The role and value of senior communicators in the AI era: ethical guardians, relationship champions, trainers, and strategic advisors

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming and enhancing productivity across all work industries. Close to 30% of worker hours could be automated by 2030 (Ellingrud et al., 2023). According to a 2025 McKinsey and Company global report, 92% of companies plan to increase their AI investments (Mayer et al., 2025). That same 2025 report concluded that while employees are ready for AI, the most significant barrier is leadership. Employees seek increased support and training as they explore and adopt AI for work tasks. Paradoxically, the increased emphasis on AI skills and technology has created a greater demand for soft skills among employees (LinkedIn, 2025). According to a LinkedIn report, AI is Coming to Work, the demand for human skills has increased by 10% since 2018, and in 2024, communication was the most sought-after skill. More specifically, the LinkedIn AI report concluded that communication, defined as “skills we have as people – curiosity, communication, creativity, compassion, and courage – can help us better prompt, collaborate, and adapt” (LinkedIn, 2025, p. 19).

Like other industries, the public relations industry is leveraging the ability of generative AI (GAI) to automate tasks to save time, be more effective, and focus on more impactful work (Gregory et al., 2023; Yue et al., 2024). In a 2024 study conducted by USC Annenberg and We. Communications, 66% of 600 surveyed communicators said they use AI frequently, and 73% said it allows them to do their work more quickly. Moreover, communicators who use AI frequently are “93% more likely to say they feel valued for the work they do” (USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations and We. Communications, 2024, “An AI Boost Section”).

Much of the existing scholarship on public relations has focused on ethics, AI adoption, and perceptions related to the challenges and benefits of AI adoption. There is a lack of research examining the unique value and changing role of senior-level communicators as they help their organizations integrate AI into their business and communication practices. Because public relations operates as a strategic management function, the senior communicator plays an essential role in organizational workflows and decision-making, shaping outcomes both within the organization and in the broader society (Galloway and Swiatek, 2018; Harris and Burton, 2025).

Based on 30 elite interviews with senior-level U.S. public relations practitioners, the purpose of this research is twofold: (1) to examine the unique value they bring as communicators to their organizations and clients' adoption of GAI, and (2) to understand if and how GAI adoption is impacting public relations as a strategic management function.

This paper next analyzes literature on AI and the public relations industry, AI ethics, AI and relationship building, and two theoretical frameworks, excellence theory and public relations role theory.

The term AI dates to the 1950s. In 1955, Stanford's first professor in AI, John McCarthy, defined AI as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines” (McCarthy, 2007, p. 2). AI refers to machines that simulate human intelligence (De Bruyn et al., 2020) and encompasses technologies and approaches that can provide rational and flexible decisions when faced with unpredictability (Tredinnick, 2017, p. 37). Typical applications of AI include natural language processing, semantic reasoning, machine learning, intelligent decision-making, and retrieval (Tredinnick, 2017, p. 38).

AI continues to experience massive adoption and growth across the world. A new report predicts the global AI market will reach over $91.57 billion by 2026 (Statista, 2025). North America, China and Germany currently lead the global AI market (Statista, 2025). Much of the growth of AI can be attributed to AI programs known as large language models (LLMs) that can be used to create content, such as ChatGPT, which grew its user base to 100 million only two months after launching (Milmo, 2023).

Like other industries, GAI is transforming and changing the nature of public relations work (Buhmann and White, 2022; Panda et al., 2019; Swiatek et al., 2024). Research indicates that up to 40% of public relations tasks are assisted by GAI tools (Gregory et al., 2023). GAI can help public relations practitioners create hyper-personalized communication, generate data insights, create and tailor content for influencers, respond to crises, and monitor and measure media (Panda et al., 2019; Staley et al., 2023; Uysal and Deng, 2025). In 2024, communicators reported using GAI most frequently for content creation (54%), followed by data analysis (40%) and background/landscape research (37%) (USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations and We. Communications, 2024). More than 6,000 AI tools are currently available for use by public relations practitioners (Gregory et al., 2023).

Communicators are generally optimistic about the future impact of AI on the communication industry (Buhman et al., 2026; Uysal and Deng, 2025; Zerfass et al., 2020). Yet, despite this general optimism, some communicators harbor fears about AI replacing communication jobs (Dong and van den Berg, 2025; Gregory et al., 2023; Yue et al., 2024; Zerfass et al., 2020). The lingering concerns among some communicators highlight the need for continued education and training to enhance, but not replace, public relations work (Gregory et al., 2023; Uysal and Deng, 2025).

One line of scholarship has examined how AI is reshaping corporate communication as part of a broader organizational digital transformation (e.g. Brockhaus et al., 2023; Buhmann and Gregory, 2023; Buhmann et al., 2026; Christensen and Andersson, 2025; Zerfass and Brockhaus, 2023). The socio-technical system (STS) perspective examines how people, technologies, structures, and practices work together as a system (Brockhaus et al., 2023). The STS perspective reflects a human-centered design approach, whereby employees methodically deliberate how to structure work processes and roles as they adopt new technological advances such as AI (Christensen and Andersson, 2025). Recent research has examined AI adoption among corporate communication departments (e.g. Buhmann et al., 2026; Christensen and Andersson, 2025; Kelm and Johann, 2025; Rohrbach and Makhortykh, 2025). Research suggests that while AI is seen as transformative, the implementation across organizations is slow (Buhmann et al., 2026; Christensen and Andersson, 2025). Buhmann et al. (2026) noted that amidst changing roles, work processes, and structures of this digital revolution, communicators must rethink the value they provide. One important way communicators can contribute is by offering ethical guidance.

