Category Archives: communications

Look, I know you’re probably worried about AI but I want this to be a plain English run through of what Keir Starmer’s announcement means for you if you work in public sector comms.

You may have seen that the Prime Minister has made a significant policy announcement about AI and the future direction of the country. 

Here, I’ll run through the basics of it and I’ll also run through what this means for you if you work in public sector comms. If ever my strapline ‘future comms made easy’ comes into play in my work its for this post.

What did the Prime Minister say?

In short, Keir Starmer says that the future of the UK will be shaped by how well we can be at the bow wave of Artificial Intelligence. That means encouraging innovation but it also means demanding the public sector use AI more effectively.

“AI is the defining opportunity of our generation. The battle for the jobs of tomorrow is happening today.” – Keir Starmer.

Why bother? 

Two reasons. First, the economic argument is that using AI to its potential would add 1.5 per cent onto UK growth a year bringing an extra £47 billion into the economy ever year for 10 years. Secondly, security. By developing tools in the UK we are less exposed to the whims of hostile powers. I’m thinking China in this but I’m also thinking potentially of the USA. 

That’s fine, what does this mean for the public sector? 

If you think this is an announcement for boffins in lab coats, tech bros, data scientists and it won’t affect you you’d be wrong. Yes, it was partly aimed at people working in the AI space because their investment will help shape how fast the UK will travel. But it’s also something aimed at all of us and definitely something public sector communicators needs to pay attention to.

“It will make public services more human.” – Keir Starmer.

The move will allow people on the coalface of the public sector to speed-up processes they already have. 

That’s things like: 

Better pothole detection.

Better diagnosis.

Better at fighting tax avoidance,

Faster processes for planning applications.

Less time for social workers on paperwork.

So, there’s elements there for central government but also local government and NHS. Fire and rescue and police weren’t mentioned directly but I think you’d very easily come up with scenarios where AI could help or hinder people on the frontline.

All this, the announcement said, was about doing a  better job and freeing up more time.

Comms, I’ve got a job for you understanding AI, explaining it and advocating for it 

“Our plan for change also sets down a gauntlet for public services and the blunt truth is we’ve got to be much bolder. I’ve seen this fear myself as a leader of public services and this is entirely human so we have to change that mindset.” – Keir Starmer.

This will partly be the job of public sector communications. 

The announcement recognises that fear is one of the reasons that change is not happening faster. It would be remiss of Government simply to clap their hands to make it go faster. 

The scan, pilot and scale approach may be one thing to reassure people. This means that AI won’t be just chucked at everything. 

So, if AI tools that can make pothole detection and repair faster then that needs to be understood by the comms team and also communicated to a sceptical public.

One observation from delivering training is that when people see the benefit they absolutely want more of it. Once, I was showing people in a training session an AI tool and an attendee spoke about how she was frightened of AI and wished it could be uninvented. 

So, we ran a task from her to do list through ChatGPT. The task was to write a webpage giving advice on how to stay safe in extreme hot weather. Advice was for the reader but also vulnerable people such as neighbours or relatives. Within 30-seconds, the tool had come up with content and bullet point advice that was eighty per cent on the money. It needed some topping and tailing but the main points were there.

“This is amazing,” the once sceptical comms officer reacted, “We really should be using more of this.” They had turned 180 degrees in the spaceless than a minute once they saw it could help them with their job.

Move that out to the pothole example, how could you explain the benefits to residents? The good news is you don’t need to code to do this. You just need to bring your existing skill set. You may, for example, need to ask for the data on how faster this will make things. If the machine can do 10 repairs in a day instead of five then set that out.

It feels like AI-literacy has become very important 

Talking to comms people in late 2024, there’s maybe a feeling that AI is for the geeks to understand. It probably won’t land on the team and there maybe people who can swerve learning about it.

I’m taking a punt here, but it feels like when the internet emerged there were people who opted out. I don’t think that will be a long term strategy for people who would like to work in the sector in the next five years.

What if people don’t understand AI?

To the credit of the announcement, this is recognised. UK Government through the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology will look at the skills gap and how best to fill it. I’d like to think that the skills gap in comms may also play a role in this.

What about AI and comms as a job?

There’s nothing in Keir Starmer’s announcement directly about public sector comms. But the benefits have been spoken about elsewhere. Using AI to better evaluate, for example. Or using AI tools to tailor and personalise content is certainly very achievable. Give it the main points and ask it to produce something to a different audience. The tools for this are here already.

