Posted in Interview,
AI is transforming the way communications and public affairs teams work but what does it mean for talent and the industry? In our latest series, we speak with senior communications leaders to explore the opportunities and challenges. In this edition, Ben Mitchell spoke with Hugo Kidston - Global Head of Communications at Allianz Commercial, part of one of the world’s largest insurers & asset managers - about how his team is harnessing AI to enhance creativity and performance, the skills communicators will need in an AI-driven world and why data-led insight and responsible innovation will define the next era of communications.
Our main use cases for Gen AI in the Comms function are:
On demand: using our own, corporate GEN AI chatbot - think an in-house GPT - for everyday editing, research & idea generation and using Microsoft CoPilot. This is linked to our own data to allow us to generate content that is specific to our needs. Typical scenarios might be:
Agentic uses: Gen AI agents to perform routine or on-request tasks such as retrieving media analysis, survey results analysis and so on.
Not yet significantly. Naturally, we are looking for candidates with a strong digital/tech affinity but that is generally not too hard with the demographic from which we mainly recruit (Millennials/Gen Zs). What we are doing is investing significant effort into training around Gen AI to ensure there’s a consistent level of understanding in the team on the power and potential of AI, so we can seek out use cases and adopt it as far as possible.
We haven’t really changed our team structure as a result. But when engaging with suppliers we would definitely want to see if they are up-to-date on Gen AI and how it might support our projects. One recent example was planning for avideo production for internal use. Given that we have a global employee audience, we wanted to ensure that whoever we partnered with to produce this video can leverage Gen AI for content options – animation or avatars, for example – and also for improvements to speed and cost.
I agree it will continue to change our profession and industries but I think the shifts we’ve seen from AI during 2025 are still in their infancy and we will see far greater impact in coming years. While the changes to how we work as a comms team are gathering pace now, the wide changes on my industry and society will create much bigger impacts: for example, how we have to manage change programs to navigate the job shifts that we are already seeing across the value chain of insurance, or how it will increase the value of data in decision-making, or how it will create customisation opportunities in our products and services. There’s a lot going on.
And we can’t lose sight of today’s immediate external environment, polycrises and continuing volatility which are the daily influences that have the most immediate impact for us in particular.
Not yet but it will undoubtedly unlock creativity through Gen AI tools. But in my own work, not yet…but this may be more of a reflection on the challenge of disengaging from today’s immediate requirements to embrace the potential of AI. And there’s the risk: not taking enough time to explore and understand AI because of the immediacy of today’s ‘here and now’ deadlines and tasks.
What excites me: the speed and power of AI to act as a partner in my work, access to creative tools to generate content, ability to unlock data heavy tasks that have always been a challenge (like media analysis), and at the macro level, the extraordinary power and potential for good that AI offers, for example in medicine.
What worries me: how we control and govern this extraordinary power in the future in society and at the global level; the rise of fake content, misinformation, bias, potential for unlawful uses (hacking, cyber crime, etc); on a much more mundane level, the potential ‘brain unplugging’ that can take place when it’s Gen AI first – a sort of loss of creative effort and spark when a tool can do much of the thinking for you, and will that lead to a homogenisation of thinking? And, of course, the speed of it all…just keeping up is a challenge! There’s a certain FOMO factor here, as however much I try, I am certainly not up-to-date and my own Gen AI knowledge is ultimately pretty limited. But as part of Allianz Group, I’m in the lucky position to benefit from teams who are fully focused on artificial intelligence – so I can leverage their insights and outputs in practice.
Much more data-driven insight. More effective monitoring and analysis at scale. Continued investment in training to leverage AI and understand its useful application – which means skillsets moving towards that level of familiarity and insight. I also think it would be really useful for crisis communications: the potential for Gen AI to inform and steer crisis response must be huge.
Whether you need interim, fractional or freelance expertise for a project, to plug a gap or upskill your team, or you are exploring new opportunities as an independent consultant, The Work Crowd can help you connect.
Ben Mitchell is Head of Interim at The Work Crowd, working with businesses to find flexible solutions and helping consultants build rewarding portfolio careers.
The Work Crowd is an award-winning platform connecting organisations with vetted freelance and interim experts in Marketing, Communications, Digital, Events & Public Affairs. With a global network and local industry expertise, we make finding the very best freelance, fractional and interim talent fast, simple and effective.