Silicon Valley public relations expert David Vossbrink doesn’t think we need AI to enhance the apple pie, but the parent company of Oreo cookies is doing just that with its baked goods. AI has changed the way we do a lot of things in 2024 and is poised for more in 2025 — including how we connect and exchange ideas.
As we look ahead to the new year, we asked industry leaders and innovative thinkers to explore this question: How can AI improve the way businesses communicate in 2025?
Their responses reflected both optimism and caution. We welcome your thoughts as well.
“AI in 2025 will revolutionize business communication, not by replacing humans, but by enhancing their ability to connect meaningfully. It will streamline processes, analyze data in real-time, and personalize interactions — freeing people to focus on creativity, empathy, and building trust. The true power of AI lies in its capacity to amplify human potential, not diminish it.”
— Kristen Ziman, former police chief, Aurora, Ill.; leadership consultant; author of Reimagining Blue: Thoughts on Life, Leadership, and a New Way Forward in Policing
“By reducing the deluge of information being sent to that which is useful, summarizing, analyzing sentiment and visualizing the graph of how organizations communicate internally and externally to suppliers, prospects and customers or clients. It is therefore likely that Graph RAG will be an important architecture.”
— Andy Brown, CEO, Sand Hill East, former CTO at UBS
"Humans struggle with communication within systems. Power structures, dynamics and authority levels can be genuinely confusing. Confusion leads to emotion, resulting in poor decision making. AI offers a mirror to our human flaws. Trusted AI, like that offered by Alphy, has the power to scale the best of human communication. We all need a mirror to see what we cannot see. What's incredible about AI is it's always learning. Allowing organizations to do what they do best."
— Colin Beattie, CEO and founder of The People Spot app
“I don't need an AI-enhanced apple pie. Please don't ‘enhance’ already successful and practical tools and systems with gratuitous ‘AI functionality.’ Bolting on so-called AI features to search and devices that introduce errors, uncertainty, and hallucinations is not helpful. News media using AI to replace their perfectly good search tools to deliver worse and incomplete results is not helpful. Focus on genuinely practical and beneficial uses, such as finding new antibiotics, or screening mammograms for anomalies, or looking for extraterrestrial life in new galaxies. And please, please, find ways to significantly reduce AI's horrendous extractive use of resources such as power and water, especially in light of global climate change. Instead, use that vast computing power to find real solutions to these challenges to our sustainable future.”
— David Vossbrink, APR, fellow, Public Relations Society of America; communications counsel
“The status quo is not working. Written communications continue to be the deciding factor in most regulatory matters and business litigation. AI can automatically improve business communications by scanning for potential problems before it's too late.”
— David Lang, former Global Chief Compliance officer, RBC Capital Markets
“We deal with a variety of clients asking different questions. AI can bring clarity to these questions by analyzing the data and seeing the common problem. Then we can create new, clearer instructions to help clients. AI doesn’t replace humans, but it can help make us better.”
— Lisa Nurse, associate of the Society of Actuaries, member of the American Academy of Actuaries
“AI can help with more effective branding and aligning customer preferences with how companies communicate effectively to reach their audience. AI can also help in eliminating illicit or rude types of communications or reducing communications that are hurtful or unnecessary in the work place.”
— Neil Chinai, startup co-founder, advisor, Investor
“I personally have never found AI to be helpful in my work life. It’s useless for research purposes due to its unreliability, and I think it actually hampers real communication between human beings by reducing language to a formula.”
— Emily Honer, marketing associate, Tor Publishing Group
"Communication is fundamental to how businesses operate, in any industry, and thus tools that can improve the quality and effectiveness of communication are extremely valuable. The new crop of AI tools have demonstrated value in helping research and craft crisp, clear communications. Solutions like Alphy have additionally shown how AI can be used to help make sure all our communications are effective, safe, and free from unintended consequences."
— Philip Brittan, CEO, CTO, Google VP, founder, Investor
“AI can help people on diverse, distributed teams work better together. In my career I’ve worked with people all over the world. While they may be highly educated and very capable, lack of fluency in English may hold some people back from getting their ideas and opinions conveyed as well as they should. AI can help non-native speakers write better, understand spec better, and so deliver better results, in less time. Lack of fluency in English will no longer hold anyone back, and instead promote judgment purely on the merit of their work. AI can also help make sense of a noisy world. Elections across the U.S. — local, state and federal — involved more than 250 speeches and interviews by the campaigns in three months! That’s a lot to wade through. At Alice, we were able to collate all of that into a knowledge base. Now you can ask a question and get an actual answer: You can see what positions changed over time, where the candidates agree. You don’t need to depend on possibly biased opinions, you can verify facts with authenticity. “
— Karan Gupta, CEO of Alice app, adviser, investor
"In 2025, AI will transform business communication by acting as a real-time translator of intent, ensuring that messages are not only delivered but truly understood across languages, cultures, and teams. AI will replace noise with nuance, analyzing vast amounts of data to craft hyper-personalized messages that resonate with individuals while aligning entire organizations to shared goals. By 2025, AI will make communication smarter, faster, and more empathetic — anticipating what stakeholders need to hear before they even know they need it, and delivering it seamlessly across every channel."
— Jenny Dearborn, CHRO, board director, investor
Reflect AI acts like a second set of eyes, scanning for risks and alerting you when to make your message clearer and more professional. It’s not about being the language police; it’s about giving your team the tools to communicate confidently and effectively.
Technology and humans can work together to make every message the best it can be.
As words continue to carry more weight than ever, clear communication matters. By embracing tools like Reflect AI, businesses can protect their teams, safeguard their reputations, and strengthen their client relationships. It’s a modern approach to an age-old priority: getting your message across the right way, every time.
Reflect AI by Alphy is an AI communication compliance solution that detects and flags language that is harmful, unlawful, and unethical in digital communication. Alphy was founded to reduce the risk of litigation from harmful and discriminatory communication while helping employees communicate more effectively. For more information: see www.alphyco.com