From AI FOMO to AI Focus

In a week where AI is consuming a lot of my brain (we’ve got two public AI courses running), I’ve noticed a familiar theme coming up again and again in conversations with comms and PR people.

It’s the pressure to stay “up to date” with AI.

New tools, new prompts, new workflows. There’s a pervasive feeling that the next big thing is out there and we need to make sure we’re not left behind.

Don’t get me wrong: a lot of this is necessary!

But there’s a subtle trap here.

It’s not that we shouldn’t be horizon‑scanning. We absolutely should. If you’ve been on any of my AI sessions, you’ll know I’m a big fan of using the best‑in‑class tools and keeping an eye on what’s coming next.

The trap is when all our energy goes into chasing new tools and not enough into upgrading our thinking about how and why we use them. That’s when we risk becoming very efficient at generating more “stuff” without actually improving the quality of our judgment or our work.

Are you a fact collector or a sense-maker?

I have started to think about this as the difference between being a fact collector and being a sense‑maker.

• A fact collector*: tries every new AI feature as soon as it comes out; has a growing pile of summaries, transcripts and draft copy; and feels productive because there’s a lot of “output”

• A sense‑maker: is choosy about which tools and prompts they use; spends at least as much time deciding what matters as they do generating words; and uses AI to make it easier to think, not to avoid thinking

Both groups might be using exactly the same tools but they expect those tools to do very different things for them.

If our goal is simply to cover more ground, we can collect facts all day long! If our goal is to be trusted advisers, we need to be the ones who can cut through, decide and explain.

AI can help with either. It’s our approach that decides which one we’re reinforcing.

Three questions before you add another AI thing

Before you sign up for yet another shiny new tool, try asking yourself three simple questions:

1. What problem am I actually trying to solve? Is it “I don’t have enough ideas"? or “I’m spending too long on first drafts”? Or is it something more strategic, like “We don’t have a clear view of what good AI use looks like in this team”?

2. How will I know this is helping? What would you notice if this worked? Less time on low‑value tasks? Better quality thinking in your team meetings?Fewer pointless rewrites? If we can’t answer this, we’re probably just adding noise unfortunately.

3. What behaviour does this tool need from me (or my team)? Almost every AI solution assumes someone will: write clear prompts, sense‑check outputs, and make decisions off the back of them. If those habits aren’t in place, the tool won’t fix that for us - again, unfortunately!

These questions can help slow us down enough to upgrade our thinking at the same time as our tech.

The bigger picture: going from “playing with AI” to “leading AI adoption”

There’s another layer to this, especially if you’re leading a comms team, agency team, or are the de facto “AI person” in your organisation.

It’s one thing to be personally curious about AI. It’s another to lead AI adoption in a way that is consistent, responsible and effective.

That means questions like:

• What do we want AI to do for us as a team?

• Where are the red lines? What will we not use it for?

• How do we make sure everyone is using it in ways that are safe, fair and transparent?

• Who owns the guardrails and checks?

These are governance questions as much as they are creative ones. And they’re increasingly what clients, stakeholders and boards are asking about.

A free session on good practice - with a special guest who’s written the book on AI governance

If this is ringing bells for you, you might be interested in our free Lunch and Learn webinar, which you can watch in full on-demand here.

Our special guest is ✨Emanuela Giangregorio, who has developed a practical AI governance framework that is already being used by organisations across all sectors, including our own industry.

Emanuela takes us through what leading AI adoption actually looks like at a team and organisational level:

• what to put in place

• what to avoid

• and how to ensure your team’s use of AI is consistent, responsible and effective

We’d love to welcome you, whether you’re in‑house, agency side, or somewhere in between. 

*Footnote on “fact collector”. If your brain is prone to bouts of behaving like a toddler (as mine is), then you will have read this as “fart collector” and now you can never look at it properly again.