GAI risks and concerns are not unique to communicators. Based on their analysis of research spanning multiple academic disciplines, Al-kfairy et al. (2024) outlined seven AI ethical concerns: privacy, copyright, misinformation, bias, education ethics, transparency, and societal inequities. Information and technology scholars (Al-kfairy et al., 2024; Luckett, 2023) have advocated for the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration among government, industry, and academia to develop AI guidelines and regulations that promote fairness, transparency, privacy, safety, and human-centered values. The technology industry began using the term responsible AI when discussing how to maximize societal benefits and minimize harm (Germinder and Capizzo, 2025). Responsible AI is a term used to “denote AI that is fair and non-biased, transparent and explainable, secure and safe, privacy-proof, accountable, and to the benefit of mankind” (De Laat, 2021, p. 1135). In a review of 24 companies that pledged commitment to responsible AI, De Laat (2021) found overall support for ethical principles, but less evidence of substantive steps toward establishing governance structures. Some of the 24 companies expressed the need for government regulation (De Laat, 2021).

Recent research has identified growing areas of ethical concerns related to GAI and communication practice (Bowen, 2024; Dong and van den Berg, 2025; Germinder and Capizzo, 2025; Maben et al., 2026). As employees who routinely create messaging and communicate with both internal and external publics about how an organization is using GAI, communicators must be committed to issues of transparency, bias, privacy, misinformation, and copyright (Dong and van den Berg, 2025; Germinder and Capizzo, 2025; Maben et al., 2026; McCorkindale, 2024; Seidenglanz and Baier, 2023; Valin and Gregory, 2020). Communicators must also consider diversity, equity, and inclusion when designing and implementing AI systems (Logan and Waymer, 2024; Vasquez, 2025; Yim, 2025). In their analysis of three case studies, Logan and Waymer (2024) found that the three companies lacked inclusive and racially responsible AI systems, thereby perpetuating racism and eliciting public outrage and reputational loss. Other scholars have criticized AI systems for being trained on historical data sets that reinforce structural inequalities (Bruyn et al., 2020; Buhmann, 2023; Buhmann and White, 2022; Yim, 2025). To safeguard against these significant issues, communicators must be involved in governance and data decisions related to AI (Buhmann and Gregory, 2023; Gregory et al., 2023; Valin and Gregory, 2020) by asking tough questions, becoming involved in the creation and execution of algorithms and championing ethical behavior (Buhmann and White, 2022; Holtzhausen, 2016; Valin and Gregory, 2020).

Scholars have long advocated that communicators should provide ethical counseling to organizations, with some referring to this role as the ethical conscience (e.g. Bowen, 2008; Neill, 2023; Neill and Drumwright, 2012). Yet Neill (2023) found that while communicators rate themselves highly on having a personal code of ethics and identifying ethical issues, they are not as confident in their ability to offer ethical counseling. Communicators with seniority and advanced certifications, such as the Accreditation in Public Relations (APR), are more equipped to provide ethical counseling to senior leadership and clients (Neill, 2023; Neill and Drumwright, 2012). Burton and Pearson (2016) advocated for a more tempered ethical responsibility for communicators, noting that ethics is a shared responsibility among employees in an organization, particularly during a crisis. This ethical responsibility is further enhanced by trust, transparency, and relationships.

In 2018, Sommerfeldt and Yang opined: “The question is no longer if, but how to best use digital communication technologies to build relationships with the publics” (p. 60). Following Sommerfeldt and Yang's (2018) prescient mandate, research on using AI to foster relationships has ensued, particularly in the areas of AI-powered personas and chatbots that are particularly used for customer service. Scholars have examined how human-like traits, such as conversational human voice and responsiveness, can yield important relationship outcomes (Cheng and Jiang, 2020; Jiang et al., 2022; Men et al., 2022, 2023; Oh and Ki, 2024). For example, Men et al. (2023) examined how Facebook users' social conversations with a corporate chatbot-shaped users' perceptions of corporate character and their relationship with the company. Chatbots' perceived ability to listen to customers was found to be related to perceived organizational transparency and organizational public relationships (Men et al., 2022). Jiang et al. (2022) found that chatbots' perceived conversational tone and responsiveness facilitated perceived dialogic communication and satisfaction. Similarly, Oh and Ki (2024) found that using conversational human voice positively affected relationship outcomes. Interviews conducted by Dong and van den Berg (2025) revealed that GAI afforded communicators the ability to tailor their message to audiences, which helped them to foster better client relationships. Harris and Burton's (2025) research suggested that communicators can build trust, a cornerstone of relationships, with external stakeholders when communicating about how their organizations are using AI.

In examining how AI is shaping the nature of public relations work, scholars and practitioners have underscored those tasks that only human communicators can perform. Galloway and Swiatek (2018) argued that AI cannot replace the ability of humans to foster relationships and reputations or use creativity and critical thinking. Zerfass et al.’s (2020) research with European practitioners concluded that human communicators' ability to build trusting relationships – the linchpin of communicators' work – separates them from machines. Gilkerson and Swenson's (2025) interviews with practitioners revealed that while AI might be capable of facilitating transactional relationship tasks, a human was needed “for more important relationship exchanges” (p. 66).

A report issued by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (Valin, 2018) noted that despite the advantages and automation afforded by AI, “fundamental human traits, such as empathy, trust, humor, and relationship building can't be automated – at least not yet” (p. 7). Gregory et al. (2023) further said that humans are needed to govern AI decisions and that intangible skills, such as empathy, emotional quotient, strategic planning, and understanding context, all of which are fundamental human competencies crucial to organization success (p. 9). When explaining how AI is changing human-machine communication theory, Guzman and Lewis (2020) outlined what they termed “the relational aspects of AI as a communicator, how people understand AI in relation to themselves, and themselves in relationship to AI” (p. 77). They explained how people's perceptions of and interactions with AI influence their perceptions of their identities and roles in organizations. Despite this proclamation, little is known about how AI is changing public relations' expectations or roles, particularly as prescribed by excellence theory and role theory.

