Tech Can Scale the Message. Only People Can Build Trust.

A few months ago, I sat in a strategy meeting where someone presented the output of asking an AI tool to summarize a forty-page policy brief. The tool had done so quickly. Everyone was impressed. But what struck me most wasn’t the speed. It was how quickly we all adjusted, as if this had always been part of the job.

We’re in a moment where it feels like everyone is talking about digital transformation. AI tools are rewriting copy, organizing data, summarizing legislation, and drafting messaging faster than most of us can finish our coffee. For those of us in public affairs, where strategy, language, and timing are everything, this can feel both thrilling and disorienting.

And yes, some of it is incredible.

I’ve seen generative tools help speed up rapid response. I’ve used software to cut meeting time in half and keep me on task. I’ve watched friends in the nonprofit sector build new campaigns with a fraction of the resources they once needed.

But in all of this efficiency, I keep coming back to one question: What happens to the human part?

Public affairs has always been about people. Not just the audiences we reach, but the coalitions we build, the relationships we foster, and the quiet work of trust that underpins all of it. It’s not just that AI can’t replace that, it’s that it doesn’t even know how to measure it.

And that question isn’t just theoretical. It’s urgent.

In a Time of Broken Trust, Connection Matters More

We’re living through a fundamental breakdown in trust — in government, in institutions, in information itself. And while technology has expanded what’s possible, it has also outpaced the guardrails meant to keep it ethical.

In public affairs, that matters. Because when we talk about AI and digital strategy, we’re not just talking about efficiency. We’re talking about power, privacy, and persuasion and who gets protected in the process.

We have to be honest: Technology, social media, and AI have been used to target communities of color, to harvest their data, to exploit their fears, and to undermine their voices. Those dynamics don’t disappear just because a new platform comes along. If anything, they risk being rebuilt in subtler ways.

So if we’re going to talk about innovation, we have to talk about accountability, too.
And we have to earn, not assume, the trust of the people we serve.

What We Still Bring to the Table

Here’s what I keep coming back to:

1. Know what the tools are good at and what they’re not
AI is great at pattern recognition. At summarizing. At speed. It’s not great at reading a room, anticipating blowback, or understanding why a message that “should work” doesn’t. The best communicators will be the ones who can do both: leverage digital tools and know when to ignore them.

2. Use AI to make space for what isn’t scalable
Relationships. Strategy. Trust. These don’t come from automation. They come from attention and experience. If AI can free up your calendar from grunt work, the goal isn’t to fill it with more tasks — it’s to reinvest that time in the work that still needs your voice.

3. Watch how power is shifting
New tools create new gatekeepers. Who sets the defaults? Who defines success? Who controls the data? In public affairs, we’re used to asking these questions in policy debates. We need to ask them in our own work, too, and be ready to push back when needed.

4. Teach both fluency and discernment
This isn’t just about keeping up. It’s about modeling good judgment. Just because something can be done faster doesn’t mean it should be. Not every message is a memo. Not every audience is an algorithm. Teaching that balance is part of our job now, too.

Final Thought

Digital innovation isn’t going away and it shouldn’t. It can make our work more effective, more accessible, and more inclusive when used well. But the challenge ahead isn’t just about catching up to the tools. It’s about making sure the field we’re building still feels human, still makes room for wisdom, and still centers the people behind the policy.

Because at the end of the day, tech can’t care about the public good. That part’s still up to us.

So yes, use the tools. Learn them, test them, adapt to them. But don’t forget what made you good at this work in the first place. Your judgment. Your relationships. Your sense of what’s fair, what’s true, what lands and what doesn’t.

Technology can scale a message but only people can build trust. And public affairs? That’s still a people job.