AI’s Role in the Persuasive Organization (FATHOM No. 10)
Packed with company-wide, deployable business communication concepts and techniques, FATHOM is a quarterly magazine focused on our most effective lessons, proven across 24+ years and 25,000+ individual clients. Each issue is full of hard data, and direct anecdotes from our experienced team. FATHOM is a highly readable and “evergreen” resource for any business leader. The full archive can be found here.
Communicating With Intelligence
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With unprecedented speed, artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed our current communication age. Like many other technological advances before it—the fax machine, the internet browser, email—it holds promise for making communication faster, stronger, and more efficient.
But AI does not communicate on its own. It is not a replacement for human discernment, judgment, or empathy. And it has the potential to make an already noisy world even noisier, if not used well.
AI is firmly established in the workplace and growing rapidly. According to a 2025 Gallup poll, “twenty-seven percent of white-collar employees report frequently using AI at work, an increase of 12 percentage points since 2024.” Yet the same poll found that guidance from the top hasn’t kept up. “While 44% of employees say their organization has begun integrating AI, only 22% say their organization has communicated a clear plan or strategy for doing so.”
Without clear and thoughtful leadership, organizations risk losing the competitive advantage AI offers in creating effective and persuasive communication. AI enhances, but cannot replace, judgment, clarity, presence, or persuasion—and the same tools and practices that have long helped us strengthen communication also help in using AI to its full capabilities.
The Transformation Potential
The question every leader is asking is simple, yet profound: Does AI change everything?
The answer, as with most transformations, is both yes and no. Yes, it changes the speed and scale at which we can ideate, draft, and distribute information. But no, it does not change the human essence of communication—clarity, empathy, and persuasion.
Karim Lakhani, a professor at Harvard Business School, might have put it best: “AI won’t replace humans—but humans with AI will replace humans without AI.”
AI offers extraordinary potential for leaders seeking to more efficiently align teams, reach stakeholders, and communicate vision. Yet, if used without rigor, its pitfalls are legion: generic messaging, tone misalignment, the production of hallucinations or misinformation, ethical blind spots, and the risk of losing an authentic voice.
“While 44% of employees say
their organization has begun
integrating AI, only 22%
say their organization has
communicated a clear plan or
strategy for doing so.””
There have been many examples of AI gone wrong: newspapers publishing summer reading lists of nonexistent books; a government chatbot encouraging business owners to break the law; lawyers filing casework that relies on false precedents.
But its failures can be more nuanced and more insidious than these, particularly when it comes to communications, both internal and external, of organizations. AI-produced communications that feel inauthentic, formulaic, or out of sync with company values undermine their power and undercut credibility.
To navigate these potential dangers and more effectively wield the benefits of AI, consider implementing a framework to assess readiness, identify priorities, and implement and ideate. This framework is both practical and human-centered, and can help leaders determine when and how to apply AI tools effectively, without eroding trust.
Assess Organizational Readiness
Before automating anything, leaders must ask: Is the organization ready—culturally, technically, and ethically—for AI integration?
If the answer is no, the work begins with building digital literacy, clarifying data governance, and most importantly, engaging in honest dialogue about AI’s role. The Latimer Group’s GAP method is key here: know your Goals, understand your Audience, map your Plan. Identify what you hope to achieve through AI integration, anticipate the questions or concerns others might raise, and set out a clear communication plan.
Leaders must communicate why AI is being introduced, explain how it aligns with organizational values, and set out when and where it will be implemented. Without that foundation, every AI effort risks incurring skepticism or undermining effectiveness.
Identify Business Priorities
Once the organization’s readiness is established, the next question is: Where can AI create measurable value without eroding human judgment or culture?
AI should streamline rule-based, repetitive work—like document processing, compliance workflows, and data migration. The functions that make up trust and authenticity—coaching, negotiation, and client relationships—remain human-centered and -organized.
Used responsibly, AI frees people to focus on meaning while machines manage mechanics. Leaders should communicate that AI is a co-pilot, not a replacement—a partner that amplifies human potential, not one that diminishes it.
Piloting, Scaling, and Adaptation
The remaining stages—testing, scaling, and learning—require both quantitative and qualitative metrics, to measure not only efficiency but emotional impact. How do employees feel about automation? Does the new tool make communication clearer and easier or more transactional and impersonal?
And implementing these tools also requires a willingness to fail—and to communicate with transparency about both the successes and the mistakes. When success is achieved, communicating what went well, and why, will help bring those successes into the next stage. When challenges arise, they should be framed as opportunities to learn.
At every stage, leaders must stay accountable for meaning, clarity, and authenticity. AI may draft a message, but only the leader can ensure it lands—that it sounds like them, reflects their values, and connects to the team’s shared purpose.