This part is really down for all of us to explore. 

What other practical things does the announcement herald?

There was a substantial number of references to places across the UK. Data centres in Liverpool and Northumberland, for example. But also AI Growth Zones. These will be areas where growth around the AI sector will be targeted. The first was announced at Culham in Oxfordshire where the UK Atomic Energy Authority currently is. More will follow. If you work in local government, your chief executive and Leader may be getting excited about this prospect. 

What about open data? 

There’s other parts of the announcement about a policy to make more data open to the public. Also, government will look at how the data will be collected in the first place. Will this have an impact on public sector comms? Well, comms may have to communicate it but overall this feels very high level.

What about comms people who are too tired or too scared for all this?

This is a huge challenge. 

Teams never really recovered or paused from the worst of COVID. Many people are on their knees or burnt out. That’s understandable. Maybe they feel too long in their careers to pick up new skills. They are being asked to take a leap into the unknown with AI and it’s understandable to be worried. For a head of comms or manager this is going to be a real challenge.

Many teams are also well over 40 and are not savvy with AI tools. This on its own is not the immovable obstacle it could be. My 16-year-old daughter hates the idea of AI. So does my wife who is in her 50s. I can absolutely get that. I can only go back to the point about showing how AI can help you with your job before people start getting on board. Answer the ‘what’s in it for me?’ question and you have a chance. 

The only advice I can offer is to make it as easy as possible. Hold the door open for everyone and if people want to go through the door and learn new things that’s a plus.

For my money, the line that AI on its own won’t necessarily take all jobs. But a comms person who is savvy to understand AI, communicate it and use it will replace those who can’t.

I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape on ESSENTIAL AI FOR PUBLIC SECTOR COMMS.

Around 12-months ago I ran an exercise by looking at a number of Facebook pages to see what content worked best.

Seeing as the algorithms are ever changing I thought I’d refresh the exercise as part of an update on training slides.

I thought I’d share that here too.

What’s engagement?

That’s the likes, comments, shares and replies on a post. Facebook says engagement is important as it increases organic reach. If people are engaging they are likely to stay longer on the app. So they want to promote things that will keep people.

Here’s the league table.

What's changed?

Of course, a snapshot of 250 public sector Facebook posts from 10 pages can only tell you so much, but I think its indicative.

We're starting to see AI content being posted by corporate pages. Worryingly, neither of the two examples were marked as AI which not only goes against Facebook's terms and conditions but UK Government guidelines.

What the numbers mean

I've looked at the page's follower numbers and then measured the amount of engagement per post. Easy.

1st - The carousel of pictures is king as content

A spread of pictures gets the most engagement.

In many ways there's no surprise to this. Visually, its interesting. As I've said many times before it plugs into the old school journalism thing of getting more people to read the paper to recognise people they know. Only, this time those people have Facebook accounts to like and comment.

In the research, carousel images had 0.36 per cent engagement.

See more

2nd - Reels are second

There's no surprise with this, but posting as a Reel performs strongly. With this you may be reaching people outside of your network.

This absolutely chimes with the intention of Facebook to make all video vertical. Why? Because that's how we hold a mobile phone in our hand.

3rd - A single picture that's not a library image, stock image or got text or design on it

Next up is the single image.

This is an image that is from the area. It could be a landscape shot of woodland, staff at work, a senior person doing something.

This content from Mersey and West Lancashire NHS does this beautifully as it tells the story of a dedicated member of staff.

See more

4th - Video uploaded to the page

This is uploaded directly to the page as opposed to as a Reel. It's aimed at the people who like your page.

This example from Merseyside Police isn't intended to try and snag passing traffic who are looking to kill time. There are no gimicks here or sharp edits that would work on other content. It's a statement on an important matter.

Here's an edit but the full clip is here.

5th - Artwork

Our old friend artwork. This can be an image which has gone through Canva or past a designer. This is the same as last yea. It reinforces the message that this content doesn't connect as well as other content.

There's no criticism of designers. It's just that their fine work is most effective in other areas.

These findings absolutely chime with social media reviews I carry out.

The greatest danger with communications is that the myth that it's happened. It may be useful at a meeting to say that's been posted but is it connecting? No.