The comprehensive excellence study research project, conducted in 1992 by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Research Foundation (Grunig, 1992; J.E. Grunig et al., 2002), sought to understand how the public relations function provides value to the organization (Grunig, 2006). For public relations programs to be excellent and effective, the public relations practitioner must fulfill a strategic managerial role (see chap. 6 of Grunig et al., 2002). Excellence theory prescribes that strategic public relations managers engage in environmental scanning to discern the impact of organizational decisions on publics (Grunig and Grunig, 2000) and scenario building, forecasting what publics might do if different decisions are made by an organization. Public relations counselors must empower multiple publics to participate in decisions to ensure and improve the ethical decisions of organizations (Grunig, 2006). They use two-way symmetrical communication to develop and maintain relationships with key publics to develop goals and solve problems beneficial to both the organization and the public (Grunig, 2006). Past research has examined how social media (Fitzpatrick and Weissman, 2021; Luo et al., 2015) and digital data analytics (O’Neil et al., 2023) can help public relations become a more strategic management function and demonstrate its value to organizations. The next step is to examine whether GAI is having a similar impact on the strategic management function of public relations.

Another relevant line of work emanating from the excellence study was role theory, which sought to examine the organizational roles that public relations practitioners enact in organizations (Broom and Dozier, 1986; Dozier, 1992; Dozier and Broom, 1995). Broom and Smith (1979) proposed four major public relations roles: expert prescriber, communication facilitator, problem-solving process facilitator, and communication technician. In the expert prescriber role, public relations practitioners are treated as experts who prescribe solutions to public relations problems. Practitioners enacting the communication facilitator role facilitate information sharing between organizations and key publics. In the problem-solving role, communicators work with other managers across the organization to solve problems. Communicators working as technicians create and disseminate communication materials, such as press releases, videos, website copy, and social media posts. Later, Broom and Dozier (1986) found that some of the functions overlapped and were not empirically distinct, so they combined the expert prescriber, communication facilitator, and problem-solving process facilitator into one managerial role, while the communication technician role remained distinct. Communicators fulfilling a managerial role are more likely to participate in strategic decision-making (Broom and Dozier, 1986) and contribute to communication and organizational excellence (Dozier and Broom, 1995).

Scholars later sought to expand the measurement of responsibilities associated with the communication manager role (DeSanto and Moss, 2004; Fieseler et al., 2014; Moss et al., 2005). For example, based on a survey with U.S. and U.K. communication managers, Moss et al. (2005) identified four primary management roles: monitor and evaluator; key policy and strategy advisor; trouble shooter/problem solver; and issues management expert. Fieseler et al’s (2014) survey with European management communicators found that they typically engage in four primary tasks: diagnosis, coaching, liaison, and execution.

When social media gained prominence, scholars examined the ways it redefined the roles of communication professionals (Breakenridge, 2012; Diga and Kelleher, 2009; Neill and Lee, 2016; Neill and Moody, 2015). Research consistently demonstrated that communicators' strategic use of social media positively influenced their perceived value (Diga and Kelleher, 2009; Luo et al., 2015; Neill and Moody, 2015). Breakenridge (2012) found that public relations managers' usage of social media correlated with eight strategic roles. Neill and Moody (2015) identified nine strategic roles resulting from social media management: policy maker, internal collaborator, technology tester, communications organizer, issues manager, relationship analyzer, master of metrics, policing, and employee recruiter. Neill and Lee (2016) discovered that the public relations manager role was correlated with five social media roles: social media technician, listening and analytics, online media relations, policy maker, and policing.

Given the growing usage of technology and GAI, public relations roles and expectations may be evolving yet again, and an updated perspective is needed. As GAI continues to disrupt and transform both public relations work and organizational processes, senior communicators, like all employees, are contending with significant change, both in terms of how AI changes their roles and responsibilities, and their unique contributions to their organizations or clients' adoption and execution of AI (Buhmann et al., 2026). Therefore, this study thereby seeks to answer the following two research questions:

Researchers used semi-structured, elite participant interviews to fully capture participants' experiences, words, and the meaning they ascribed to their approaches to using GAI (Lindlof and Taylor, 2019). Interviewing enables researchers to gain a detailed and rich understanding of research phenomena (Miles and Huberman, 1994). The sampling, procedure, and analysis approaches are described next.

After receiving Institutional Review Board approval, researchers used purposive and snowball sampling to recruit communication practitioners with at least 10 years of communication experience, as well as experience working with GAI or managing a team using GAI. Researchers recruited senior communication professionals from their professional networks (e.g. PRSA, Arthur W. Page Society, LinkedIn, etc.) by sending an email recruitment letter. Researchers sought to recruit elite participants, “key decision makers who have extensive and exclusive information and the ability to influence important firm outcomes, either alone or jointly with others” (Aguinis and Solarino, 2019, p. 1293). Elite participants afford researchers unique access to insights at the highest levels of an organization (Solarino and Aguinis, 2021). Moreover, researchers sought to recruit elite participants outside of their networks to yield diverse responses (Solarino and Aguinis, 2021). Because elite participants have limited time for interviews, it is recommended to use a semi-structured interview format to allow for more flexibility, conversation, and less control (Solarino and Aguinis, 2021; pp. 657–660).

The consenting participants were then asked to recommend other senior communicators with GAI experience. All professionals who agreed to participate were sent a letter of informed consent and a link to access the Qualtrics survey that provided demographic questions. The survey also asked participants to indicate their level of agreement on a Likert-scale (one to five) with two statements: “Generative AI has positively affected my communication role at my organization” and “As a communication professional, I am ideally positioned to lead my organization's integration and application of Generative AI.” Respondents were not compensated for their participation.

The interview questions were written to examine how AI is shaping practitioners' roles and responsibilities and how it relates to trust, relationships, and their perceived strategic value. The questions were developed based on a review of the literature on GAI and communication, role theory, and excellence theory. Additionally, the researchers conducted a pilot interview with four senior-level communicators. Based upon their feedback, the researchers made minor syntax adjustments to the wording of a few questions to increase understanding. Overall, the questions were designed to examine communicators' perceived value in their organizations' GAI implementation and its impact on the profession as a strategic management function.

