Table 2 Interview themes and quotes...

Table 2

Interview themes and quotes

Interview themes	Representative quote
Learners/Teachers/Mentors	“I went from being kind of a specialist, and now all of a sudden I recognize that I have to did I have a leadership role to play within the organization to help, you know, to teach and to coach”
Self-teach and advocate
Train unofficially
Teach internal teams
Lead AI committee
Develop AI guidelines
Informal mentor and role model
Assuage fears among employees
Change manager
Ethics	“Having communication leaders explain that this is a tool and that you still need skilled communicators, experienced communicators, communicators who know about the ethics of PR and communications to actually use this tool in an effective and ethical manner”
Champion diversity
Protect private information
Train others on ethical practices
Consider impacts on employees and society
Responsible storytelling
Algorithm involvement
Mitigate risks
Technology Entrepreneurs	“It's still incumbent upon me outside of work to test and understand what it could offer so that as we bring it on board, I'm that much, ahead of the game and then obviously for my team, continuing to look at use cases of how it might apply so that we bring it in, there's a learn fast, fail fast, whatever that looks like, you have your use cases together so you can really get the benefits as quickly as possible”
Staying ahead to provide value to clients and organization
Early adopter
Entrepreneurship bent
Sandbox experimentation
Encouraging teams to experiment
Commitment to curiosity and exploration
Pressure to stay ahead
Critical Strategic Advisors	“I think it is pushing the responsibilities of communicators to be more strategic and more the editor than the writer …..when generative AI generates something now the communicator has to be thinking three steps ahead, saying, okay, if I let this information go out into the public, what is the implication of that?”
Amplified need for strategic thinking
Heightened demand for critical thinking
Freedom for greater creativity
Providing input into policies
Greater focus on business outcomes
Offering a big picture perspective
Forward-thinking outlook
Focus on more impactful work, such as relationships
Focus on building trust through responsible AI approaches
Reputation management
Relationship Champions	“But at the end of the day, our human voice is what is going to cut through the competitive space that we live in.”
(1) Communicators are driving the AI work
Humans in the loop
Identify authentic voice that reflects values of company or agency
(2) Importance of human relationships fostered and maintained by communicators
Face-to-face communication
Devote more time to personal relationship building
More in-person events
Use AI to better target messages to strengthen relationships
(3) EQ is becoming more valued amidst AI world
Empathy
Soft skills

Interview themes	Representative quote
Learners/Teachers/Mentors	“I went from being kind of a specialist, and now all of a sudden I recognize that I have to did I have a leadership role to play within the organization to help, you know, to teach and to coach”
Self-teach and advocate
Train unofficially
Teach internal teams
Lead AI committee
Develop AI guidelines
Informal mentor and role model
Assuage fears among employees
Change manager
Ethics	“Having communication leaders explain that this is a tool and that you still need skilled communicators, experienced communicators, communicators who know about the ethics of PR and communications to actually use this tool in an effective and ethical manner”
Champion diversity
Protect private information
Train others on ethical practices
Consider impacts on employees and society
Responsible storytelling
Algorithm involvement
Mitigate risks
Technology Entrepreneurs	“It's still incumbent upon me outside of work to test and understand what it could offer so that as we bring it on board, I'm that much, ahead of the game and then obviously for my team, continuing to look at use cases of how it might apply so that we bring it in, there's a learn fast, fail fast, whatever that looks like, you have your use cases together so you can really get the benefits as quickly as possible”
Staying ahead to provide value to clients and organization
Early adopter
Entrepreneurship bent
Sandbox experimentation
Encouraging teams to experiment
Commitment to curiosity and exploration
Pressure to stay ahead
Critical Strategic Advisors	“I think it is pushing the responsibilities of communicators to be more strategic and more the editor than the writer …..when generative AI generates something now the communicator has to be thinking three steps ahead, saying, okay, if I let this information go out into the public, what is the implication of that?”
Amplified need for strategic thinking
Heightened demand for critical thinking
Freedom for greater creativity
Providing input into policies
Greater focus on business outcomes
Offering a big picture perspective
Forward-thinking outlook
Focus on more impactful work, such as relationships
Focus on building trust through responsible AI approaches
Reputation management
Relationship Champions	“But at the end of the day, our human voice is what is going to cut through the competitive space that we live in.”
(1) Communicators are driving the AI work
Humans in the loop
Identify authentic voice that reflects values of company or agency
(2) Importance of human relationships fostered and maintained by communicators
Face-to-face communication
Devote more time to personal relationship building
More in-person events
Use AI to better target messages to strengthen relationships
(3) EQ is becoming more valued amidst AI world
Empathy
Soft skills

Source(s): Authors’ own work

[ViewLarge]

Sharing Unavailable