Here's an example from another part of the world.

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6th - stock images

We've all been there. We need a shot of an older person looking concerned being helped by someone. We don't have one of our own. So, we'll go for a stock image.

They are often insincere and don't really connect.

7th - Text

Straight forward text came at this point in the league table. Facebook used to be all about text in 2007 but technology has moved on.

8th - AI images

As I've mentioned, the two images encountered which are AI were both not marked as AI. This is a bad look for reasons which we've looked at. Don't. If you do use AI mark it as such.

9th - Toolkit

I have to say, this year I saw far less toolkit content. Toolkit is the centrally issued set of images with maybe national branding which is distributed to people across a region or country. The thinking behind it is sound. You're busy, so we've made something for you. But the numbers don't lie. People don't connect.

Here's an example from Australia.

See more

10th - GIFs

This is perhaps surprising. A GIF is a brief animation. This can be an existing GIF or something that the organisation has made which can be pulled off the shelf. The fire and rescue service I looked at had several for incidents, for example.

It's bottom of the league.

So what?

Well, take these figures as indicative. Have a look at your own content and come up with numbers for yourself. This way, you'll be able to bat back content that won't work supported by data.

Give a Gallic shrug while you're at it and say the word 'algorithms.'

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Well, it looks as though some more useful tools have finally been added to WhatsApp Channels.

WhatsApp Channels was launched as a way organisations could broadcast one way messages to subscribers.

There’s also no limit to subscribers which blows their previous offering WhatsApp for Business with its 256-subscriber limit out of the water.

Bigger accounts such as Real Madrid with 61 million subscribers have made the most of the platform.

Now, scrolling through my under-used WhatsApp Channel I’ve noticed they’ve added insights around reach, growth and followers.

You can see this here: 

Compared to the insights available for Facebook and Instagram the Meta offering here is thin. While this is not spectacular this does move things in a more positive direction.

Universal use

The latest Ofcom stats show that WhatsApp gas now become the most used social app in the UK. It reaches 91.1 per cent of adults in the UK over 18. That’s almost ten points higher than the next most significant challenge YouTube. 

This makes it a huge player.

It’s as close to the universal social media channel. 

Incidentally, you can follow my WhatsApp Channel here. My New Year’s Resolution is to post more to it. 

But we’re still getting to grips with it

There are several public sector organisations who are experimenting with WhatsApp but I’m not sure anyone has it entirely nailed.

The improvements in insights has to be a positive step to comms people who are looking to map the impact of their output. 

I’ve mentioned before that the Daily Mail approach of multiple WhatsApp Channels feels like the way to go. For them, if you want the Kardashians then you can just have that on the Kardashian WhatsApp. If you want news from Westminster then you can have just that. 

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A curious thing happened when I sat down and thought of public sector comms predictions for 2025.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve jotted down ideas for predictions for the next 12-months.

One thing emerged. Like Japanese soldiers on a Pacific island who don’t know the war is over comms people are at serious risk of being left behind in 2025. 

A series of chasms are opening up. The good news is that with swift action over the course of the year they can be bridged. The bad news is that there are plenty of forces trying to stop you.  

But first last year

So before I alarm you, how were my predictions for public sector comms in 2024? 

They were 87.5 per cent accurate, 4.1 per cent were ‘hmmmm’ and 8.3 per cent I think I got wrong. 

What was right

• There was a need to retrench social media as algorithms changed. 
• X, formerly Twitter did get less relevant but didn’t fall over.
• No, there wasn’t a Twitter replacement. Threads and BlueSky stayed niche.
• Paid subscriptions on social media accounts did get more important.
• Fascism did get more of a part of normal conversation with a lurch to the right in USA.
• There was a need to communicate cuts and bankruptcy in the public sector.
• The most effective comms was done by using the native platform not a social media management platform.
• There was election turbulence.
• There was more misinformation and disinformation.
• There was more fake content created. 
• Comms did need to shape AI policy. 
• Many comms teams did struggle to accept the link is dead and found diminishing returns by persisting with this tactic. 
• Teams that didn’t educate the client to the changing comms landscape did struggle.
• Nicola Bulley-style TikTok detectives played a massive role in the Southport riots with online speculation leading to riot and disorder. 
• A cataclysmic event did point the way to how social media performs in a crisis. Murders in Southport led to a summer of riots in English towns left behind by decline.
• Local news did continue to be niche with jobs lost but the new trend of email news platforms slowly growing.
• Human comms and story telling did cut through. Analysis showed that human stories cut through the best. 
• Building a network of AI knowledge was useful.
• TikTok did become more important.
• The wider internet did become more beset by AI-made rubbish.
• A two speed AI adoption did happen with some comms teams experimenting and some ignoring it. 

