The new era of storytelling and strategy

Blaise Pascal once said, ‘If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter’. As communications professionals, we often face the same challenge. Crafting concise, impactful messages can be time and energy consuming, especially when we’re juggling multiple tasks and tight deadlines.

That’s exactly where Copilot has been a game-changer for me and my team. It’s like having an extra pair of hands and brains that helps us move faster, think more strategically, and enable more creativity.

At Microsoft, we use Copilot all the time. It helps us kick-start and refine media tactics, shape compelling stories, and have more productive conversations. By taking over time-consuming tasks and adding new perspectives, it allows us to focus on high-value work, making our thinking smarter, our messages clearer, and our teams better connected.

In this article, I’ll share a few examples of how my team, and I are using Copilot to transform our work and how GenAI shifts what it means to be a communicator.

Developing compelling narratives

Storytelling is central to our work, and Generative AI assists us in creating more comprehensive and structured narratives. Instead of sorting through scattered information and conversations, we use Copilot to analyze documents and recordings, identify key themes, and shape messaging that is consistent and audience specific.

When there is a narrative or a blog post that we know worked very well, we can use it as desired format and have Copilot organize new input in a similar manner – and even build an agent over it for repetitive types of content such as newsletter editorials or leadership announcement press releases.

GenAI also refines the tone and clarity of our writing, suggesting adjustments to align with different audiences and communication styles (e.g. Suggest ways how we can build more urgency or make a piece of content clearer to a specific recipient).

Smarter preparation, stronger messaging

Preparing spokespeople for media interactions is essential for navigating tough questions and to deliver clear, confident messages. GenAI has enhanced this process by making it more data-driven and effective, as well as less laborious. With tools like Copilot, we can anticipate media questions based on recent coverage and trends, ensuring our spokespeople are well-prepared for the latest.

After preparation sessions, GenAI helps us analyze recordings to extract key soundbites in the speaker’s natural voice and style. This allows us to provide precise feedback and refine messaging more effectively.

Copilot also streamlines the creation of briefing documents for spokespeople, quickly compiling key points from the training, past coverage, and other contents so we can focus on refining the message rather than manually assembling background information.

As a result, our media training sessions become more targeted, and our briefings more personalized, helping spokespeople feel confident, authentic and ready for any scenario.

Unlocking strategic creativity

A large part of our role as comms professionals is being able to come up with innovative strategies to support key business objectives. Ideation is one of the most efficient and fun ways of leveraging GenAI, especially powerful when grounded on data-driven insights. Copilot is a great help here – from interactive brainstorming to guiding us through specific creative thinking techniques, from providing differing perspectives and contexts to challenging assumptions, from visualizing ideas to simulating future scenarios.

But I also like smaller areas of application of GenAI creativity – like suggesting certain type of headlines, (re)writing strong opening or closing paragraphs in speeches or helping explain abstract concept to various audiences (like quantum computing to history students). By integrating GenAI into ideation, we enhance creativity and strategic thinking, allowing teams to develop more targeted, engaging, and successful communication efforts.

Finding blind spots

Being able to gauge a reaction to a piece of content, written or speech, is hard. We can’t know how it will be received and what messages will resonate with audiences. Copilot is helping us find blind spots and test possible reactions and take-aways.

By putting content through Copilot and asking it to pull out the key messages for a particular audience we can see what messages are particularly strong and what messages need to be elevated. By asking Copilot to evaluate what could be misunderstood for a specific type of audience – for example, mayors of medium sized cities or production directors – we are able to understand if key messages that we want audiences to take away resonate appropriately or if changes need to be made.

The integration of GenAI into our workflows isn’t just about efficiency – it’s about elevating the impact of our communications.

The evolving role of AI in communications

As GenAI continues to develop, its role in communications will expand, offering new opportunities to advance efficiency, creativity, and engagement. The ability to analyze large amounts of data quickly allows us to make better-informed decisions, while AI-driven automation frees up time for more strategic work.

With the introduction of Agents in Copilot, there are new opportunities for us to bring generative AI into every workflow and process.

Embracing GenAI and using Copilot not only helps us be more agile, proactive, and innovative in what we already do. It allows us to rethink and elevate our role as strategic, well-informed advisors to our leadership.

As GenAI advances, its role in communications is shifting from operational support to strategic enablement. Copilot allows us to anticipate industry shifts, analyze market trends in real time, and proactively shape leadership narratives.

By embedding AI into our workflows, we move from communicators to strategic advisors, bringing outside-in perspectives, real-time insights, and data-driven storytelling to leadership. This transformation strengthens our ability to navigate change, sharpen corporate strategy, and maintain a competitive edge.