From baby babble to artificial intelligence adoption
Embracing artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance flexible working in Defence communications
One small change in my life was exactly 9lb 6oz and didn’t feel small until he made an appearance. Returning to work after 15 months’ extended maternity leave also didn’t feel small. It felt like it left a big gaping hole in my career, knowledge and confidence.
And then I came back. And it really did feel like I’d forgotten how to do my job, while feeling like a bad mother for sending my son to nursery (which, incidentally, he practically gallops into).
I was also trying to recover my work-self on 22 hours per week, fully remote and 200 miles from the office!
Small steps and big leaps
So I started to take small steps towards remembering my role, expanding my shrunken network, and rebuilding my skills. I took a Government Communication Service (GCS) course called ‘AI for Communicators’ and started using Gemini and Copilot. I tried (and failed) to get into Beta testing a Ministry of Defence Chat GPT and successfully applied to get access to Assist, an AI-powered conversational tool for GCS members. Assist has communication frameworks embedded into it and is more secure than throwing things at Google or Microsoft.
The AI advantage
The AIs aren’t perfect. They need feeding with styles, understanding of the audience, and they don’t have ideas. But Assist has been able to tell me where my comms plan could use a better accessibility plan. It’s drafted a full evaluation and website content. It has changed style and tone when I’ve had to shift authors I’m ghost-writing material for.
Not only that but I was able to ask Assist what I’d missed over my maternity leave and it presented what I needed to know and where I could find more information.
Why this matters
Long absences and cutting hours are supported well by AI. When you reduce your hours by 40% after being away for over a year, it’s impossible to remember enough of your job to plan that reduction properly. AI tools like Assist can help bridge this gap and allows us to maintain productivity even with reduced hours.
Innovation in adaptation and iteration
You may be wondering whether using AI is still innovative when the technology has been available for so long. Here’s the thing. Innovation isn’t about dreaming up new ways of doing everything. I studied poetry, not computing. It’s my adoption of technology and my willingness to learn and experiment that makes a difference.
AI isn’t fully ready for my needs. I was recently disappointed by a demo from a company delivering AI-generated video content. Some things need more development, and the businesses need that feedback so that they can improve their designs, with real customers in mind.
The future of the communication profession
Do I worry about my profession’s future with the introduction of AI? Only if communicators don’t engage with it. Because we need to be making assessments of whether something is good enough. We need to feed AI ideas and let it help us with the textual delivery of our roles. We need to put our creativity into campaigns and our skills into refining.
And we need to do that while raising our families and striking a true work life balance.
What would your organisation look like, if everyone could cut back 20% or 40% of their time and achieve the same outputs? What if full-time comms people boosted their productivity without the stress of putting in more time?
It takes one small change. That’s why I’m urging all government communicators, especially those juggling multiple responsibilities or working reduced hours, to explore Assist and other AI tools. The time savings alone could transform how we work and live.
In conclusion, whether you’re returning from a career break, working part-time or simply looking to enhance your efficiency, AI tools like Assist offer immense potential. Let’s embrace this technology and lead the way in innovative, balanced, and effective communication practices.