Hmmm…

• Messaging apps like WhatsApp did become more important as a communications channel but the public sector didn’t use it well.

No…

• Fire and rescue did hope for a once in a generation chance to establish a College of Fire & Rescue and modernise but that’s not really happened.

• At the start of the year I argued for an AI advocate in your team to experiment as with social media. I’ve changed on this. That advocate needs to be an expert on process and government guidelines to steer the ship. Like Sherpa Tensing with a clipboard. A pioneer and adventurous but only on the trail marked out, thank you

Predictions for 2025

The media landscape continues to splinter. In the UK, there is already 60 million ways to consume media. Algorithms will continue to drive this. That’s an easy prediction but needs saying. 

Algorithms will continue to edge out Friends and family as the driver of traffic on social channels. The trend of AI-generated selections for your timeline rather than your networks will continue. This is obvious. This describes the weather you’ll see.

Good content rather than quantity. If you are posting 10 times a day to tick a box don’t. Instead, tthink about posting two pieces of gold standard content instead. Those two gems will soar while the sub-standard churn will sink. Data will be your friend here. Keep the insights for the good and the bad so you can explain to the ugly what you are trying to do. 

Make shaping an AI strategy for your organisation – and in turn comms – as number one strategic priority. Events will try and knock you of course. Fight it. If you set out how you will use AI and where you won’t you’ll stand a chance for future employment. I don’t wish to alarm you in saying this but I would like to flag up that this strategy is easily the best strategic thing you’ll do over the next decade. 

BlueSky will continue to be niche. Until journalists and politicians relocate X will retain its outsized influence amongst these two demographics. But the platform may struggle to combat greater attention from bad actors. Comms people can absolutely gain value from creating their own networks there. It just won’t be Nu Twitter.

Hiring a journalist as a the organisation’s chief storyteller will be a smart move. Cutting through the landscape of bad AI and poor artwork those authentic human stories and faces will cut through. Who better at this than a reporter? But make it one who can shoot video and post online.

Recruiting an army of advocates to share your content in their communities will be one of the best tactical things you can do in 2025. Modelled on the successful Labour Party strategy those advocates will be from your community and happy to share their experience and your content in their networks. So, a Polish speaker who is a member of a Polish WhatsApp group or a mother-of-two who is in a community Facebook group can be valuable advocates. They will reach parts your corporate communications simply won’t reach.

Staff face perma-crisis fatigue so invest in them. We’ve had banking crisis, recession, war in Ukraine, refugee crisis, winter crisis, cuts, change of Government, devolution, Brexit and council mergers. The fact your team turn up for work is a minor miracle. What can you do to help this? Encourage time to switch off and step away and invest in them. Allow people to move on if you need to. People not platforms will help you communicate well.

Vertical video explosion. Meta hoped to have all video on its platform vertical by late 2024 but this will now seep to 2025. It’s also on LinkedIn. The weather set by Meta will be felt elsewhere. This will increase so stop messing around. 

There will be an AI fluff up. Somebody somewhere in the public sector will use AI to communicate something and will drop an absolute clanger that will be harmful for trust in the entire sector. But it will remind us all to stick to the UK Government guidelines. 

Quality regional news will continue to shift to email first newsletters. As people fall out of love with traffic-chasing regional news sites, more quality local journalism will be found in cities and will be email first. But this will not on its own arrest wider sector decline.

Mass readership local news will look even less like what local newspapers used to be. I’m not sticking my neck out on this but its worth making the point. Today’s reporters need things served differently. Look at the last 100 posts of a title you are trying to reach for more on this. 

Argue for ad spend or fail to reach people. Without an army of advocates ad spend may be the only way to reach a community. This will get even more important. 

If AI cartoons continue to be part of the media landscape then how do you tap into that? You’ve seen them. The pro-farmer AI image of protesting tractors. If that works on the wider internet how can you make it work for you? But mark it as AI, obvs. 

