The communication profession’s time is coming. We need to be ready, so please have your say

In late January, Deloitte released a fascinating analysis of the modern C-suite.

It found, among many other things, that Fortune 500 C-suites are growing. Apparently, they grew by 23% between 2018 and 2023 in response to the need to drive growth amid increasing complexity.

The really interesting news is that communication is on the rise. Deloitte found that the instance of Chief Corporate Affairs and Chief Communications Officers grew by 133% over this period. That puts comms second only to Chief Sustainability or DIE officers when it comes to growth.

And it’s not surprising when you think about what today’s organisations are facing into:

• Accelerating change and, not surprisingly, change fatigue.
• Increasing leader burnout and alignment issues according to recent reports.
• Changing customer and stakeholder needs.
• The galloping pace of technological change (particularly AI), which is going to reinvent the way organisations operate in a short period of time.
• Increasing regulatory, economic and geopolitical uncertainty.

As a result, it looks like more and more organisations are recognising the need for a comms seat at the table.

The future for communication

Now, there are two ways to look at the future of our profession.

The first is the glass half empty version. AI is going to eat our jobs (and, in truth, it will have some impact as certain tasks become augmented or democratised across the organisation).

But I believe the glass half full version is true, provided we step up. All the stresses and challenges that organisations are facing scream for communication teams to take a greater leadership role.

Supporting employees. Supporting leaders. Aligning our organisations. Managing the change load. Simplifying messaging. Feeding the stakeholder voice into decision making. Training people in areas like ethical AI and even communication.

All of these critical leadership activities sit in our wheelhouse and organisations are going to need us in a leadership capacity more than ever.

But this opportunity to lead won’t fall in our lap. If we really want to lead our organisations (and take control our profession’s destiny) we need to be up for it. We need to be talking, preparing and leading now.

#Comms2030: a resource for our future

In an effort to start a conversation about the future of our profession, I recently produced a new resource with the support of Australia’s Centre for Strategic Communication Excellence and global communication leaders.

It begins with #Comms2030: A day in the life of a future communication professional. This simple slide show summarises the research and imagines what a day in the life of a comms professional might look like in 2030.

If you’re interested in more detail, there is also the full discussion paper: #Comms2030: Why AI might be communication’s golden opportunity. It outlines in detail the opportunities and challenges facing us and the organisations we support.

Let’s start the conversation

The bottom line

The future of our profession depends on how we respond right now. AI and a range of corporate challenges aren’t just reshaping comms, they’re giving us the chance to lead.

Let’s start the conversation now and create an exciting future for today’s communication professionals and for those who follow us.