The expansion of generative AI opens up an opportunity for Communication and Corporate Affairs managers to strengthen their strategic role and co-lead the governance of this technology within their organisations. This is proposed by Dircom and Foro IA in the report 'The impact of AI on Communication and Corporate Affairs', presented today in Madrid, which highlights the contribution of the function in areas such as reputation, trust, culture, and relationships with stakeholders.
Based on a survey carried out last July among 230 communication professionals linked to both organisations, the study shows that leadership of AI adoption in organisations is already mostly shared: 84% of the professionals surveyed state that in their company there is clearly defined leadership involving various functions, such as General Management, Technology, Innovation, Communication, Legal, and other areas.
When asked about the specific role of Communication within that process, 60% state that it is already involved in that leadership. Furthermore, companies where Communication participates have better results in maturity, preparedness, and governance. The study does not establish a causal relationship between both factors, but it does show that the presence of Communication coincides with more advanced and cross-functional adoption models.
“The incorporation of AI cannot be approached solely as a technological transformation. It affects reputation, trust, culture, and the relationship of organisations with their stakeholders, areas in which Communication has its own responsibility and expertise. For this reason, the communications director must co-lead AI governance alongside General Management, Technology, Innovation, and other functions. It is also an opportunity for Communication to reinforce the strategic role it can play in organisations and be present wherever decisions affecting their future are made”, stated Joaquín Mouriz, president of Dircom.
Broad adoption, still concentrated in few uses
This leadership process is also taking place in a context where generative AI has already fully entered the work of Communication departments. 87% of the professionals surveyed have already passed the exploration phase and 53% have integrated generative AI into various processes or in a generalised way.However, widespread use does not necessarily mean that the full potential of this technology is being leveraged.
When analysing specific uses within the communication function, the implementation of generative AI remains concentrated on operational tasks, especially in content production (already 89% of the sample uses it in specific cases or as a regular part of their work). Meanwhile, other areas with a greater strategic component, such as intelligence and monitoring, measurement, media and public affairs relations, or risk and crisis management, show clearly lower levels of development.
The risk of getting trapped in productivity
This difference also appears when asking about the value that AI systems currently bring to communication professionals. 78% highlight the increase in productivity, followed by improved creativity (52%) and quality of content (43%), but the benefits linked to analysis, decision-making, or risk anticipation and management still have a lower weighting.
According to the report, these results are positive and show that AI is already providing concrete and recognisable value to the function. The challenge for organisations is not to remain stuck in those initial benefits and avoid turning that layer of value into the limit of what organisations expect from the technology, what the report calls the «productivity trap». On the contrary, it is about leveraging that learning to extend AI towards uses with greater capacity for analysis, anticipation, decision-making, and strategic contribution to the organisation.
“The real change is not in using AI to do the same things we did before but faster. We have to broaden our outlook and ask ourselves what a Communication professional can do now that they could not do until recently: listen on a different scale, find patterns in a huge amount of information, anticipate conversations, or better measure their contribution. It is what we at Foro IA call ‘augmented humanity’: technology amplifies our capabilities without replacing what makes us different: judgement, trust, and responsibility”, pointed out during the presentation Fernando Polo, president of Foro IA.
Measure, train, and govern to advance
Moving from that conviction to an integration capable of generating value sustainably requires more than just adding tools and use cases. Although 85% of the professionals surveyed consider the potential of generative AI to transform the function in the next three years to be high or very high, only 85% feel prepared to lead its incorporation. The report points to three particularly relevant levers to close that gap: measuring the impact of this technology, establishing governance that allows progress with security, and developing the skills of professionals. The most advanced levels in these dimensions coincide with greater maturity in AI adoption.
In the case of measurement, organisations that do not carry it out obtain an average maturity score of __PG_TOKEN_0__ on a scale of __PG_TOKEN_1__ to __PG_TOKEN_2__ compared to a score of __PG_TOKEN_3__ for those that do evaluate their results systematically. Even so, barely __PG_TOKEN_4__% of the companies represented in the sample perform such an evaluation of the use they are making of AI.
The obstacles are also not the same in all phases of the adoption process. Among organisations located in the initial levels of maturity,
lack of training is the main brake (__PG_TOKEN_0__%), followed by the absence of clear use cases (56%) and issues related to governance and legal aspects (__PG_TOKEN_1__%). As implementation progresses, these barriers lose weight and challenges linked to control, coordination, and scaling gain greater importance; in fact, among the most advanced companies, __PG_TOKEN_2__% claim to no longer encounter relevant brakes.A framework to move from adoption to value
Along with the survey results, the study proposes a framework to
organise the adoption of generative AI in Communication and Corporate Affairs. It identifies the main areas in which the technology can provide value, the enablers necessary for its deployment, and different levels of maturity to evaluate to what extent it is integrated into the function.It does not intend to establish a unique roadmap or a closed sequence of steps. It is presented as a living reference framework that allows each organisation to identify where it is, what capabilities it needs to develop, and in what areas it has the greatest margin for progress.
Foro IA and Dircom also propose five lines of action for Communication managers: expand the use of AI beyond productivity; participate in its governance within the organisation; measure before continuing to scale; incorporate new areas such as reputation and visibility in generative environments into Communication management; and develop training linked to the real challenges of the function.
The report is available for download on the
Dircom website. About Dircom
Dircom is the professional association that brings together in Spain the directors of Communication, Corporate Affairs, and Institutional Relations of companies, institutions, and consultancies from all over Spain. Founded in __PG_TOKEN_0__, its vision is to add value to the communication function and the communication director in organisations so that such competence and its managers are considered a strategic area and executive. Currently, it has more than __PG_TOKEN_1__ members and __PG_TOKEN_2__ delegations in Aragon, the Canary Islands, Castile and León, Catalonia, Galicia, the Valencian Community, and the Region of Murcia
, the Northern zone, and Andalusia.More information:
__PG_TOKEN_0__ | comunicacion@dircom.org __PG_TOKEN_1__ __PG_TOKEN_2__ __PG_TOKEN_3__ About the AI Forum in Marketing, Communication and Customer Experience (MCX)
The AI Forum in Marketing, Communication and Customer Experience (MCX) was created with the aim of generating a space to learn in a community, build knowledge, and share recommendations and guidelines that help MXC professionals navigate this tsunami. We believe in the community, in the ability to establish relevant connections, and in debate as a tool for transformation.
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Carmen Queipo de Llano | __PG_TOKEN_0__ __PG_TOKEN_1__ __PG_TOKEN_2__ · Isabel Benítez | __PG_TOKEN_3__ | __PG_TOKEN_4__ __PG_TOKEN_5__ __PG_TOKEN_6__C