AI swarms. You thought I’d forgotten about AI, didn’t you? AI swarms are groups of tools being used together in clever ways. As this technology starts to be used in 2025 its uses will become more apparent for public sector comms. But without the framework in place to use AI safely this is going to by-pass you by. It won’t be used widely in PR and comms. Yet. It will. See why I think sorting out an AI strategy is a good idea? 

Risks, oh the risks

Risk of being trapped in a Microsoft-shaped AI landscape. IT are at risk of locking down creativity again. While Microsoft tools may be an easy win the bright comms person will press for a degree of creativity outside the sheep fold. That’s if AI is being adopted at all.

Risk of being trapped in a legacy tech landscape. More computing power is needed to produce video and use AI effectively. Teams with patched-up make do and mend tech will fall behind.

Risk of being trapped in a Gen X landscape increases. Many leaders in organisations are born before 1980 and their Gen X preferences can guide the organisation. Yet, Millennials can be aged 43, Gen Z can be 27 and Gen A can be 14 and often demand a faster pace to communications on digital channels. How does that materialise? We don’t use TikTok because the chief exec doesn’t like it. 

Risk of not bringing the organisation along with you increases. While you may get the big picture you can only move as fast as your slowest chief executive. You need to manage up. Constantly. ‘Here’s why we’re evolving…’ should be the most common phrase in your Outlook Unwrapped in 2025.

Risk of being trapped in skills deficit increases. If you don’t have the skills in the team to identify the right channels, create the right content and know when to use just enough of AI safely you need to find them or develop them or be trapped going backwards.

Risk of being trapped with a middle aged comms team. If the average age of your team is 53.2 you have a problem. Without some new ideas and the perspective of youth your team risks not representing the audience you serve. Experience is valuable. Too much can be a care home. 

Risk of being outsourced or replaced increases. If the team doesn’t have the skills, hasn’t got the tech or has no strategy those gaps which are bridgeable now – just – will become too big to traverse. Like a typing pool that won’t use computers. If that’s the case, 

 then bringing in an off-the-shelf AI-savvy comms team to replace them suddenly becomes a really attractive business model for someone. Heads of comms need to wake up to the risk of being replaced. 

Welsh actor Richard Burton used to talk about seeing the arrogant strut of the miner down the street of his hometown as he grew up. They were the aristocracy of the working class, he recalled.

Once, heads of comms who could pull together A-Z guides or bring comms, marketing and PR under one roof had a similar strut. How we smile at those far off days. 

In 2026, if you can helping navigate your own change you’ll deserve to be strutting yourself.
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Nothing shows that the media landscape has changed like the turbulent state of X, formerly Twitter.

What used to be the darling of the public sector has now fallen out of favour. 

While the algorithm is still boosting journalists and politicians on the former 140-character site public sector corporate accounts are struggling to cut through. More than half of public sector organisations are evaluating how they use it.

So, where are we with the platform and the two contenders Threads and Bluesky?

UKOM Ipsos Iris has published some data which was gathered in September.

You can see that here:

You can look at the Bluesky data and say that the platform is booming – there’s a 445 per cent rise in three months. Time spent on the platform has also increased by more than 200 per cent. So, the trends are upwards. But the overall numbers are still low in comparison to other sites with 500,000 UK users.

For Threads, there’s a rise of almost 40 per cent with 6.9 million UK users since June. This puts the Meta-owned platform in a strong position.

For X, formerly Twitter, there are 22.3 million UK users with a 6.1 percent drop since the summer. Strategically, this is a large drop but this is by no measure a platform killer. The bottom has not fallen out of the market while the trend is there.

You can compare these figures with the larger Ofcom data release on social media users published earlier in the month with the data collected over the summer. 

In summary, Bluesky is growing but it is by no means close to eclipsing Elon Musk’s platform. The Meta Threads is in a stronger position.

Bring on 2025. 

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An important summary paper on where AI is heading with NHS communications has been published.

In many ways, health is the prime sector for AI, as there are advances in how AI can be used to diagnose and treat patients. Data from the Ada Lovelace Foundation shows that people are happier with AI in health than they are with any other area.

But these clinical advances are not something that stay in the domain of medics. They need to be communicated. Not only that but there are tools and approaches that NHS comms can start to work with.