The resulting sample included 30 participants residing in 13 locations across the U.S. and one from Canada. Participants reported working at public relations agencies (n = 13), corporations (n = 11), and nonprofits (n = 6). Sixteen of the 30 participants had more than 20 years of communication experience. The final sample included chief communication officers, agency presidents, managing partners, and executive and senior vice presidents of communication, indicative of their seniority and authority within their organizations.

In terms of gender identity, 24 identified as women and six identified as men. Table 1 describes the demographic breakdown of participants. Additionally, respondents indicated agreement that GAI has positively affected their communication role (M = 4.26; SD = 0.84) and that as communication professionals, they are ideally positioned to lead their organization's integration and application of GAI (M = 4.06; SD = 1.11).

Researchers conducted all the interviews by video conferencing (Zoom) between June and August 2024. The same interview guide was used for all interviews. Examples of questions included: “How is generative AI impacting your communication responsibilities?” and “Describe your role in helping your organization to integrate and apply generative AI?” The full interview guide is provided in  Appendix. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed for analysis, producing a total of 213 pages of typed, single-spaced text, representing 16 h of interviews.

Researchers first listened to the audio recording alongside the transcripts to ensure accuracy. Each researcher had access to all participant sample files, audio files, transcriptions, and coding schemes in a shared digital folder. They analyzed the transcripts using the procedures described by Miles and Huberman (1994) for qualitative analysis, which involves breaking the data analysis process into three steps: data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing and verification. Researchers carefully read the transcripts to gain familiarity with the data. Researchers read the transcripts again to identify open coding, assigning codes to each segment relevant to the research question. Researchers met to discuss their findings, clarify interpretations and analyses, and reach agreement based on their shared interpretations of the data. Researchers then collapsed the open coding to selective codes and final themes. Table 2 details the open and axial codes. Dominant themes were derived based on the length and depth of the responses in relation to the study's research question. Researchers also considered the richness and diversity of responses across themes. To ensure the validity and reliability of the findings, researchers met multiple times and coded transcripts individually and as a team, as well as cross-referenced code sheets. The next section presents key findings of these interviews.

The first research question examined how senior communicators are adding value to their organizations' adoption and usage of GAI. In the interviews, participants overwhelmingly talked about two contributions: providing ethical counsel and providing training and mentorship to employees. These two topics and sub-themes are discussed next.

When asked about the communicators' value in their organization's adoption of GAI, ensuring ethical implementation was the most common response. Participants discussed counseling senior management and clients on how to use GAI ethically and effectively. Some participants explained the need for organizations to view communicators as ethical strategic counselors rather than as only writers. A few interviewees mentioned the importance of examining their clients' values and ensuring that GAI practices aligned with those values. Participant 12 explained: “If we don't approach working with these technologies in an ethical and transparent way, reputationally that's not only bad for our clients, potentially, but it's worse for us, probably as a firm.” Some communicators mentioned their ethical credentials and training (e.g. Accredited in Public Relations certification or ethical training through the PRSA Board of Ethics and Professional Standards) qualified them to offer ethical expertise to their senior leadership team. Overall, the communicators who are championing ethics reported increased influence and leadership.

Some participants talked about the responsibility to understand GAI and algorithms and the need to be involved in the organization's rollout of GAI. A few communicators reiterated the need for communicators to play a key role in the GAI adoption process to safeguard ethical practices and to guard against potentially bad decisions, which could quickly accelerate.

Some explained communicators should forecast and consider potential negative risks or pitfalls associated with GAI. Participant 2 explained that communicators must be visionary and strategic, “looking at scenarios and gaming out, you know, how reactions are going to be into the future based on what you're doing now.” A few participants discussed poking holes and asking good questions about the implementation to ensure responsible usage.

Some communicators mentioned their ethical responsibility to think through how GAI processes might impact an employee's job, which they explained they wanted to protect. Participant 17 said she helped to create GAI guidebooks on how to use it effectively to safeguard against potential problems and show her value as a communicator. She noted: “These systems do not replace us as professionals or practitioners, and we have evidence as to why.” A few interviewees talked about the need to consider the diversity and inclusion implications of AI models in their organizations. Likewise, participant 23 noted: “I think not just PR, but everybody should be responsible for making our society more equal and represent the diversity of it all.” In summary, participants were cognizant of their responsibilities to critically examine the ethical ramifications of GAI on their organizations, work processes, external stakeholders, and society (Buhmann and White, 2022).

Communicators discussed ways to uphold responsible practices. For example, some participants talked about the importance of protecting proprietary information and transparently using GAI, especially when working with clients. Some participants explained how they were training their teams to use GAI responsibly. Participant 14 noted the importance of ensuring quality, value-add work: “everything that is getting funneled through me to clients is going to create value for them, have the context and our professional backgrounds, and not be something that's just a product of AI.”

Interviewees overwhelmingly expressed the responsibility and pressure to learn about GAI, teach others, and lead best practices in their organizations and with clients. What participant 11 explained illustrates the sentiment shared by many: “It's challenging from the standpoint of learning, leading, and teaching all at the same time. And guiding, right? And then at the same time, gathering buy-in …. … I have to adapt and I have to bring my team along.” Participant responses centered on the theme of technology entrepreneurs, a need to experiment and innovate, while others reflected on a need to teach and mentor their teams to adopt and adapt GAI in their work practices.

Participants expressed responsibility and/or the desire to explore, learn, and innovate with GAI. Interviewees referred to this role using phrases, such as cultural anthropologist, early adopter, innovator, entrepreneur, advocator, and evangelist. Some participants spoke about their innate curiosity and penchant for lifelong learning. A few participants noted that exploration and self-teaching were paramount to their role as communicators, since GAI is uniquely influencing organizations' content creation processes. Interviewees described the communicators' responsibility to keep up with trends and to learn and advocate for their employees to adapt. Others mentioned the need to counsel their clients and/or other organizational units and teams on how to use GAI. Many communicators talked about teaching themselves via experimentation, informal and formal training, and learning from their own communication teams. As participant 4 noted: “This is not something that you're just going to learn and then use it, like it's changing practically every day. And that's the exciting part but also the scary part. It's like you can never stop learning.”

