What trends are worth paying attention to? What communication activities should you bet on this year, and what should managers not forget in order to make communication not only effective, but also safe for the organization? Here are some important trends for the coming year.
The anticipation as to which way the world will go is due to the first signs of a cooling of the world’s large economies and new armed conflicts erupting every now and then. Many foreign corporations are implementing cost-saving plans and stockpiling funds for a wave of crisis. In the background is the struggle of the superpowers for dominance in the market of new technologies. Experts even speak of a shift away from globalization to economic protectionism and new barriers put up by the governments of many countries to protect their own economic interests.
Simultaneously, in this seeming limo, in which few managers can predict future developments and do not take a firm course of action, company employees must plan for the year ahead and face the industrial revolution that is happening right before our eyes, which is the spread of AI in the daily operation of business. It is a very attractive field, but also one that is still unregulated and subject to considerable risk. What is permitted today may not be in compliance with corporate compliance rules tomorrow. On top of this, in their daily lives, corporations are faced with increasingly loudly articulated expectations from employees, seeing their only salvation in ESG and DEI activities, which are now becoming an indispensable part of communications in the priorities of PR and HR people.
All these elements make 2024 appear as a big challenge for all teams from corporate communications, brand communications to internal communications, employer branding and HR.
- Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence
The first element of change is definitely AI and digitalization in companies and their surroundings. According to an international media company Muck Rack titled State of AI 2023, as many as 61% of PR specialists say that they are already using or interested in artificial intelligence today. Meanwhile, the change in organizations is coming right out of the C-Suit, or top management, as they are the largest group using AI in organizations. As many as 38% of senior management respondents are already using these tools. The same report asked what artificial intelligence is used for by communications professionals. They most often use it to create presentations, write press releases and prepare social posts. Slightly fewer companies use AI for research and data collection.
A very big challenge for companies and AI implementations becomes the protection of internal company data and trade secrets and company know-how, which should not be shared with external models such as Chat GPT. AI models that learn only from intra-company data, preventing transmitted content from escaping outside the organization, may be the answer. Also important, and in the hands of communication specialists and HR departments, is proper education and awareness-building for employees on the correct ways to use AI language models.
Another important issue already widely raised by journalists is that AI drawing on Internet resources uses already existing data to construct its own content. According to media representatives, this should lead to new regulations allowing, for example, the tokenization of content and accounting for snippets of journalistic texts used in new works by AI. Looking at these and similar demands, it is to be expected that there are still many new copyright developments ahead for companies in the AI area, and managers need to keep a close eye on this issue.
The PR industry, though experimenting with AI, is nevertheless paying attention to the fact that still the materials prepared by AI are more in the nature of drafts, which require further data validation and editing by humans. The use of AI is not yet an unreflective process, and while it speeds up the work of PR professionals, the determination of strategic frameworks is still in the hands of the communicators themselves.
In addition to the implementation of AI, communication in the coming year may also be challenged by the ongoing digitization processes in many industries and institutions. The digitization of health care, for example, is forcing greater transparency within the system, which can more quickly report on the use of funds from the National Health Fund, present aggregated epidemiological data on diseases, infections or infections, or inform patients about the need for preventive examinations, as well as provide greater insight into whether patients are following medical recommendations and taking prescribed medications. All of this can have a significant impact on business, which is both taking an active role in the debate on the future shape of digital solutions, as well as keeping a close eye on the changes being implemented to make the most of the advantages of digitizing the system. Similar changes are taking place in virtually all industries and are relevant to the plans of communications and public affairs professionals. Communication should, of course, support the processes of digitization in each field, for example, using the tools of communication of change in presenting the changes to employees and building awareness of the new tools implemented by organizations as well as to consumers to show what modern technologies a company is using. There should also be continuous communication with decision-makers and pointing them to solutions that facilitate communication not only for users but also for business.
2. Local vs. global
The new balance of political power in Poland brings with it the need to make its positions known to the new authorities. At the same time, geopolitical changes in the world mean that more and more is beginning to be said and done in the direction of supporting local economies and national or regional businesses.
The end of this year and the first quarter of 2024 is associated with the start of work by the new parliament and the establishment of new authorities in central offices. For communication specialists and public affairs teams, this is a time to present their own positions to decision-makers, establish new contacts, and participate in laying out the future agenda of activities together with decision-makers. For many topics will also be important: whether they will enter the public debate, whether they will receive media and public support, and thus become important to the new authorities. Also important will be the development of new models of cooperation with ministries, e.g. in the area of health, what the future dialogue with patient organizations and medical experts and societies will look like.