I’ve run the Engagement Paper on NHS Communications through Googloe Notebook to come up with a 20-point summary. If this is a useful taster dive into the document which can be found in a LinkedIn post by Ranjeet Kaile on behalf of the group that pulled the document together.

It’s a document of reassurance just as much as it is forward looking. 

What’s particularly encouraging is that the door is open to get involved. If you work in NHS communications this would be something to explore. It’s always better to help the process of change than be changed at. 

Here’s the summary from Google Notebook.

20 Key Points for NHS Communications and PR Professionals About AI

Here is a summary of 20 key points about AI for NHS communication and PR professionals, tailored for an audience that may be apprehensive and not well informed about the topic:

1. AI is Here to Stay: AI is rapidly changing healthcare communication. The NHS is committed to using AI to improve communication with staff, patients, and communities. 

2. AI is a Tool, Not a Replacement: AI will augment human capabilities, not replace jobs. The goal is to enhance efficiency and effectiveness, allowing professionals to focus on more complex tasks. 

3. Human Touch Remains Essential: AI will never replace the human elements of communication, like empathy and compassion. 

4. Benefits for Everyone: AI can personalise communication, improve accessibility and inclusivity, facilitate better collaboration, and empower patients and communities. 

5. Real-World Applications: AI is already used in chatbots, content creation, media monitoring, and personalised messaging. 

6. Future Trends: AI is expected to further enhance multilingual communication, storytelling, and personalised patient communication. 

7. Tailored Communication: AI will help deliver personalised messages based on individual preferences and needs. 

8. Breaking Barriers: AI can overcome language barriers and make healthcare information more accessible to diverse populations.

9. Enhanced Efficiency: AI can automate routine tasks, freeing up communicators for more strategic work. 

10. Data-Driven Decisions: AI analytics can provide deeper insights into audience behaviour and campaign effectiveness. 

11. Improved Crisis Management: AI can monitor potential issues and enable rapid responses during emergencies. 

12. 24/7 Availability: Chatbots powered by AI can provide information to patients, staff, and stakeholders around the clock. 

13. Addressing Challenges: The NHS recognises the challenges associated with AI, such as ensuring safety, quality, and reliability. 

14. Data Privacy is Paramount: The NHS is committed to protecting data privacy and security, complying with all relevant regulations. 

15. Ethical Considerations: The NHS will develop AI systems that are fair, transparent, and trustworthy, addressing potential biases. 

16. Workforce Support: The NHS will provide training and support to equip communication staff with the skills needed to work effectively with AI. 

17. National Framework: A national operating framework will guide the use of AI in NHS communications, ensuring consistency and best practices. 

18. Collaboration is Key: The NHS will collaborate with stakeholders, including staff, patients, regulators, and industry partners. 

19. Continuous Learning: The NHS will stay informed about advancements in AI and adapt its approach based on feedback and best practices. 

20. Your Input Matters: The NHS values feedback from communications and PR professionals to shape the future of AI in healthcare communication. 

Firstly, it is possible to be excited and worried by something all at the same time. 

The Romantic poets knew this is the sublime that things are beautiful and terrifying at the same time. William Wordsworth in ‘The Prelude’ captures these feelings from an early memory stealing a boat, rowing onto the lake and being aware of a towering cliff above him in the dark as he rowed.

 I struck and struck again,
And growing still in stature the grim shape
Towered up between me and the stars, and still,
For so it seemed, with purpose of its own
And measured motion like a living thing,
Strode after me. 

So, as with Romantic poetry and AI.

The Martech Map has been a consistently useful document in previous iterations. It is useful for tracing progress and trends in what they describe as marketing technology. Hence portmanteu martech. 

I thought it would be an idea to run their 2025 report through Google Notebook with the instruction to summarise it for a comms and PR audience who were not familiar with the topic.

Treat this as a starter for 10 and if you’re interested head back to look at what you’ve got.

For me, this is useful and the stand-out here is the speed of change and that people will need to get a hold of their data. The information being put into the AI tool will influence what it comes up with. 

20 Key Points About AI in Martech for PR and Comms Professionals

Here are 20 points summarising the impact of AI on marketing technology (martech). This summary prioritises clear, plain English to address the needs of PR and comms professionals with limited knowledge of the subject:

1. AI is rapidly transforming martech. The rate of change is much faster than with previous technological innovations.

2. The hype around AI, particularly Generative AI (GenAI), is real but the underlying technology is steadily advancing. As AI improves and finds new applications, its impact will continue to grow.

