AI is coming for communications jobs. Not all of them, and not all at once — but the roles built on processing, templating, and pattern-replication are genuinely at risk. The press release that follows a formula. The social post that mirrors last month's. The briefing document assembled from existing assets. AI does all of this faster, cheaper, and without a day off.

What it cannot do is think sideways.

It cannot find the unexpected angle, make the connection no one else saw, or reach an audience that conventional thinking has consistently missed. That instinct — to communicate from a genuinely different place — has always belonged to neurodivergent communicators. The uncomfortable question for our industry is whether we have spent decades designing them out.

The moment worth paying attention to

Earlier this year, Palantir CEO Alex Karp made headlines with a characteristically blunt prediction. There were, he argued, basically two kinds of people who had a future in the AI era: those with vocational skills, and the neurodivergent. Karp, who has spoken openly about his own dyslexia, was making a point about mindset as much as diagnosis — that the people who thrive will be those who can approach problems as an artist would, look at things from a different direction, and build something genuinely original.

You can debate the framing. But the underlying observation is hard to dismiss: the cognitive traits that structured organisations have historically treated as inconvenient are precisely the ones that AI cannot replicate.

For the communications industry, this should prompt some honest reflection.

What neurodivergent communicators actually bring

Dyslexic thinkers tend to process information holistically rather than linearly — which maps closely onto how strong storytelling works. The ability to find the narrative shape in a complex brief, to see the human angle before anyone else in the room, to communicate simply about complicated things: these are not incidental. They are craft.

Those with ADHD bring something different again. The stereotype is distraction. The reality, when the conditions are right, is hyperfocus — a capacity for deep, sustained immersion in a subject that produces the kind of research, analytical rigour, and creative agility that clients pay significant day rates for. The struggle is rarely the ideas. It is almost always the environment.

And then there is the case of autism and communication — which is more nuanced, and more interesting, than the industry has generally allowed. The assumption has long been that autistic professionals are not natural communicators. The research tells a more complicated story. Studies into theatre and role-play based interventions have consistently found that when autistic individuals are given a structured framework — a character to inhabit, a script to work from, a safe context in which to operate — their communication can become remarkably precise and powerful. The permission that comes from playing a role appears to unlock something that direct social interaction forecloses. Any communications professional who has ever found their voice through a particular format, medium, or mode of performance will recognise something in that.

The return-to-office problem

Just as this conversation is gaining momentum, many organisations are moving in the opposite direction. The push to bring people back to the office full-time — framed as a culture and collaboration imperative — risks undoing the most inclusive working conditions many neurodivergent professionals have ever had.

Many neurodivergent individuals do thrive on routine. But the routine that works is typically self-designed: a consistent environment, a predictable rhythm, control over sensory input. The open-plan office — with its background noise, unpredictable interruptions, and unwritten social rules — is not just uncomfortable for someone with ADHD or autism. It is structurally incompatible with the conditions under which they do their best work.

The irony is considerable. Organisations are simultaneously declaring that they want more creativity, more divergent thinking, and more of the human qualities AI cannot replicate — while mandating the working conditions least likely to produce them.

"My environment is clear and open. I face a bright window on a quiet street and my immediate visual is nature. I plug in with huge, over-ear headphones, listen to the same tracks I have for decades, and ignore any busy-ness around me." Head of Comms in Trade and Supply Chain.

The culture question

None of this is solved by a neurodiversity policy or a line in the values statement. It starts with something more fundamental: whether people feel safe enough to work as they actually are, rather than performing a version of themselves that fits the room.

That means written application processes that don't filter out dyslexic candidates before they are ever heard. Briefing cultures that define good communication by its impact, not its grammar. Feedback that treats difference as signal rather than error. And leadership that understands the difference between an employee who is disengaged and one who is overstimulated.

As someone who is dyslexic, I know what it costs to feel that the way your mind works is a liability rather than an asset. I also know what becomes possible when the right conditions exist — when you find the format, the environment, or the person that makes your thinking legible.

The communications industry is facing a fundamental shift in what talent means. The question is not whether neurodivergent communicators belong in it. They always have. The question is whether the industry is finally ready to build the conditions in which they can do their best work — and in doing so, do its own.

This is the first in a series of conversations The Work Crowd is running with neurodivergent communications professionals. If you'd like to be part of it, get in touch.

The Work Crowd is an award-winning platform connecting organisations with vetted independent experts across Marketing, Communications, Digital, Events and Public Affairs. With a global network and local industry expertise, we make finding exceptional freelance, fractional and interim talent fast, simple and effective — whether you need to lead a project, fill a gap or bring specialist skills into your team.

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