Artificial intelligence is transforming workplaces at astonishing speed — energising some internal communication teams while leaving others stalled, hesitant, and under-resourced. A new study into AI adoption in internal comms shows a stark divide emerging across organisations: not only in capability, but in confidence, investment levels, and readiness for a rapidly changing communications landscape.
Conducted by change and internal communications specialist Louise Wadman, the study surveyed 128 internal comms professionals across 18 industries between September and December 2025. It presents one of the clearest snapshots to date of how AI is being used behind the corporate firewall, where communications leaders are thriving with emerging technology — and where they’re being left behind.
The results are instructive. They are also sobering.
Three internal comms worlds — one rapidly separating profession
Wadman’s analysis identifies three distinct groups within internal comms, divided by their pace of AI adoption.
AI Builders — 41% of respondents
These professionals are using AI actively and confidently. For content, research, analytics, planning — even workflow design. They are not simply experimenting: they are building AI into their working systems. Within this group sits a more elite category:
AI Leaders — 21% of all practitioners surveyed
This cohort reports saving at least half a working day per week through AI-enabled processes. They use AI for drafting, editing, segmentation, strategy planning, risk mitigation, measurement — and crucially, they are beginning to influence how other departments integrate their own tools. For these users, AI is not incremental improvement — it is structural advantage.
AI Explorers — 40%
Experimenting, curious, learning — but not yet fully embedded. This is where most of the profession currently sits. Explorers typically use AI for practical tasks such as content writing, message refinement, or basic analytics. They see AI’s value, but lack the skills or organisational mandate to elevate usage to strategic function. Many want to accelerate — but cannot, yet.
AI Beginners — 18%
Often unsupported, untrained, and unsure where to start. For this group, AI is either peripheral or completely absent from their workflow. Limited budgets, unclear governance, and institutional caution were common barriers. Some had never been offered training. Others feared missteps without guidance or policy protection. They are watching the future form — but from the slow lane.
The gap between these groups is widening quickly.
“Expectation gap” emerging inside organisations
One of the most striking findings from the study is that those already using AI are pulling decisively ahead. They are saving time, delivering more output per head, and developing strategic departmental influence. Their productivity increases are measurable. Their skillsets are modernising.
Those without AI — especially Beginners — risk losing organisational relevance.
“AI offers internal comms the potential to deliver unprecedented value, but only if teams embrace it strategically,” Wadman argues.
With every month of non-adoption, the gap increases. Not just in capability — but in expectation. Senior leadership who see improvements from AI-enabled teams may increasingly expect similar acceleration from those without access to tools or training. For inexperienced teams, this could become a pressure point — even a threat.
Internal comms has long fought for strategic recognition inside corporate hierarchy. AI may prove to be the inflection point at which some teams secure that position — while others fall further from it.
Training is the tipping point — but most teams don’t have it
The most serious obstacle identified was not technology. It was not cost. It was not fear.
It was skills.
More than 60% of teams surveyed had received no formal training in AI — despite many being expected to use it. In some cases, communicators were experimenting independently using public-grade AI tools. Others were self-teaching in their own time.
Meanwhile, AI Leaders — the highest-performing segment — demonstrated one consistent trait: they invested in upskilling regularly. Not one-off workshops. Continuous, bite-sized development. Learning embedded into the workflow, not added as an optional extra.
This training advantage fuels every other advantage. Productivity. Confidence. Strategic clarity. Influence across departments. And — crucially — the ability to shape governance rather than wait for it.
Teams without training remain reactive, uneasy, and exposed. Teams with training are shaping the future.
Less than 1 in 10 have a long-term AI strategy
Even where AI adoption is happening, strategic planning is not keeping pace. Only 21% of communicators surveyed had a formal AI policy or governance framework. And less than 10% had a multi-year AI investment plan.
For a technology that is reshaping operational structures at speed, this lack of planning could lead to reputational risk, ethical vulnerabilities, and tactical confusion later down the line. AI may be introduced rapidly — but it cannot be sustained haphazardly.
Wadman warns that without strategy, AI doesn’t strengthen comms — it sidelines it. Automation of low-level content tasks will continue. Leaders will push efficiency. But without skilled communicators guiding usage, AI could easily be used to justify headcount reduction.
Internal comms may find itself displaced not by AI — but by lack of readiness for it.
Future of internal comms: more human or less?
The most revealing insight from the study concerns how communicators see their profession evolving over the next five years.
More than 70% believe the IC role must change to survive.
But what that change looks like divides opinion.
A strong majority expect AI to enhance rather than erase internal comms — amplifying the function’s importance by freeing teams from repetitive production work and enabling deeper audience intelligence, better messaging precision, and faster crisis response.
A smaller — but vocal — minority, however, see warning signs. Some organisations have already pointed to AI as justification for reducing comms capacity. And in industries facing budget contraction, efficiency tools often precede restructuring.
Whether internal comms grows or shrinks in an AI-dominated environment may depend entirely on how fast teams upskill, strategise, and demonstrate impact.
Cross-department collaboration is now a competitive advantage
One of the most encouraging insights from the AI Builders group was their belief that AI creates openings — not just efficiencies — for internal comms to work more closely with HR, IT, operations, analytics, and senior leadership.
Where AI maturity is high, IC teams report increased alignment with other functions, shared planning processes, and joint responsibility for digital change. AI is acting as glue — not friction.
The message is clear: communicators who collaborate will scale faster than those who operate in isolation. AI may finally give internal comms the strategic influence it has pursued for years — but only if it sits at the transformation table, not outside the room.
Presswire’s perspective — how this transformation intersects with communications delivery
At Presswire — a global leader in press release distribution — this research lands at a decisive moment for the communications world. Our industry is undergoing the same transition internal comms now faces: where AI accelerates production and analysis, but long-established human skills remain irreplaceable.
The technology behind our media contact database already helps organisations target journalists globally with precision, but the value does not come from automation alone. It comes from strategy. From editorial judgement. From storytelling. AI enhances reach — but only communicators create meaning.
The internal communications profession is now confronting the same truth press and media distribution learned years ago:
AI is powerful. But without skill, governance and vision — it is nothing.
The road ahead — risk, urgency, and opportunity
Wadman’s report does not predict the death of internal comms.
But it does something more useful:
It shows where the profession could fracture.
Not between those who use AI and those who don’t — but between those who understand AI strategically, and those who only use it tactically.
Between teams that lead transformation — and teams transformed by others.
Between those who build the future — and those who are pushed into it.
Whether internal comms becomes more valued or more expendable in the next five years will depend on decisions being made now — decisions about training, resourcing, governance, investment, and confidence.
The future is not waiting. Some communicators are already running toward it.
The only remaining question is who will join them.