3. AI in martech isn’t just a single trend, but a multitude of interwoven trends at different stages of development. This complexity makes it challenging to make sweeping statements about AI’s overhype.

4. AI is creating five key segments within martech: Indie Tools, Challenger Platforms, Incumbent Platforms, Custom Apps, and Service-as-a-Software.

5. Indie Tools are small, specialised AI tools that excel in specific tasks. They offer a way to experiment with new AI capabilities quickly and inexpensively.

6. Challenger Platforms are AI-native companies aiming to disrupt existing platforms. They offer innovative approaches but face challenges in displacing established players.

7. Incumbent Platforms are dominant martech companies rapidly embedding AI into their products. They leverage their large user bases and resources to compete with startups.

8. Custom Apps, often built with no-code AI tools, are enabling businesses to create tailored solutions. This trend is expected to reshape tech stacks and potentially surpass commercial apps in quantity.

9. Service-as-a-Software is emerging where AI turns labour into software. This opens up a market potentially worth trillions of dollars.

10. A strong data strategy is essential for any successful AI strategy. Businesses need high-quality, well-governed data to fuel AI algorithms and achieve differentiation.

11. The modern data stack, with cloud data warehouses at its core, enables a universal data layer for martech. This provides marketers with richer customer insights by accessing data across departments.

12. A universal content layer is emerging to complement the data layer. GenAI can leverage diverse content sources to enable hyper-personalised customer engagement.

13. APIs are becoming crucial for AI agents to interact with software and achieve their goals. Martech products with strong API capabilities will be better positioned in the AI era.

14. Marketers are primarily using GenAI for content-related tasks, such as content ideation and production. Accelerating the content development pipeline is a key driver of GenAI adoption.

15. GenAI is also being used to enhance data analysis and consumption. Features like summarization and “chat with data” are empowering marketers to leverage data more effectively.

16. Governance and ethical considerations are paramount in AI adoption. Businesses need clear policies to address concerns around data privacy, security, and responsible AI usage.

17. Marketers should focus on practical use cases and resist the temptation of “AI for AI’s sake”. AI should solve real business problems and contribute to tangible outcomes.

18. Collaboration between marketing and IT is essential for successful AI implementation. Data teams can provide valuable expertise and support to marketing teams.

19. Experimentation and continuous learning are key to navigating the evolving AI landscape. Marketers should adopt an agile mindset and be willing to adapt to new developments.

20. Businesses should prioritise ownership and control over their data. This will enable them to leverage AI effectively and adapt to changing industry dynamics.
Head to martech.com for the more detailed document.

It’s a changing landscape, alright.

In the UK, social media is evolving and it pays as a communicator to be across this.

So, bravo Ofcom who have published their Online Nation data which sets out in some glorious detail the numbers.

I’ll return to this data dump in the coming weeks to upgrade training slides and I’ll try and blog a snapshot for you.

I’ve used the Ofcom data to create a visualisation of the direction of travel with UK social media.

I’ve taken the data and represented it as a percentage of the UK population rather than simply users.

You can see it here:

Honestly, datamapper is an absolutely brilliant tool.

The question behind the data was ‘what platforms have you used in the previous month?’

Here’s five points on what it all means.

YouTube is the largest and gets criminally ignored

YouTube is the largest social platform in the UK. Yet, often organisation’s YouTube channels can best be described as a rag tag after thought where video gets sent to expire. At worst, they are poorly tagged, poorly labelled historic mishmash with a handful of views.

It demands the question, how can you improve what you are doing with YouTube? There’s an entire blog post in that alone.

70 per cent use Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp

Elsewhere in the report, is the gem that seven in ten in the UK are using the Meta triumverate of Facebook, Insta and WhatsApp.

Frustratingly, Ofcom have stopped including messenging apps in the numbers which isn’t ideal. So, WhatsApp aren’t in this top 10. Elsewhere in the report, data shows that 87 per cent of UK people use WhatsApp monthly and 64 per cent use it daily.

That makes WhatsApp the most used messenger – or social – app in the UK.

X, formerly Twitter is falling

The decline is real. Year on year Elon Musk’s platform has dropped by eight per cent. The data for this report is from May 2024 so it predates the UK and US elections. I would not be surprised if the figures heralded a larger drop next year.