Many interviewees have been tapped to officially or unofficially conduct GAI training across the organization or help establish GAI committees, task forces, and guidelines for proper and ethical usage. Participants explained helping their communication team members to adopt GAI, including understanding new ways to increase efficiency, providing strategic value, and increasing comfort in using the GAI tools. Participant 25 explained: “Continue to sense, you know, what pulse is the organization feeling about our overall adoption and communicate that to the right people so we can either switch our strategy on communicating the value or the tools.” Some mentioned the need to help their teams adopt GAI to avoid being left behind.

The growth of GAI has also created new strategic opportunities for some communicators. Interviewees talked about setting an example and serving as a role model on their communication teams by using GAI ethically and strategically. Some talked about creating a GAI roadmap and bringing their teams along in the GAI adoption process. Some interviewees noted their increased leadership roles across the organization. For example, participant 13 explained: “We can be the drivers of education, awareness, change adoption, change management around AI. That's another really important leadership role we can play for our organization.” Likewise, participant 29 explained: “All of a sudden I recognize that I did have a leadership role to play within the organization to help, you know, to teach and to coach and to do things. And so, I would say that for me, it's creating a leadership avenue for me personally that wasn't there before.”

The second research question sought to understand how GAI is impacting public relations as a strategic management function. Participants explained that GAI is affording them the time and ability to showcase their strategic impact and their unique relationship-building prowess. These two topics and sub-themes are discussed below.

Interviewees repeatedly explained that GAI gave them the time and energy to engage in high-level critical strategic thinking and counseling in their jobs. Critical strategic thinkers combine both critical thinking and strategic thinking to make sound decisions for organizations when faced with data overload and uncertainty (Plowman et al., 2024). Whereas communicators use critical thinking for analyzing and evaluating information and processes, they use “strategic thinking to make connections between problems and informed decision-making by asking why questions and forecasting decisions” (Plowman et al., 2024, p. 85). Interviewees highlighted their curiosity and proclivity to ask significant questions about the impact of GAI on their employees, work, organization, and society. Participant 28 noted this tendency to ponder: “Am I asking the right questions? Am I looking around the corner? Am I asking myself, you know, what is it that I don't know? And is there a way to get there?” Some participants talked about questioning GAI output for diversity omissions and biases, or about its impact on work processes or communication jobs. Others talked about asking questions related to reputation and storytelling.

Some participants explained they are the people in their organizations who can adopt a big-picture perspective and synthesize disparate data points from across the organization and external environment. For example, participant 10 noted: “It's valuable to have a communication person in the room so that you're thinking about what are the blind spots here.” Likewise, participant 5 said the ability to forecast and connect data helped her to adopt a more “forward-looking perspective” rather than the near term. Participant 13 explained: “I think that the view we have into stakeholders is unique. No one else has that perch across every stakeholder that matters to an organization.” Participant 2 said that he was using GAI to role play, facilitate philosophical discussions and “connect dots across functions.” Others talked about a communicators' unique ability to filter information and provide context that mattered to organizational strategy, as well as monitoring any GAI missteps that could impact business and client reputations. Lastly, some interviewees noted that GAI gave them the time to focus on achieving impactful business outcomes.

According to communicators, their GAI prowess has enhanced their perceived strategic value in their organizations. Communicators' increased responsibilities include providing training, helping their organizations communicate about GAI, and counseling senior management about reputational and ethical issues, among other things. Some participants expressed pride in their ability to show their C-suite a higher level of strategic thinking that goes beyond a baseline output from GAI. Participants discussed their ability to counsel senior management on how to use GAI ethically and effectively. Participant 26 explained: “I think communicators within an organization are uniquely positioned to identify, interpret, and share some of those insights that can help drive business outcomes.”

Interviewees' responses to this question indicated three sub-themes: 1) communicators are driving the GAI work, 2) AI usage underscores the enduring importance of human relationships fostered and maintained by communicators, and 3) emotional intelligence is becoming more valued amidst the AI evolution.

Some interviewees emphasized that they drive and lead the GAI machine, adding that it can never replace their creativity or expertise as communicators. As participant 16 says, “it's an optimization element, not a replacement.” “Humans are smarter than AI,” according to participant 30. Participant 2 explained that communicators “have to be the human in the loop,” adding that it’s “your human skills, your relationship skills are what is going to augment AI and your capability to deliver more using AI.” Other communicators emphasized that even though they use GAI to create and enhance communication content, they are needed more than ever to ensure that an authentic and human voice is present in all GAI-generated materials.

Interviewees explained that GAI's automation afforded them more time to focus on higher-value tasks, like cultivating relationships with employees, influencers, and reporters. Participant 24 said: “I'm not exhausted by doing stuff that would normally take a day that takes five minutes now. So, I can then focus on that leadership stuff and the support, like, I mentor people, so it allows me to have more emotional bandwidth to do that.” Other respondents highlighted that GAI could not cultivate long-term relationships built upon a foundation of trust. Participants 30 explained how the relationships they had fostered with clients, reporters, influencers, and other stakeholders took years to develop, something that matters more “than whatever flashy new thing” debuts. A few participants cautioned against implementing GAI too quickly, so as not to lose the human connection or destroy the valued trust that took years to develop. Participant 21 noted, “What I find most fascinating about generative AI is largely people don't trust it. People still trust human beings.” Finally, a handful of interviewees mentioned that the onslaught of technology, including GAI, was generating greater interest in human events so that relationships could be cultivated. For example, some talked about the growing importance of user-generated online communities, since people value a connection with people. Participant 4 explained, “the growing importance of in-person events given the prevalence of AI: So, what is going to be valued in this post-AI world? And it's going to be that face-to-face interaction, those personal relationships.”