On parliamentary issues, the fate of individual parliamentary teams will be weighed. Plans for the creation of new collegial bodies will also probably emerge. It is worth talking to parliamentarians so that among the new proposals there will also be issues that are important from the point of view of companies.
The beginning of 2024 is likely to be a time when new 2024 will come to the fore in the media, and 2024 appears to be a major challenge for all teams from corporate communications to brand communications to internal communications, employer branding and HR. 61 experts, business analysts and new heads of Treasury companies. Such changes are always associated with the need to intensify communication, to support themselves with entities that have built relationships with the media and that know how to reach them with messages that are important to companies and industry associations.
In the public debate, it will be important to emphasize regional and national interests due to the increasing economic fragmentation of the world and the struggle for dominance over future technological advantages.
3. Full implementation pf ESG and DEI in companies
The growing expectations of workers and the new generations entering the work force, as well as global challenges such as climate, social and cultural changes, are simply making the implementation of ESG and DEI principles a necessity. New directives on non-financial reporting are making ESG conjugated by all cases in companies, and its implementation is often becoming a priority for communications teams. Certainly, 2024 will bring even more of this, with more and more industries and smaller entities being forced to develop them.
What is important, however, is that ESG implementation should be approached as a team game, the coordinators of which should have the very strong support of the board of directors, and the backing of many departments in the organization. Managers should understand that ESG is not only the responsibility of the communications and PR departments, but also the implementation of changes in many management processes in the company, the involvement of the legal, compliance, finance departments and virtually every level in the organization, as well as the various stakeholders in the organization’s environment, among others, suppliers, subcontractors and customers.
In 2024, Diversity and Inclusion will be similarly important in organizations. According to Culture Amp’s report entitled DEI in the workplace. The State of Workplace Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the United States and Canada, 2023: 66% of decision-makers in HR teams believe that greater inclusivity on the part of organizations helps companies attract talent, 63% say it makes it easier to fill skills gaps and improve customer service, and according to nearly 60% of those surveyed, raising minority representation raised productivity across the organization.
In the case of ESG, the challenge for communications teams is to work with company boards to develop an appropriate strategy for ESG and DEI, and to support the communication of these changes throughout the organization so that it has credibility in the changes being implemented and avoids the phenomenon of greenwashing or the recently popular DEI fatigue in Western countries, i.e., the fatigue of building a culture of diversity and anti-exclusion within teams. After all, topics on inclusivity, due to the profound change they need to bring about in teams, tend to be long-term and after a while can cause irritation or fatigue among content audiences, which is normal with long-term pressure for change, but the role of communications professionals is to counter this and keep showing the topic anew by supporting good practices and attitudes in the organization without losing enthusiasm for change.
4. Human-centric, human approach to communication
According to forecasts, humanization in communication will be increasingly important in 2024. We are overtired and entombed by technology, we want contact with living people and authenticity in the relationship. That’s what future communication must also be. Increasingly, audiences are abandoning traditional news and spending less and less on paid news content, but instead are more likely to access information about the world around them through social media and share content in interest groups, and listen to what influencers are saying to them. Communications must also adapt to the new reduced consumption of news channels, reaching out through other channels and building relationships with new opinion leaders. Face-to-face meetings and various types of events are returning to favor in communications. More often, debates, meetings, partnerships and roundtables are being used in building coalitions and political bases for change.
These are, of course, just a few selected trends for the coming year in communications. Certainly time will verify many of them. One thing is certain, managers need to start reality testing and act as soon as possible to be part of the changes and their leaders. Messy times call for bold decisions and moves, and bold communications. Media users want real but charismatic leaders of change who show how to find their way in the chaos and times of turmoil around us, and communications simply must follow this expectation. I wish you successful communication activities and as few surprises as possible in2024!
Iwona Kubicz
Managing Director PRCN
Expert and advisor in corporate communications, crisis management and public affairs. Member of the Business Program Council of the University of Silesia in Katowice. Jury member in international competitions: IPRA Golden World Awards, Stevie International Bussiness Awards, Magellan Awards and the Golden Clips competition. She has coordinated projects for such companies as: Energa Operator, PKP Energetyka, Sanofi, Janssen, TEVA, Zentiva, Adamed Group, Polpharma, Kongsberg Automotive, Becton Dickinson, Disney Channel and infrastructure projects supporting R&D development in Poland.
The article appeared in the December issue of Business HUB magazine.
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