As Matt Wood, the Global and US Commercial Technology and Innovation Officer at PwC, has put it: “If you look at how most big organizations navigate these big disruptive gravitational shifts, it actually isn’t by kind of chasing this shiny object—it’s almost always by doubling down and anchoring on who they are. …[W]hat technology disruption actually does, counterintuitively, is if you channel it, it actually amplifies who you are.”
Staying Human
Rushing to adopt AI tools risks automating the mechanics of communication while neglecting its meaning. Maintaining a culture of trust, empathy, and clarity—the foundations of persuasive leadership—requires embedding technology with thoughtfulness and care.
In the Harvard Business Review, Gregg Kober writes, “The role of leaders goes far beyond facilitating AI implementation. They must fully appreciate AI’s potential and be able to bridge the gap between technological capabilities and strategic goals. They also need to foster a culture that embraces AI’s potential to complement human creativity, decision making, and innovation.”
But how can leaders embed AI responsibly, without eroding connection or credibility? Below are five strategies that can help—and the most common mistakes a leader might make.
Anchor Every AI Initiative in Purpose and Audience
Before automating, leaders should ask: What problem are we solving, and for whom?
AI succeeds only when its application strengthens clarity, confidence, or connection. Leaders can find this purpose by using the AIM Model of persuasive communication—Audience, Intent, Message. Any application of AI should enhance at least one of these elements.
The most common mistake? Automating before aligning — deploying tools before adequately defining purpose or audience only amplifies confusion. Using the AIM model ensures that technology serves the communication goal, not the other way around.
Use Machine Efficiencies to Enhance Human Insight
AI can surface data and patterns at breathtaking speed—but it cannot interpret nuance. Leaders must treat AI as an accelerator of insight, not a replacement for judgment.
For instance, AI analytics might help identify communication patterns across teams, which can then be interpreted by humans to understand what those patterns mean and their implications. If AI is used to generate first drafts of communications, human review should follow to correct mistakes, ensure tone, and establish context.
The most common mistake? Replacing instead of augmenting—using AI to replace human communicators strips away nuance and trust. AI should always be the facilitator of human ingenuity, not a replacement.
Communicate Transparently About AI’s Role
Trust erodes when people don’t understand how or why AI is being used. Clear communication builds confidence.
Leaders should create short, plain-language “AI Charters” that explain what AI will—and won’t—do in communication processes. Transparency disarms fear and replaces it with curiosity.
And when leaders model openness (noting, for instance, that “I used AI to organize this report, but I reviewed and personalized the findings myself”), they demonstrate that technology serves humanity—not the other way around.
The most common mistake? Scaling without storytelling—rolling out automation without a shared narrative breeds fear. Clearly identifying and communicating how AI supports an organization’s larger mission helps people connect to how it can assist, rather than undermine, their own performance.
Reinvest in the Human Skills Technology Can’t Replicate
As automation expands, relational skills become even more valuable. Empathic listening, storytelling, and presence are not just “soft skills”—they are competitive advantages.
Rather than offering a way to opt out of training and practice, AI must be thoughtfully incorporated as just one facet of persuasive communication skills, along with emotional intelligence skills such as tone and context.
In building a culture that effectively melds the efficiencies of technology with human creativity, leaders should prioritize offering learning opportunities that also build connection: live workshops, mentoring programs, and feedback sessions.
The most common mistake? Ignoring qualitative feedback—measuring efficiency without listening for emotional impact undermines credibility. Facilitating forums that give employees a voice and a way to discuss openly the advantages and drawbacks of AI allows organizations to maintain trust and empathy.
Scale Ethically and Iteratively
Precision in communication comes not from speed or volume, but from alignment—between values, technology, and people.
Leaders should begin with low-risk pilots, such as meeting summarization or document drafting, and expand only when feedback confirms that trust and clarity are intact.
The ultimate goal is stewardship, not speed. Technology can make communication faster; leadership ensures it stays human.
The most common mistake? Overlooking ethics for efficiency — speed without integrity risks bias, privacy breaches, and reputational harm. Moving with deliberation allows organizations to pressure test AI’s applications for potential gaps or issues.
Field Notes: How Leaders Are Using AI at Work
Across industries, The Latimer Group has observed clients experimenting with AI in creative, human-centered ways.
Drafting decks and reports: Tools like PowerPoint Designer help create visuals that reduce cognitive overload, improving audience retention.
Recapping meetings: AI assistants transcribe and summarize discussions, freeing teams to focus on listening rather than note-taking.
Onboarding and training: AI-driven simulators help employees rehearse conversations or explore new workflows safely.
Internal memos and briefs: Generative AI accelerates writing while reducing unnecessary jargon—when paired with human review for tone and intent.
For organizations just beginning, five low-risk pilots help teams learn without compromising culture:
Smart Summaries for Meetings – Builds efficiency and transparency.
