AI is coming for your comms job?!?!

Chat GPT AI has been rumbling away in the background for a little while now and to be honest I haven’t really been paying attention. A kick in the pants from my good friend Isaak Dury in the New Year was the catalyst to start taking it seriously and explore some possible implications for the sports comms space. So here we go.

Stunned silence, then Holy Crap!

I’ve been catching-up with the many comms teams that we work with recently and running through some very basic use cases and applications from Chat GPT. Like me they hadn’t paid much attention to AI. Like me they were initially stunned into silence at what it can do before eventually uttering an (expletive free version) “Holy Crap”.

No idea where we’re going

One of the scariest and most exciting aspects of AI is that we have no idea at this stage where it will take us. When it comes to disruption on this scale, we can either bury our head in the sand or embrace it.

Art Vs Science

The art to getting the most out of AI is asking the right questions so if you’re looking for a job in this space, then the latest buzzword is “Query Engineer”. Like any art though the really good stuff can still only be done by humans.

Orchestra and Conductor

I like to think of sports comms as a big orchestra and choir ensemble capable of generating a diverse range of voices, tones and styles. Bringing all the component parts together to produce a sweet harmony rests with the comms “conductor”.

AI isn’t going to replace the conductor. The job is just too complex, demanding subtlety, nuance and timing that no machine can ever replicate. What it can do though is extend the range of what the orchestra and choir can achieve while helping the comms “conductor” extract every ounce of performance. ?

Less Operational, More Strategic

FINALLY thanks to AI doing a bunch of heavy-lifting, comms teams will have more time to get away from the constant daily grind of generating comms and get more strategic in their approach. Are you ready for this new reality?

Rebalancing Comms v Marketing

I’ve long argued that one of the greatest strengths of sport is that we are communicators first, marketers a very distant second. It’s this approach that has allowed us to capitalise on a sector (sport) whose default setting is making emotional connections with audiences via a medium (social media) that is fuelled by emotion.

With comms now supported by AI in conjunction with a tool that is exceptionally good at generating a range of marketing outreach assets we can really go after the marketing side of the equation to drive participation acquisition.

Shared Internal Ownership

Roles within administrators are specialised by necessity. I’d argue that if a generalist exists?it’ll be in the comms department as they not only need to be multi-skilled but also capable of articulating every function of a sport.

With the advent of Chat GPT-3 this burden no longer rests solely with Comms. If HR want to generate a job specification they can ask AI. If the high-performance department want to create a flyer to promote a program they can ask AI. If the commercial team want to announce a sponsor, campaign or activation they can ask AI to generate the press release.

Once this is done the Comms team can step-in to play conductor. ??

Turbocharging club capabilities

What I’m really excited about is the implications of AI for grassroot clubs. For a while now we’ve been looking at what educational support clubland needs in order to realise the full potential of social media in driving participation and revenue outcomes.

One of the great challenges here has been creating an environment in which clubs can easily put that theory into practice. Then along comes Chat GPT to do that for us.

Want to reach-out to a former member? Ask AI to generate an email. Want to promote a “come and try” day? Ask AI to put together some copy. Not sure how to compose a post to mark a specific day (eg. Valentine’s Day, Easter, ANZAC day) – ask AI to create the caption for a social media post.

AI will impact EVERYONE

While at first glance it might appear that Chat GPT is only gunning for the jobs of comms teams its reach is going to be much broader than that. It can also be used to undertake tasks assigned to graphic designers, HR, policy-makers, accountants and even lawyers to name a few.

Being AI’s low-hanging fruit initially might seem scary but it also gives us the early-mover advantage to adapt to its inevitability.

Nb. 100% written by a 100% human. ?