When AI Goes Rogue: Why Your Communications Team Needs Guidelines Now
By Kim Brown, APR
Last week at the National Association of State Workforce Agencies conference in Dallas, we had the opportunity to discuss one of the most pressing topics facing communications professionals today: artificial intelligence. As co-founders of Story and Strategy, Abigail Hoover and I have been watching the rapid adoption of AI tools in our industry with both excitement and concern.
The Current State of Communications Professionals
Before diving into AI, it's important to understand the landscape communications professionals are operating in today. Through our 2025 State of Communications in DFW survey, which gathered anonymous feedback from 55 local peers, we discovered that the biggest challenge isn't what you might expect. While industry headlines focus on misinformation and new technology disruptions, the number one issue keeping our colleagues up at night is juggling too many roles at once, followed by limited staffing and resources.
This finding aligns with national data from Muck Rack's 2024 State of PR report, which found nearly half of communicators say their biggest challenge is insufficient resources. People are stretched thin, balancing heavy workloads with even heavier expectations. In this context, AI appears as an enticing solution to help manage overwhelming demands.
AI Adoption is Already Here
The numbers tell a clear story: roughly 90% of respondents in our local survey said they are actively using AI for their work. Nationally, Muck Rack's 2025 State of PR Report found 77% of respondents using AI regularly.
Personally, I'm using tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude daily. Google's NotebookLM has become invaluable for research-heavy projects as it can digest PDFs, websites, YouTube videos and Google documents to create podcast-style summaries that sound remarkably natural. Abigail uses CoPilot for drafting emails, social media posts, and story outlines, and as a busy mother, she's found AI helpful for everything from potty training tips to NFL survivor pool picks.
The Policy Gap Problem
Here's where things get concerning: while AI use is growing rapidly, workplaces aren't keeping pace with guardrails to mitigate risk. In our conference session, we asked for a show of hands on how many attendees had clear workplace AI policies. The response was telling – only half of hands went up.
This policy gap isn't unique to government agencies. Sarah Maben, Ph.D., from Texas Christian University recently published research showing that only 15 out of the Fortune 50 companies currently disclose how they are using AI on their websites. This raises serious questions about transparency and accountability.
Real Risks, Real Consequences
The risks of unguarded AI use became starkly apparent this past summer when journalists discovered a significant privacy breach. By filtering search results on Google and Bing to include only URLs from "https://chatgpt.com/share," they found strangers' private ChatGPT conversations publicly indexed online. These conversations included personal information like names and locations… content that users thought they were sharing privately with friends or colleagues.
While OpenAI quickly removed the feature once news broke, the incident highlights a crucial question: what else don't we know about AI platforms?
Without proper policies, organizations find themselves in "Shadow AI" territory, where employees use unvetted AI tools on personal accounts to create work-related content.
This creates multiple vulnerabilities:
AI chats aren't shielded from legal exposure and can be subpoenaed
AI platforms can hallucinate, requiring diligent fact-checking
These platforms face the same cybersecurity risks as any other technology
Sensitive organizational information may be inadvertently fed into models
Essential Elements for AI Policies
Drawing from the Public Relations Society of America's Ethical Use of AI Standards, we recommend focusing on five key areas when developing AI policies for communications teams:
Human Oversight: AI should enhance, not replace, human judgment and expertise. Every AI-generated content piece should be reviewed and edited by a human professional.
Protect Information: Establish clear guidelines about what information can and cannot be input into AI systems, especially regarding sensitive or confidential data.
Transparency and Disclosure: Be upfront about AI use. We used AI to help research and brainstorm topics for our own presentation, and we disclosed this to our audience.
Bias and Accuracy: Implement processes to check for bias in AI outputs and verify factual accuracy before publication.
Accountability and Ethics: Maintain clear lines of responsibility and ensure AI use aligns with organizational values and professional ethics.
Best Practices for Communications Teams
When using AI tools, communications professionals should position themselves as the strategist, editor and ethicist. This means:
Adding your organization's specific branding and tone to prompts
Using AI to review and revise your own writing for grammar, flow, sentiment and general improvements
Properly tagging AI-generated images or videos
Editing out obvious AI markers like excessive em dashes, unnecessary emojis, and robotic phrases that start with "At organization XYZ"
Moving Forward Responsibly
AI isn't going anywhere. It's here to stay and will continue evolving. The question isn't whether to use it, but how to use it responsibly and effectively. For organizations, this means developing comprehensive AI policies before problems arise, not after.
The goal shouldn't be to restrict AI use entirely, but to create frameworks that allow teams to harness its benefits while protecting against its risks. In an era where communications professionals are already juggling too many responsibilities, AI can be a valuable ally, but only when used with proper oversight, clear policies and unwavering commitment to transparency and accountability.
As we continue to navigate this new landscape, the most successful organizations will be those that embrace AI's potential while never losing sight of the human judgment, ethical standards and strategic thinking that remain at the heart of effective communication.
