How communications leaders can bring clarity to the human side of AI transformation
AI is changing the way work gets done at a pace faster than anything that’s come before. New tools keep arriving. Policies are introduced, then changed. Training sessions fill calendars. And workflows change by the day.
For employees, the accelerating pace of change creates disruption and uncertainty. That’s why the most effective employee communications about AI spend less time explaining the technology and more time focusing on the uncertainty that comes with it.
Consider how day-to-day tasks have evolved. At Pace, our strategists start the day with AI summaries of overnight performance. We meet with procurement managers who’ve discovered us through ChatGPT and work with creative directors who use AI to summarize creative briefs. The embrace of AI can help us work faster and more efficiently, but for employees it also raises hard questions about judgment, ownership and the future of work.
Will they be expected to produce more in the same amount of time? Who is accountable when an AI-assisted recommendation is wrong? Which parts of their role will become more valuable? And potentially the most fundamental question: Why is the organization making this change and what will it mean for me?
“When organizational strategy isn’t clearly shared, employees can feel like it’s something being done to them rather than something they are part of,” says Gordon Bass, chief creative officer at Pace. “But when they understand the vision, the strategy and the business rationale—even when difficult decisions are being made—they have a clearer sense of where the organization is going and their role in getting there.”
Without a clear rationale, employees fill the gaps with fear or speculation. The organization’s leaders must explain the direction, acknowledge any trade-offs being made, and identify what is still to be done.
After 50+ years in marketing, employer branding and employee communications, we have learned that people worry when they feel disconnected from change or when their direct experience contradicts what they’re hearing from leadership.
Clients often ask us to help craft employee messaging and communications strategies in times of organizational change. Our work with brands like PepsiCo, Walmart and HCA Healthcare reflects our belief that enterprise strategy gains momentum when employees see themselves in it. We turn complex priorities into clear, actionable communications and narratives that help employees understand where the organization is going, and how they’re part of the plan.
AI is changing the workday
AI adoption isn’t just a technology rollout supported by a communications campaign. It’s a significant change-management challenge for leadership.
BCG’s 2026 AI at Work survey found that 74% of frontline white-collar employees regularly use AI, yet 66% of them receive limited or no guidance about what to do with the time it saves. Employees have access to better tools, but they’re often left without strategic clarity about the broader impact on the work they do.
Gallagher’s 2026 Employee Communications Report identifies change management as the most valued communications skill, yet 61% of teams lack a formal change communication approach.
For communications leaders, it’s important to be involved before technology and workforce decisions are made, so they preemptively message the change to employees. The enterprise needs one clear point of view about approved uses, human reviews, accountability and expectations for different roles.
Clarity in communications does not require certainty
Employees don’t expect leaders to predict exactly how AI will reshape every role. After all, much about the technology and its long-term impact remains unknown. But as is the case with any significant companywide change, they do expect honesty from leaders about what they know and what remains uncertain. And that takes a degree of organizational vulnerability that can feel uncomfortable.
In periods of rapid change, leaders can feel pressure to project certainty. But employees can tell when polished language is covering uncertainty or hard truths. Pretending to have all the answers can erode trust faster than admitting that some answers are still taking shape.
“The confidence to say, ‘We don’t know’ is just as important as being transparent,” Bass says, “especially when employees are wondering what AI will mean for their jobs.”
“We don’t know” is not a failure of leadership. It can be an expression of credible leadership when it is followed by:
- What the organization does know
- What has already been decided
- What remains unresolved
- How decisions will be made
- When employees will hear more
- How they can help shape the answer
Vulnerability in leadership is not the same as being directionless. In practice, vulnerability can mean resisting false certainty while giving employees a clear process and a shared direction.
Translate enterprise strategy into everyday work
An enterprise-level narrative should establish the direction and rationale for employees. At the departmental level, managers can make it relevant to individual teams. It’s important for employees to see how the strategy connects to their roles:
- Which AI tools are approved?
- What information can be entered into them?
- Where is human review required?
- Are productivity expectations changing?
The answers will vary by role, but the organization’s principles should remain consistent. Our work across employer branding and employee communications has repeatedly shown that one enterprise narrative must become relevant in the context of different roles, markets and everyday experiences.
Make responsible AI use easier to discuss
For an employee facing a deadline or a customer, “do not use public AI” is insufficient guidance. Employees need to be provided with the full picture, such as which tools are approved, what information they can upload, where human review is required and where to seek help.
Governance works better inside the workflow than buried in an intranet policy. That’s why employees need approved tools and enough psychological safety to disclose a mistake before it becomes a larger problem.
In addition, it’s important to give employees a meaningful role in the change, to let them see how their input can influence a decision.
Imagine this in the context of a customer-service pilot. Leaders explain the objective and boundaries while representatives identify where AI helps and where human judgment must remain. Legal, technology, knowledge and communications teams shape the guidance together. And if employee feedback uncovers a risk or a poor customer experience, the workflow can change before the pilot expands.
That is what it means to shape change with employees. Close the loop by showing employees what was heard, what changed, what could not change and why.
Measure whether the change is taking hold
When trying to measure this type of change, it’s important to recognize that reach metrics do not reveal whether employees understand when to use AI. They don’t show how employees know to rely on human judgment or raise concerns. Leadership needs a stronger approach, one that measures:
- Understanding of the organization’s AI direction
- Confidence using approved tools
- Knowledge of appropriate boundaries
- Manager readiness
- Adoption within intended workflows
- Recurring friction by role or location
- Employees’ ability to raise concerns safely
These are the signals that reveal where the enterprise narrative is clear. With a foundational understanding of this, leadership can better understand where local context is missing and where employee experience contradicts leadership’s intent.
What communications leaders can do now
So, what can leadership do right now? There are a few places to start:
- Define one enterprise point of view: Explain why the organization is using AI, the principles guiding its decisions and the role employees will have in shaping the change.
- Adapt the narrative by role: Give different employee groups answers that reflect their work, without fragmenting the enterprise story.
- Equip managers before the announcement: Give them time, context, practical examples and a route for questions they cannot yet answer.
- Put guidance inside the workflow: Show what responsible AI use looks like in a brief, draft, review, customer interaction or measurement process. Make the safe path the easy path.
- Create visible feedback loops: Invite employees to test and improve new ways of working. Then, show what changed because they participated.
- Measure readiness and behavior: Track whether employees understand the direction and can use approved tools confidently.
We’ve found the most success at Pace when we develop communication strategies that maintain one enterprise point of view while addressing the different questions and pressures employee groups face. That can happen through creating narratives, manager tools, channel plans, role-specific content and feedback mechanisms that connect leadership intent with employee experience.
Doing this lets employees understand organizational direction, understand what is expected of them, and get clear context for honest conversations and responsible experimentation. AI has already rewritten so much of the workday. The question leadership should be asking is whether employees are being left alone to interpret this shift or if they’re invited to help shape what comes next.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to Pace colleagues Lori Beal, Gordon Bass and Rosemary Calderone for sharing insights and perspectives throughout the development of this blog, and to Jamie Lawrence, Tazmen Hansen and Liz Wynne for their editorial and design support.
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