By having extra time to invest in cultivating relationships, participants were able to focus on changing engagement, hearts, minds, and behaviors. For example, interviewees explained how deepened stakeholder analysis afforded by GAI helped them to create better relationship-building strategies, both with external publics and employees. Participant 22 spoke to how GAI enabled communicators to discern which information was relevant to employees, which ultimately helps to create better engagement. For example, participant 18 explained the importance of building trust and being authentic: “Cutting through (I'm going to swear) at the bullshit that comes out from companies. Because that's what builds trust. That openness, that honesty, that sounding like a real person, being real, being authentic.”

Emotional intelligence, also known as EQ, underpins communicators' ability to build human relationships in public relations (Zhang and Adegbola, 2022). EQ consists of five components: self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, motivation, and social skills, all of which help to foster relationships, build rapport, and achieve consensus (Zhang and Adegbola, 2022, p. 2). Participants frequently noted that GAI could not replace their EQ, which was foundational to their success as communicators and instrumental to ascension as leaders. Some participants talked about the importance of empathy. For example, participant 7 talked about connecting with employees, saying that “empathy is a superpower of mine, my empathy and thoughtfulness about other people's experience and how they might perceive something.” Others talked about their abilities to actively listen, take another's perspective, hug or give a handshake, read a room, leverage their soft skills, and to genuinely connect on an emotional level with other humans when creating content. Participant 23 explained: “Everybody is going to be enabled by technology. So those that master those soft skills are going to be the winners.” In summary, EQ was described as a way for communicators to showcase their strategic value in their interactions with employees and senior management across different levels of an organization.

Based on 30 elite interviews, this study examined the unique value that senior communicators bring to their organizations and clients' adoption and usage of GAI. Participants described using their critical and strategic thinking to counsel senior management about the impact of GAI on work processes, organizational and client reputations, and business outcomes. They promoted transparency and accountability to build trust with stakeholders about GAI processes and impact. Communicators created messaging about GAI that aligned with company values, thereby enhancing legitimacy and trust with internal and external stakeholders. Communicators committed to self-learning and exploration so they could guide employees and teams through technological change. Communicators reinvested time and energy in fostering in-person relationships grounded in trust and authenticity. This research indicates that rather than leading to possible job loss (Dong and van den Berg, 2025; Gregory et al., 2023; Yue et al., 2024; Zerfass et al., 2020), GAI heightens the need for senior communicators' unique contributions in strategic counseling, ethics, training, and relationship-building.

This study advances both role theory and excellence theory by showing how GAI introduces new considerations that require senior communicators to exercise greater strategic judgment and ethical oversight. For example, the results of this study extend excellence theory (J.E. Grunig et al., 2002; Grunig, 2006) by indicating how GAI may further elevate the importance of the communicator's advisory role in organizational decision-making, reinforcing the theory's premise that communication professionals contribute to organizational effectiveness when they participate in strategic decision-making. This enhanced strategic role corroborates the findings of Moss et al. (2000), who found that communicators were more valued in organizations experiencing rapid change. Moreover, because GAI is automating so much busy and tactical work, communicators have more time to invest in more strategic and impactful work (e.g. Buhmann and White, 2022; Dong and van den Berg, 2025; Gregory et al., 2023), such as environmental scanning, ethical counseling, relationship building, and problem-solving. Senior communicators' role in ethical decisions introduces a new domain of strategic influence to excellence theory. Additionally, communicators' efforts to make GAI processes transparent and accountable might be viewed as an extension of two-way symmetrical communication. Since both internal and external stakeholders can't see how GAI makes decisions, communicators have a role to perceive, interpret, and explain how organizations use GAI (Brockhaus et al., 2023; Buhmann and White, 2022; Harris and Burton, 2025; Zerfass and Brockhaus, 2023), thereby helping to foster symmetry among stakeholders.

While excellence theory already prioritized communicators' ethical counsel, GAI is augmenting senior communicators' ethical contributions to organizations' technological decisions. When study participants were asked to describe the value they provide to their organization's implementation of GAI, providing ethical counsel – including to their teams, senior management, and clients – was the most common response. This finding reinforces prior research (Neill, 2023; Neill and Drumwright, 2012) showing that professionals with extensive experience and those with certifications, such as the APR, are well-positioned to provide ethical counsel to leadership teams. Moreover, GAI may be further elevating this ethical advisory role for senior communicators. GAI introduces and poses significant ethical issues related to transparency, algorithmic bias, privacy, misinformation, copyright, DEI considerations, possible job displacement, and societal inequities (Dong and van den Berg, 2025; Germinder and Capizzo, 2025; Maben et al., 2026; McCorkindale, 2024; Seidenglanz and Baier, 2023; Valin and Gregory, 2020). Because GAI influences much of an organization's visible internal and external content, communicators assume a heightened ethical role in guiding its responsible use. Data ethics is a more pronounced priority in today's AI world, since these ethical issues affect foundational assets of an organization, such as trust, reputation, and integrity. Germinder and Capizzo's proposed (2025) responsible AI framework recommends (1) access (viewpoints of underrepresented groups must be recognized), (2) disclosure (communication about AI processes), (3) process (helping to ensure ethical implementation of AI), and (4) truth (safeguards for communicators to adhere to engender trust with stakeholders) (Bowen, 2024; Harris and Burton, 2025). In summary, as organizations increasingly integrate GAI into work processes, the ability of senior communicators to provide ethical counsel is a more central dimension of communication excellence.

Study participants mostly described counseling on the GAI ethical issues of transparency, privacy, misinformation, and bias. Fewer talked about being involved in governance decisions made by organizations. From an STS or socio-technical system perspective, AI governance resides at the intersection of technology, tasks, structure, and people (Brockhaus et al., 2023; Christensen and Andersson, 2025). Communicators have a unique role to play in governance by conveying potential risks, interpreting employees' and external publics' expectations related to GAI, and developing transparency and disclosure policies. Moreover, scholars have repeatedly argued that communicators must contribute to the creation and execution of AI algorithms (Buhmann and White, 2022; Holtzhausen, 2016; Valin and Gregory, 2020). When and if communicators become more involved with GAI, governance may also help them to increase their strategic influence.

