Communicate Your AI Strategy by Building a Movement

If a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one to hear or witness it, no one will know it’s there.?

GenAI follows a similar principle: If no one knows that value is being created, then it effectively doesn't exist.

I see many organizations doing many great things with generative AI—but they're not communicating what they're doing internally to their employees or externally to their customers, stakeholders, or partners.?

It’s critical to put together an AI strategy. But it’s also vital to communicate it.

Communicating that AI strategy is essential for many reasons. As Sami Hassanyeh from AARP underscored earlier this month, AI communication directly impacts culture. Creating alignment—and communicating around that alignment—goes a long way in helping companies navigate the disruptive changes that AI prompts.?

Communication goes beyond just what you’re doing—it also includes transparency about the process. It involves creating a space where people can think about GenAI, talk about it, try it out, and know that while it might feel risky and challenging, there's also a substantial benefit that comes from it.?

When I think about communicating, I think about one thing: Building a movement.?

Why Build a Generative AI Movement?

Having witnessed and guided multiple transformations over the past few decades, they do not happen unless you build a movement first. This is all the more true regarding the transformational force that is GenAI. We simply can’t treat it like a traditional change management situation, which typically involves steps like change identification, communication, training, and follow-up/accountability.

Regarding GenAI, there's additional fear, uncertainty, and doubt . This often translates to a big block of resistance, which requires a different approach and makes the communication around your strategy all the more urgent.?

Unlike most communication strategies, which involve “controlling the message,” movements center around inspiration. You don't control them: You create an idea, put some parameters on it, and then the transformation takes on a life of its own.?

As leaders, our job in generating a GenAI movement is to inspire people to come to this movement and become co-leaders in the transformational charge.??

Building an AI Movement?

The journey of generating a movement and communication strategy for your GenAI efforts starts with four steps:

1. Tell the strategy as a story.?

This idea comes from a mentor, Roger Martin , who says that strategy is deciding where you'll play and how you'll win and then telling that as a story.?

People quickly forget strategies in decks and slides but remember stories. So create one —with a beginning, middle, and end—plus a few other literary hallmarks.?

Your story can cover your current situation: The uncertainty of generative AI, your vision for succeeding, the challenges to overcome, and how you’ll pull together to deliver for customers. When you have this compelling story of coming together and overcoming barriers, people can rally around it.?

Your teams will rally even more if they create their own stories within this framework. Someone might say, "I worked in customer service and didn't trust AI initially. But I learned to use it—and here are the ways it helped me grow."

When people can put their personal stories onto your guiding narrative arc, it becomes compelling, as that story is now theirs.?

That's how the movement begins to take shape.

2. Start with leadership.

Another essential component to building a movement is identifying your first followers/ champions who will take on the mantle of leadership and then move others forward.?

The vast majority of leaders will not be those first followers, but a few of them will. Identifying them, training them, and enlisting their support is a critical step. Help them understand the strategy (and help them frame it as a story) to maximize the chances of getting them on board.

A manifesto can be helpful here, a statement of the change you want to create. If the story explains the strategic “why”, the manifesto explains “what” actions you plan to take. Need help writing a manifesto? I got you – here’s a starter guide on writing leadership manifestos .?

Of course, getting leadership aligned around anything is complex. But if you believe AI will be a transformative force in your organization (and you prioritize it), you want to start with your leadership.?

3. Empathize and engage.?

Empathizing with the fear, uncertainty, and doubt many people experience when thinking about GenAI is essential. It’s helpful, too, to create constant feedback loops so that people feel like their concerns are being heard.?

When Adobe was undergoing its CD-ROM to cloud-based transformation ten years ago, they did just that: They held group meetings to facilitate two-way communication. Employees were stressed and needed a place to be heard, and Adobe leaders fielded concerns with compassion and transparency. They also continuously shared their story to keep everyone moving forward.

“We burned the boats,” top Adobe executives said. There was no going back.?

You might consider a “red light” structure: One CEO created this framework as he led GenAI transformation at his company. He ensured everyone received training and budgets to explore tools. Every employee got a “traffic light” next to their name. A green light indicated an active user, yellow meant they were learning, and red meant they weren’t engaged and using AI.?

The CEO’s imperative? No more red lights in six months.?

If you're building a movement, you must be committed to your people and the journey.?

4. Relentlessly communicate.?

It’s easy to think, “I've said it once, so everyone's heard it.” But the reality is that people get busy, and they can forget. If you’re driving change, you must constantly remind your teams of your organization’s journey.?

Tell the story repeatedly—and remind teams of their role in it.?

Don’t worry about sounding like a broken record. Use your town halls, roadshows, videos, and other tools to share the company story. This encourages people to participate in that storytelling, too. You can stop repeating yourself when people stop looking surprised. I guarantee you, that’s unlikely to happen!

This work is indeed messy. It’s also true that it’s worth it.?

If this information was helpful, there’s plenty more! Sign up for updates and early access to my upcoming book , co-authored by Katia Walsh, which is all about creating a winning generative AI strategy.

Catch my most recent webinars:

“Unlocking The Power of Generative AI.” I explain how to set up a generative AI “playground,” three ways to elevate your leadership with step-by-step instructions, and the broad outlines of creating a strategy. Get the recording and slides here.

“Developing a Winning Generative AI Strategy for Competitive Advantage.” I walk through the steps needed to create a cohesive AI strategy that will last. Get the recording and slides here.?

Your Turn

How are you currently communicating your AI strategy, both internally and externally?