How to future proof your comms career from AI

5.13.26

Happy Wednesday, nonprofit communications leaders.

Every week, I answer a question from a reader. This week's question is oh-so-relevant in the current AI age.

How can I future proof/ AI proof my job? I'm a MarCom strategist. I do everything, literally, from planning to evaluation, including creating assets. The only thing I have no experience with is graphic design. But as you know, AI is expected to be very good at all of this in the future. So how does someone like me protect their jobs?

Raise your hand if you've every quietly asking yourself this question as you lay in bed battling the Sunday Scaries.

You are not alone. I'm an eternal optimist so take all of this with that sunshine-colored grain of salt. Keep reading below.

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Is AI going to steal our nonprofit comms jobs?

I'm not going to bury the lede here: my honest answer is NO, but....

If we want to future proof our comms careers we need to be learning AI and use it to our advantage.

I'm writing about this topic later on this week on LinkedIn but I'll go more in depth here for you email subscribers.

A few weeks ago, I was at a Booster Club meeting for volunteers when a leader mentioned they needed help with communications. I offered to help the mom who'd stepped up.

She put her hand up to her mouth and quietly said through a smirk, "Oh, I've got ChatGPT. I'm good."

I was absolutely floored. Of course I nodded politely but truly, I was reminded YET AGAIN how often people think communications=sending written stuff.

Sigh.

For those of us who have been writing and building communications strategies our entire career, AI is a gift. I'm genuinely thankful for what it does for my work. It lets me be more efficient at the things I'm already good at, because I know what strong writing and smart strategy look like. It's like having a teammate who cuts me off when I ramble (always an issue) and catches my many typos. It can take my very specific directives and voice memos and create the bones of a strategy so that I have a first draft to work off of.

Ideation and strategy come from me, but AI is the work horse.

That's what people are missing when they're not experienced communicators. They think the tool is the skill.

So I've been thinking about an analogy that captures this disconnect. Here's where I landed. Stick with me, folks.

Imagine a trained cook and someone who has never cooked walking into the same grocery store. The cook knows what to look for. She knows what works together. She builds something delicious. She'll use shortcuts strategically like premade whipped cream instead of making her own, or a jarred sauce when time is tight. Maybe even a rotisserie chicken to build the meal around. The shortcuts work because she knows what she's doing with them. She knows what the meal is supposed to taste like before she even picks up a basket.

Now picture the non-cook walking into the same store. He grabs a microwave dinner, heats it up, and calls himself a stellar cook. It's the same store, the same shortcuts are available. But they are WILDLY different outcomes.

That's what's happening with AI in marketing and communications right now.

AI is the shortcut.

In the hands of a trained communicator, it's a force multiplier that makes our good work faster and frees us up for the strategic thinking only we can do. In the hands of someone who isn't, it's a microwave dinner being served as a five-course meal and called the same thing.

People can taste the difference before they even put the fork in their mouth.

I hope the volunteer figures it out. But I also have faith that good leaders will see the difference between someone who can prompt ChatGPT and someone who actually knows how to communicate. Because audiences can tell. Boards can tell. And donors sure as heck can tell!

So back to the original question. Can a MarCom strategist who does everything from planning to evaluation protect their job in the AI age?

I think yes. But it takes some intentionality. Here's what I'd focus on.

Get familiar with a tool. Really familiar.

I use both Claude and ChatGPT, and I use them for very different things. Claude is my go-to for writing and ideating. It picks up on voice and nuance in a way ChatGPT just doesn't, at least for me. ChatGPT is where I go for more practical questions and quick analysis. I use Claude to take my voice memos and turn them into a draft I can work off of. Much like my CEO used to respond to my first draft of speeches and board communications, I now respond to AI's first draft of MY dirty first draft.

Claude has also been a game changer for analyzing data. I launched the annual Nonprofit Comms Salary Survey inside the Nonprofit Comms Club earlier this week, and I'm already running responses through Claude to summarize results and spot patterns. Work that would require an outside research firm or hours of my time is happening in minutes.

The same thing applies to marketing data. Social media engagement, email open rates, web analytics, donor communications performance. AI can sift through all of it, surface patterns, and free up time for the thinking only a strategic communicator can actually do.

But none of that happens by dabbling. Pick one tool and commit to using it every day for a month. Learn where it's brilliant and where it falls flat.

Keep working to become a strategic partner.

This is the bigger one. I genuinely don't think strategic communications jobs are going away. Bad AI slop doesn't convert or move donors. It doesn't build trust with boards or leaders. And nonprofits that want to keep up are going to need communications professionals who can use AI to work faster and smarter without losing the strategic thinking that makes the work effective in the first place.

The threat isn't AI. The threat is becoming the person whose entire role is producing assets that AI can now produce too. The protection is being the person at the table when decisions get made, the one who knows the audience, reads the room, and translates strategy into communications that actually work.

That role isn't going anywhere.

One quick ask before you go.

The Nonprofit Comms Salary Survey is officially open to the public. The more responses we get, the better the data is for all of us when we're negotiating raises, building budgets, or making the case for what our work is worth. I'll share the results with you later this year and it only takes about 5 minutes!

Happy communicating,

Julie

CCO for Nonprofits

P.S. Want a question answered in a future issue? I'll be back to my regularly scheduled programming next week with answers to reader questions. Drop yours here.