This study also showed how public relations work responsibilities and roles are changing, thereby extending role theory. Amidst the AI revolution and evolution, and disruption of communication work, public relations role theory must be amended to reflect evolving job responsibilities of communicators. In his 2024 book Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI, Mollick (2024) examined how humans can collaborate with AI to create more impactful outcomes than either could achieve alone. Mollick argued that AI does not replace humans but rather enhances their work through collaboration. This proposition has significant relevance for communicators. Public relations role theory was developed nearly 50 years ago, based on human communication, and later amended in the 2000s (e.g. DeSanto and Moss, 2004; Fieseler et al., 2014; Moss et al., 2005). The growing influence of social media later prompted scholars to define new social media roles (Breakenridge, 2012; Diga and Kelleher, 2009; Neill and Lee, 2016; Neill and Moody, 2015). Yet, as Guzman and Lewis (2020) noted, AI does not fit neatly into a human-to-human communication paradigm. A human–machine communication paradigm must therefore be considered for understanding the roles and meaning that communicators ascribe to AI and, in turn, to themselves and the roles they occupy in organizations.

From a role theory perspective, GAI is contributing to an expansion of the communication manager role originally developed by Broom and Dozier (1986). Participants described activities that reflect many of the responsibilities associated with the Broom and Dozier's (1986) seminal management roles of expert prescriber, communication facilitator, and problem-solving managerial roles – solving public relations problems, working with senior management, facilitating communication between employees and clients, and coaching employees. Yet respondents described new responsibilities that must be considered for reconceptualizing the public relations manager role. Notably, some of the new GAI responsibilities align with prior research on social media roles, reflective of the intersection of technology and communication work (Breakenridge, 2012; Diga and Kelleher, 2009; Neill and Lee, 2016; Neill and Moody, 2015).

First, participants described the growing responsibility to provide ethical counsel to organizations in an AI environment. They are using their ethical expertise to counsel senior management and team members on potential GAI missteps and foster best practices, enacting what may be called an ethical leader and guardian. Communication managers are also training employees how to use GAI ethically, creating policies, guidebooks, best practices, and serving as role models, like the training/coaching role identified in previous research by Gregory (2008) and the social media policy maker role noted by Neill and Lee (2016).

Public relations role theory has traditionally ascribed rational and logical activities, such as research and evaluation, audience segmentation, and strategic planning, to the manager role. While these strategic functions are still paramount to the success of communicators, GAI is simultaneously heightening the need for communicators with strong sense-making, EQ, and relationship-building skills. Given that AI can generate content so quickly, participants noted how they must provide sense-making context and understanding as they construct meaning from incomplete or fabricated GAI-generated output and adroitly adapt content to reflect a human voice. AI content must also be edited to reflect a leader's or organizational voice and adapted to connect with and/or influence people (Dong and van den Berg, 2025). A few communicators in this study explained using GAI to leverage important relational outcomes, such as employee engagement and facilitating trust with influencers. Moreover, GAI gives communication practitioners the time to cultivate long-term relationships built upon trust with people both inside and outside organizations. Public relations has always been predicated on relationship-building (Ferguson, 1984), and GAI is enabling communicators to further excel in their role as relationship champions (Dong and van den Berg, 2025; Harris and Burton, 2025). This finding also supports Swiatek and colleagues' (2024) contention that the public relations industry must safeguard human communication, especially as it relates to building trust, fostering community, and maintaining ethical guidelines.

Previous social media role research suggested the presence of a relationship analyzer role (Breakenridge, 2012; Neill and Lee, 2016; Neill and Moody, 2015), but it was conceptualized as an external-facing role that involved outreach to influencers and bloggers. The relationship champion role described by participants of this study includes using GAI to build stronger relationships with both internal and external publics.

This research also shows the need to include innovation and training in future public relations managerial role competencies. Participants overwhelmingly expressed the responsibility and increased pressure to learn about GAI, teach others, and take the lead on emerging GAI practices in their organizations and with clients, serving as the learner/teacher/mentor. The responsibility to test and explore GAI applications and developments aligns with the technology tester role identified by prior social media role research (Breakenridge, 2012; Neill and Moody, 2015).

Most of the training described by communicators in this research was informal and did not occur through structured, organization-wide training, except for a few. As GAI usage becomes more developed in organizations, human resources departments may oversee some structured learning and teaching workshops that feature GAI communication experts. The informal teaching and mentoring approach described is consistent with recent research (Harris and Burton, 2025) that discovered a lack of training and instruction about responsible GAI usage from senior management, thereby prompting communicators, both junior and senior, to teach themselves and others. As AI continues to evolve at a rapid pace, communicators must build a culture of experimentation and curiosity among their communication teams. Communicators must continue to learn, adapt, and motivate their teams. As one participant noted, not all communicators consider themselves entrepreneurial, but this mindset seems increasingly needed in these contemporary times.

Participants' calls for greater innovation and entrepreneurship corroborate Invernizzi and Romenti's (2013) contention, drawn from case studies of Italian companies, that an entrepreneurship perspective enables communicators to provide amplified strategic value to organizations. From an entrepreneurship lens, communicators engage in boundary spanning to align internal and external stakeholders, energize internal stakeholders to motivate them to adopt an innovation (e.g. GAI), provide visionary communication to explain corporate strategy and values, and engage in sense making as information is created and shared (Invernizzi and Romenti, 2013). While Christensen and Andersson (2025) cautioned against hasty AI implementation in corporate communication, such caution does not eliminate the need for communicators to engage proactively with GAI. In a climate of AI-induced uncertainty, communicators must be willing to upskill, experiment with sandboxing, and teach and motivate others (Buhmann et al., 2026). Indeed, by adopting a more entrepreneurial perspective, GAI may allow communicators to extend their perceived value into a more strategic advisory role (Simonsson et al., 2025). Cramer and Rudeloff (2026) found that agencies were mostly using AI for operational tasks (e.g., content creation, brainstorming, and editing), and less for strategy (yet). Communicators, therefore, have an opportunity to shift to a more strategic role by facilitating employee AI training and fostering a commitment to exploration and experimentation (Cramer and Rudeloff, 2026), as described by participants in this study.

