In an AI-driven workplace, two forces are reshaping how work actually happens: technology and communications.

They don’t always speak the same language.

That tension — and the opportunity inside it — is what Lara Dobson, our in-house workplace trends expert, went looking for among IT and digital workplace leaders.

What did she find? For one, IT and internal comms aren’t separate functions: They’re two sides of the same coin.

Over to Lara to share her findings. — Kim

Pop quiz ↘

Since when was it already the middle of April? Hard to believe it’s been two weeks since I was in San Diego for the Gartner Digital Workplace Summit. For those less familiar, this is the largest annual gathering of IT and digital workplace leaders.

As someone rooted in communications, I always see it as a chance to step outside my lane and understand how the adjacent world is thinking.

This year felt different.

For the first time, AI didn’t feel like a future topic. It felt like a very current conundrum.

Across sessions, one theme kept coming up: organizations are investing heavily in AI and the digital workplace, but employees aren’t experiencing work as simpler, clearer, or more aligned. In many cases, the opposite is happening:

AI is expanding access to information, tools, and answers, but also increasing the number of sources, interpretations, and decisions employees have to reconcile.

That’s creating a new kind of breakdown that I think communications teams are starting to feel first. Because when everything can generate an answer, consistency becomes the real challenge.

What struck me most is that IT leaders see this too, but frame it differently:

IT sees a system design problem.

Comms feels a trust and clarity problem.

Both are right, and neither can solve it alone anymore. That’s where a new kind of partnership is starting to take shape.

Here are three things comms and IT need to align on in the AI era.

1️⃣ AI isn’t just a productivity tool. It’s a trust amplifier. (And a drag on decision-making if you get it wrong.)

AI reshapes not just what employees see, but what they believe and act on. At Gartner, there was concern about declining critical thinking and employees second-guessing answers.

But the real issue isn’t accuracy. It’s hesitation.

When trust is low, employees slow down: checking sources, asking others, and thus delaying decisions. At scale, that means slower operations and inconsistent execution, despite more “answers.”

For comms, the shift is clear: You’re not just creating messages; you’re shaping employees’ confidence to act. In short, trust becomes more than a culture metric — it drives decision velocity.

2️⃣ Conversely, governance is no longer “just an IT problem.” It’s a business-wide responsibility.

Most organizations still treat governance as IT’s job. But in the AI era, governance determines what gets surfaced, trusted, and acted on.

When it’s weak:

• employees get conflicting answers
• trust breaks down
• decision-making slows

That means governance now directly impacts organizational health. Which means IT can’t do it alone, and comms can’t ignore it.

If you care about clarity, consistency, and alignment, you now also care about governance.

3️⃣ The real gap isn’t AI strategy: It’s employee buy-in and execution.

One stat that has stuck with me from the conference:

50% of CIOs prioritize transformation.

But only 21% of employees feel aligned.

That gap is where AI transformation stalls. Not because strategy is wrong, but because it doesn’t translate into daily work.

Employees are increasingly seeing:

• tools without purpose
• AI without context
• change without a clear narrative

The result? Confusion, not transformation.

Gartner analysts were clear: AI transformation is as much a storytelling problem as a technology one. Communicators now have a huge opportunity to partner with IT to translate and narrate change so employees understand it, trust it, and act on it.

The organizations that get this right won’t just adopt AI faster. They’ll execute better because employees understand what’s happening, trust it, and act on it.

* * *

If you’re seeing this differently, I’d love to hear it. Or if it’s resonating, that’s helpful to know, too! Reply to this email or send me a message on LinkedIn.

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