Artificial Intelligence is no longer just another technological trend for communicators to observe from the sidelines. It has moved to the centre of boardroom conversations across industries embraced with optimism, yet approached with thoughtful caution.
More significantly, AI represents a structural shift in how reputation is built, interpreted and amplified. Its influence now extends beyond tools and automation to shaping strategic thinking and organisational priorities.
However, its impact is unlikely to be uniform. From informing corporate strategy to transforming how brands engage with stakeholders, AI demands sector-specific understanding and carefully governed integration.
To explore these changes in greater depth, we are launching a new editorial series, The AI Mandate. At the heart of the series lies a critical question: Is AI simply accelerating operational efficiency, or is it fundamentally reshaping how organisations think, lead and communicate?
As part of this series, we spoke with Subir Moitra, Sr. Advisor - Market Ecosystems , Grant Thornton Bharat to understand how communications leaders are adapting to and navigating this rapidly evolving landscape.
Edited Excerpts:
Q: Do you see AI merely as an efficiency accelerator, or is it fundamentally reshaping the mandate and mindset of today’s communications leader?
A: AI is pushing communications leaders closer to the core of decision-making, as narratives now shape outcomes in real time.
Judgement is becoming the critical differentiator for them in the game of reputation management, not just message delivery. This marks a clear expansion of the communications mandate, requiring leaders to evolve their mindsets to drive discoverability and trust across both human and AI-mediated information ecosystems.
Q: How are you deploying AI across internal and external communications, and have you established a structured toolkit or framework to guide its use?
A: We deploy AI in three distinct ways:
- Cognitive: Insight mining from stakeholder conversations, policy signals, and sentiment data
- Creative: Narrative prototyping, message simulation, and scenario-based communication planning
- Control: Risk flagging, misinformation detection, and real-time reputation tracking
This is supported by an internal human-AI communication protocol that defines where AI augments judgment and where human oversight remains non-negotiable, especially in crisis, leadership voice, and stakeholder-sensitive messaging.
This structure ensures AI enhances strategic depth and speed without diluting accountability or leadership authenticity.
Q: With the shift from SEO to Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), how is your communication strategy evolving to stay visible in an AI-driven discovery ecosystem?
A: GEO has expanded the space occupied by SEO-focused and keyword-centric communication.
In addition to originality that accentuates experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (EEAT), messages in an AI-driven information ecosystem must now be context-rich and structured in ways that can be accurately interpreted by generative systems.
Q: Which function within corporate communications is most susceptible to AI disruption content creation, crisis response, media relations, or reputation intelligence and why?
A: Reputation intelligence, and by extension crisis response, will see the fastest disruption. AI can now track narrative drift, detect emerging perception risks, and simulate stakeholder reactions at a scale and speed that manual monitoring cannot match.
It moves communications from reactive listening to anticipatory response. Organisations integrating AI into their reputation intelligence mechanism will have a natural edge in crisis response. However, judgment, empathy, and accountability in crisis messaging remain deeply human functions.
Q: What new skills do communication teams need to remain relevant in an AI-first environment?
A: Communicators today will need to understand how machines interpret meaning and not just how humans do. Having a sound understanding of prompts and AI interaction design will give them a head start.
Along with that, analytical capabilities with respect to data interpretation and narrative synthesis are increasingly becoming critical. This shift also demands a GEO mindset, i.e., the ability to anticipate how messages may surface and evolve within algorithm-driven environments. Other important skills would include ethical judgment in messaging and developing simulation-led crisis preparedness.
Q: Looking ahead five years, how do you envision AI transforming the structure, skillsets, and influence of corporate communications within organisations?
A: By integrating reputation analytics, policy intelligence, and stakeholder simulation into leadership decision-making, AI can help communications evolve into a command centre for organisational sensing and perception management.
This will elevate communications from a support function to a strategic risk and governance partner, demanding systems thinking, ethical judgment, and cross-functional influence.
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