Leaning in and learning: How our team is approaching generative AI

Our Lockheed Martin Communications team has been eager to experiment with generative AI since it burst onto the scene last winter. Across the corporation, we’re embracing digital and business transformation in a big way, and generative AI tools like ChatGPT provide an opportunity to advance transformation in our comms function – freeing up our calendars and brain space for the creative and strategic work that matters most to our business.

A recent study shows that many comms teams want to embrace generative AI but are not sure where to begin. The survey from WE Communications and the USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations finds that while 80% of communicators recognize AI as important, less than a quarter are using it in their day-to-day work.

Because Lockheed Martin works in the sensitive national security space, there are increased concerns about risks such as cybersecurity and safety. We need to proceed with caution. At the same time, our Communications team recognizes a critical need to stay ahead of emerging technology in all aspects of our business. We recognize that the time for us to get smart about AI is now – and that the technology will only continue to get bigger, faster and better.

We just rolled out a thoughtful, informed policy to govern AI use and empower our team to experiment with new tools. I’m proud of the thorough, important work our team has done to address the significant risks of generative AI as well as unlock the power of these new capabilities.

Here's how we got there.

First, we worked collaboratively. We assembled a “tiger team” of communicators from across Lockheed Martin with a variety of roles and skillsets. To foster engagement and buy-in, we decided it was important to pull representation from across our large, diverse comms shop of hundreds of people around the world. We also pulled in expertise from other corporate areas, like Legal, Ethics and IT, to inform and approve our approach.

Second, we narrowed our focus to the three most important areas we needed to address: governance, or what rules and guardrails we would need to implement; ethics, or how we use AI in keeping with our values; and workflow, or how we incorporate AI tools day-to-day.

Finally, we committed to learning. Our team did a ton of research learning about the available tools, best practices and trends, and use cases. This is a fast-moving technology area, so adopting a learning posture early on is going to help us stay on top of it going forward.

Last month, we released an AI toolkit of practical resources: “Dos and Don’ts,” examples of capabilities, and training. We’re continuing to demo different platforms, explore new offerings for closed, enterprise solutions and evolve our policy as new information and capabilities come online. And we’ll keep sharing our experiences – learning from each other as we enter this new world of generative AI together.