Coaching Analytics Dashboards – Reveals communication patterns over time.
Draft Assistant for Leadership Messages – Speeds up writing while preserving authenticity.
Knowledge-Base Companions – Reduces search fatigue and keeps information consistent.
Audience-Insights Engines – Analyzes engagement to shape future storytelling.
Each of these succeeds when humans remain at the center—interpreting, refining, and personalizing the outputs.
“Put simply, AI can help leaders amplify their own awareness of their organization and, when used well, to build authentic connections and trust across it.”
AI for Leaders
In addition to its value for organizations, AI offers ways for leaders to refine their own communications, build connections across their teams, and diversify the touchpoints for communication coaching across the organization.
Put simply, AI can help leaders amplify their own awareness of their own organization and, when used well, to build authentic connections and trust across it. Some ways that AI can do this include:
The AI-Powered Listening Tour: Leaders can use AI to analyze survey comments or meeting transcripts, revealing patterns of sentiment across teams. The human task is then to respond visibly—to demonstrate that they’ve heard and understood.
Message Consistency and Alignment: AI can flag tone or content drift across regions or departments, helping leaders maintain a unified voice.
Coaching the Communicators: AI can offer first-round feedback on clarity and tone, allowing leaders to spend more time mentoring for substance, credibility, and connection.
AI can also supplement leaders’ communication coaching, acting as a reflective partner to identify patterns of rhetoric and prompt self-inquiry.
Using specific, targeted prompts allows AI to offer analysis that a leader can then use to assess and adjust their communication; this analysis can also be useful to bring back to a communication coach, who can help target new areas for self-improvement and practice.
Prompts might include:
For self-reflection:
“Summarize the themes in my recent performance feedback—what patterns do you notice?”
“Compare the tone of my last three messages to my stated leadership values.”
For accountability:
“Track progress on my communication goals—where am I improving?”
“Generate a weekly reflection template to monitor confidence before and after key meetings.”
“Help me create a brief reflection summary I can share with my coach—focus on what changed, what I noticed, and what still challenges me.”
For communication awareness:
“Rewrite this draft to sound more inclusive and persuasive while keeping my intent intact.”
“Offer two openings for this presentation—one authoritative, one approachable.”
“Summarize my key communication strengths based on this feedback report, then suggest one area for development.”
For team insight:
“Analyze recent team comments for recurring sentiments about leadership tone.”
“Draft three reflective questions I can ask my team to understand how my communication lands.”
Engaging with a communication model and coaching program like The Latimer Group’s remains an important element of implementing AI for persuasive, ethical, and strategic communication. Only a human coach can use the data that AI gathers and apply it toward developing authenticity and presence for powerful, persuasive communication.
The Latimer Model’s four phases—Assess, Message, Document, and Deliver—offer a framework that takes advantage of AI’s benefits while remaining firmly grounded in the human.
Assess is the first step in any persuasive communication—gathering and summarizing the information necessary to reach your audience in a way that resonates. AI can do that first step, but only human curiosity and awareness can interpret the information and make meaning from it.
Message is the process of drafting and structuring a persuasive communication. AI can offer organizational support, but only human empathy can refine the message for resonance for its specific audience and tailor it to the organization’s tone and values.
Document brings together documentation that clarifies and strengthens the message. AI can identify and create strong visuals, but only human discernment ensures that they tell the right story.
Deliver is entirely human—presence, trust, and connection cannot be automated.
The model is, in essence, future-proof. It reminds us that communication technology will evolve endlessly, but the art of persuasion will always rest on clarity, purpose, and empathy.
Persuasive intelligence
Artificial intelligence offers powerful, and effective, tools for communication. But it is crucial to remember that the leaders who thrive in this new era will be those who stay human.
AI can sharpen our thinking, but not replace it. It can accelerate our writing, but not invest it with meaning. It can organize our ideas, but not connect them to hearts and minds.
At The Latimer Group, we see this moment not as a threat, but as an opportunity to find new ways to become more persuasive and empathetic communicators. Trust, clarity, and credibility remain human responsibilities. By using AI to make other elements of communication faster and easier, we can focus in on what is entirely human—connection, care, and authenticity.
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Editor’s Note: Writing With Intelligence
This issue of Fathom was created in partnership with AI—not as a ghostwriter, but as a thinking companion. Throughout the process, our editorial team used AI tools to organize research, surface patterns, and draft early outlines. But every insight, every story, and every line of nuance came through human conversation, reflection, and editing. The partnership became its own teaching moment: a reminder that AI can accelerate clarity, but it cannot replace judgment. In our work—and in yours—the goal isn’t to let technology speak for us. It’s to use it to listen, learn, and communicate with greater precision and humanity.
- Jay Prewitt-Cruz, EdD & Kendra Raguckas, The Latimer Group