become more strategic?
Or is today’s general-purpose AI already good enough?
I genuinely don’t know. That’s why I’m doing this research.
I’d love your help
If you work in communications, change, transformation or organisational leadership, I’d really value your perspective.
Whether you’re using AI every day, avoiding it altogether, or still deciding what you think, your experience matters.
In fact, I’d particularly like to hear from people who think this research is asking the wrong question.
Good research should be challenged.
Ready to take part?
The interview takes around five minutes.
Before you begin, please read the Participant Information.
Start the AI interview.
Become a Research Partner
I’m also looking for a small number of people who’d be willing to contribute more deeply. That might involve an interview, reviewing planning approaches or taking part in future research.
No sales pitch. No expectation that you’ll agree with me. Just honest conversations about how communications is changing.
Become a Research Partner
Where the research is today
This is an open research project, so I’ll share progress as it develops.
✓ Research framework complete
✓ Initial methodology developed
⬜ Survey launch
⬜ Research interviews
⬜ Research Partner studies
⬜ Interim findings
⬜ Final report
A promise
If the research supports my ideas, I’ll publish it. If it doesn’t, I’ll publish that too. The point of this project isn’t to prove Communication Reasoning is right. It’s to better understand how AI is changing professional judgement in communications—and whether there’s actually a better way of working.
Not taking part?
If you’d like to receive the findings when the research is complete, you can register here.
Register for the research report
About me
I’m Rich Baker. I’ve spent more than twenty-five years helping organisations navigate change, including leadership roles at Deloitte, Amazon, Jaguar Land Rover, the Insititute of Internal Communications and Virgin Trains.
One theme has followed me everywhere I’ve worked. The quality of communication is usually limited by the quality of the thinking that comes before it. I’ve wondered for years whether that could be improved.
This research is my attempt to find out.