In summary, this research extends role theory by demonstrating how GAI is expanding senior-level communicators' role responsibilities to include data ethics, innovation and training, and the application of EQ to support sense-making and relationship building.

Some public relations practitioners have expressed fear that AI may eliminate some communication jobs (Dong and van den Berg, 2025; Gregory et al., 2023; Swiatek et al., 2024; Yue et al., 2024; Zerfass et al., 2020). Yet, according to the participants, communicators' responsibilities appear to be adapting to the new human–machine paradigm. Communicators must be experts in collaborating with GAI to create ethical, effective, and legal content. Prompting and editing are now as important as writing. Communicators of all levels and roles must have an intense curiosity and a penchant for learning about new technology and processes. Communication managers have an obligation to forge a career path for their junior employees and invest more time in helping communication technicians become quickly trained and versed in strategic and ethical principles, areas that were traditionally the domain of communication managers.

Simultaneously, educators must adapt the public relations curriculum to best prepare future communicators for these amended roles amidst AI's evolution. Given the growing expectations for communicators, educators should more intentionally foster problem-solving and critical strategic thinking skills among college students. Plowman et al. (2024) said students can be taught how to engage in critical strategic thinking through a four-step process: detecting, analyzing, strategizing, and acting (p. 54), which should be introduced early in public relations studies and reinforced throughout, culminating in a capstone campaign course. Simulations, open-ended data sets, real-world case studies, and writing assignments based on social issues and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are pedagogical approaches that can foster stronger strategic critical thinking.

Given the growing importance of relationship cultivation, sense-making, and EQ, public relations educators must also invest more time and effort in fostering soft skills among students. Educators can champion and incentivize students' willingness to learn, curiosity, listening, creativity, and self-reflection skills using open-ended assignments that require teamwork and hands-on learning with real clients or simulations. EQ and relationship cultivation skills can be fostered in experiential learning activities, such as the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), student-run agencies, and internships. Educators must also teach students how to collaborate and use GAI to optimize their efforts in the classrooms. Scholars have recently shared research-tested GAI teaching assignments on topics, such as AI prompting (Howes, 2025), critically analyzing AI output (Schneider, 2023), and evaluating AI technologies and ethics (Tefertiller et al., 2025).

While this study provided new insights into how communicators are providing value in organizations' adoption and usage of GAI, there are limitations. While qualitative research provides rich and detailed insight into phenomena, the findings of this study cannot be generalized to all public relations professionals. The sample included 30 senior-level communicators working primarily in the U.S., thereby limiting generalizability to those working in countries with different usage and attitudes toward AI. The sample was also limited to the perspectives of senior-level communicators. Future research should examine the experiences of junior and mid-career professionals to capture a more comprehensive analysis of how GAI is affecting their roles and career paths. The interviews were conducted during the summer of 2024 and communicators' attitudes and experiences since then are likely to change quickly given the rapid evolution of generative AI. Future research should incorporate longitudinal studies to capture the changing nature of communicators' roles and relationships with GAI. Another future research direction could include testing a revised communication manager role typology to reflect some of the role adaptations identified by this research. For example, questions such as, “I examine GAI content for accuracy and truth,” “I champion ethical practices and approaches when using generative GAI and other technology,” and “I stay abreast of generative AI and other technological advances and train others on how to use it for communication goals and objectives,” could be tested for validity and reliability. Finally, the results reflect the perceptions only of communicators, which is a limitation. The Likert-scale questions that asked communicators to self-rate their value and ability to lead may have yielded inflated results. Notably, it is difficult to generate robust findings on how GAI is changing work when relying on communicators' perceptions only. However, Simonsson et al. (2025) argued that if the communication field is to become more professional, communicators must engage in reflective conversation to elucidate their strategic role. This research allowed busy seasoned communicators to articulate how they perceive their strategic value and function within their organizations and clients in a GAI work environment. Future research could conduct follow-up surveys or interviews with non-communication employees to assess their perceptions of communicators' roles and organizational value in the fast-changing era of AI.

Communicators have long advocated for a seat at the table to counsel senior management and clients, protect reputations, and engender significant attitudinal and behavioral changes (Grunig, 1992). The results of this qualitative study suggest that GAI is accelerating this opportunity to advance public relations as a strategic management function that helps organizations achieve important outcomes with stakeholders (Grunig, 2006).

1. Tell me about your overall communication responsibilities/role in the organization.

2. Describe your role in helping your organization and/or clients to integrate and use generative AI.

3. Can you describe some of the ways (share examples) that you/your team uses AI for internal and external communications?

4. How is generative AI impacting your communication responsibilities?

5. How is generative AI impacting your expectations as a communicator?

6. How do you ensure that human connections, relationships, and trust remain at the core of your communication efforts?

7. How is your organizational culture adapting to AI? Do you have an AI policy and/or training program in place?

8. What approaches are you using to motivate and/or prepare your communication employees to use generative AI? How are you maintaining employee engagement while implementing AI?

9. What has been the greatest challenge (expected or unexpected) that you've encountered while using AI?

10. Describe your approaches to ensure that your organization is using generative AI responsibly. What guardrails are you helping your organization to ensure the responsible use of AI?

11. How are you as a communicator qualified to bring value to an organization's adoption and usage of generative AI?

12. Is there anything else you would like to add about your role as the PR/communications practitioner in integrating and aligning AI in your organization?