Search and online behavior is not the same it was last year – neither should your strategies and approach to communications. Website traffic is down across the board with AI summaries and zero-click searches, and your messages are being summarized by AI whether you embrace it or not.
We are writing for two audiences now: machines and people.
To be cited is to be seen, and playing catch up will be expensive! There is urgency to understand and begin implementing AI tools in works and teams.
I am leading the digital engagement strategies that help mission-driven organizations build trust, community, and awareness in a world transformed by AI. Gratefully, our team is digital and AI-forward, and leaders like Dr. Terri Ferinde, are leading the industry to bring AI understanding, awareness, and urgency. Our team is here to help every step of the way
“If AI can’t read you, people won’t reach you.”
The good [and somewhat terrifying] news is: the globe and field is learning much of this together, in real-time. Our team ensures our partners know they don’t have to do this alone – but embracing and integrating AI does need to managed intentionally, responsibly, and ethically.
Gen-AI Changed the Global Ecosystem
With over 95 % of U.S. companies now using generative AI, (Bain & Company), and 50 %+ of U.S. adults now using GenAI, (Pew Research), this $67 billion market evalution is a revolution.
Few industries have seen AI adoption climb as quickly as public relations and digital strategy. In just 18 months, AI usage among communications professionals jumped from 28 % to 75 % (Muck Rack). What may have started with experimentation is now an everyday workflow and crucial for organization visibility.
According to Muck Rack’s State of AI in PR 2025, three in four PR professionals now use generative AI, and most teams are already integrating AI in productivity tasks, such as:
- Brainstorming with AI (82 %)
- Drafting first versions of content (72 %)
- Editing copy (70 %)
- Researching trends and narratives (59 %)
We love to see it, but using AI for productivity alone isn’t a strategy. Our team is supporting our partners to move beyond productivity and towards narrative, strategy, bias, training—a broader context.
In one recent campaign supporting a national nonprofit coalition, I used GenAI to quickly map audience sentiment trends and draft content variations for testing across multilingual audiences. The result: faster deployment, clearer alignment to community tone, and more responsive iteration, without compromising our strategic message or ethical guardrails. Using these tools beyond productivity and asking for push-back, perspectives, and blindspots.
This is an exciting time: new tools popping up every day, new features rolling out…Human oversight is crucial to maintain trust.
Trust, Transparency, and the AI Ethics
Despite widespread AI adoption and use, consumer confidence and trust is weary. AI can help scale but it must balance reach and rigor. Human touch is crucial for trust.
AI is imperfect and commonly struggles with biases, errors, hallucinations. Unchecked, these inadequacies can harm an organization’s reputation.
We believe it is a best practice to embed equity in AI-informed communications. This means more than representation in content, but building safeguards that are led by people in fact checking, challenging rationale, prompting for transparency. We should ensure language and outputs reflect lived experience, not just algorithmic efficiency. We believe in the need to hold space for community context, especially when technology moves faster than the policies meant to protect it.
We aim to lead in the work behind the tools: embedding ethics, accessibility, and equity in every layer of the process.
Building AI Capacity for Mission-Driven Teams
That’s why I do what I do. At Collaborative, I support communications and digital teams build AI literacy with intention.
Key ways we support our partners:
- Developing AI Governance: Partnering with organization leaders to understand and develop GenAI guardrails, policies, and protocols to protect messages, brand, data, and responsibly integrate AI in workflows.
- Capacity Building and AI Training: Customizing training and workshops for teams can use AI tools intentionally. We bring our clients along in the AI-adoption journey and learning. We facilitate upskilling workshops on various AI topics.
- Human Touch and Tailored GPTs: Launching custom GPTs to mimic organizations and teams’ messaging and voice. These tailored bots or agents continually learn, train, test, and are refined to be used as a unified voice across organizations.
- Quality Control and Prediction: Developing tailored AI frameworks to ensure organization alignment: building bias checks, transparency steps, and accessible outputs. We use AI to test our messages, anticipate issues, spot trends, and challenging narrative, cultural competency, etc.
- Visibility Signals: Strategizing your content so it is machine readable and human reachable. We will monitor how your being cited, summarized, and searched within AI answer engines/generative search results. We will work with your team to advance your discoverability and indexing.
I am focused on a capability every communications team needs but few feel ready for: AI literacy and future-proof strategies. Beyond what AI can do, but how to use AI thoughtfully, ethically, and strategically.
Connect with our team to learn about ways you can future-proof your strategies.
Leading Strategic and Safe AI Adoption
Generative AI is not a trend or a buzzword. It has already reshaped search and website traffic across the globe. AI is forever changing how our audiences search, learn, connect, and decide.
Policy is racing to catch up. Industries are writing the rules in real time. And the tools are moving faster than most of us can document!
As communicators, we are at the helm with the visibility signals coming from many PR strategies. We are uniquely positioned to support AI visibility signals, how to monitor and update inaccuracies, and how to ensure organizations’ messages are cited and seen.
AI is already summarizing you. Make sure it is accurate and aligned with your messaging.
Collaborative can support your team on their efforts to build smart, ethical, equity-driven AI practices into their teams and strategies.
Connect with us to learn more about ways we can partner to co-create, amplify, and future-proof your communications and marketing strategies.
Suzanne Woodward
Digital Engagement, Collaborative Communications
Suzanne Woodward is the Director of Digital Engagement at Collaborative Communications. She leads bold, mission-driven organizations in building authentic, data-informed digital strategies that center community and drive measurable impact. Suzanne specializes in data-driven campaigns, person-centered storytelling, and AI-driven PR integration.