The only surprise I have at this is that it hasn’t fallen further.

No Nextdoor

In previous years, I’ve seen Nextdoor in the top 10 but in 2024 that’s not the case. Nextdoor is a community-based platform that has some advantages for public sector organisations.

Not cropping up in this list would suggest the platform may be in decline.

Reddit… ruddy hell

Reddit is up by an astonishing 47 per cent on the 2024 Ofcom list. Reddit is described as a platform where users curate information by voting on it in specific communities. So, there are Reddits for a whole range of subjects. Two thirds of Reddit users are under 29 and they tend to be more tech savvy.

In the past, I’ve heard of great strides in creating ads on Reddit. I’d be interested to see how this goes for people.

TikTok is up

The rise of TikTok continues. After Reddit, it has the largest rise in Ofcom’s table of stats up 13 per cent. A third of the UK uses this vertical video platform.

The fact it is not longer the sexiest on the block in 2024 – BlueSky may have that – in a curious way makes it more of a proposition. Things often get interesting when they are boring.

Snapchat is still here

One of the biggest strategic mistakes you can make is to base your organisation’s output based on what you or the chief exec likes. It can be the block to TikTok in many places. For me, this can be folly as you skew your channels away from your audience.

I don’t use Snapchat but if I was trying to reach young people that’s a platform I’d be looking at. The numbers here remain strong for the platform used most by teenagers.

Whatabout Threads and BlueSky?

Whatabout them indeed. The cool kids are all about BlueSky but neither they or Meta’s Threads are in the top 10. Both were launched as being Twitter killers.

Buried in the Ofcom report is the insight that there are 5.3 million active Threads users in the UK in May 2024. There’s no data I’ve come across yet for BlueSky.

I hope this list helps you think of what your comms needs to look like in 2025.

Training I deliver:

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ESSENTIAL VERTICAL VIDEO FOR TIKTOK & REELS

I’ve been asked a few times around BlueSky and whether or not that’s the new Twitter for the public sector.

It’s a reasonable question to ask. 

But I’m going to be slightly less on the excitement gauge than others.

Firstly, the data argument. The numbers are not yet there to compare it to X, formerly Twitter. BlueSky is not in the top 10 of social accounts used by UK people.

There are thought to be 20 million BlueSky users globally and in all likelihood the UK there will be hundreds of thousands of users. The platform is dwarfed by Meta’s Threads which has 275 million monthly users in late 2024.

Secondly, there’s the subjective yardstick of the question ‘is this the new Twitter?’. Well, if it was, we wouldn’t be asking ourselves that question.

In the 1990s, when cricketing all-rounder Ian Botham’s powers were on the wane a platoon of candidates were wheeled in and out as ‘the new Ian Botham’. So we had David Capel, Phil deFreitas and Derek Pringle all hyped as the next big thing only to fall below that once-in-a-generation benchmark.

It was only when we stopped looking for the new Botham that we got Andrew Flintoff. And he was his own person.

How to approach a new channel like BlueSky

I’m going to fall back on some good advice when dealing with BlueSky. I’d recommend the same to you.

It’s the same advice I used for Google Plus, Google Wave, Mastodon and other next big things. I’m going to spend some time with them under my own steam to see how they work and suggest you do too. A month minimum. Only when the smoke and mirrors clears I’d think about using it in earnest as a corporate account.

While you spend time off your own bat with BlueSky you can start to see if there’s value for you. If there is, fantastic. You may connect with some really interesting people and you’ll tap into good knowledge. This may be as far as it goes.

The watching brief approach also gives you the chance to be on the front foot with the organisation. You will get the chief executive or some senior person asking about what you’re doing with BlueSky. They’ll have read something, you see, 

So, get ahead of that, be proactive, do the research and tell them you’re doing the research. You don’t want to be put on the spot. You absolutely don’t want to be ordered to do something you don’t think has value.

Understanding BlueSky

Alan Morrison on LinkedIn has written a useful opener to understand BlueSky. Rob Preston has also blogged on BlueSky from a charities perspective. I also enjoyed Madeleine Sugden’s post on BlueSky tips. 

If you’re used to old Twitter you’ll find some features are familiar. 

By all means reserve a corporate BlueSky account in the meantime but I wouldn’t be investing serious time into it just yet. If you do, do so as a trial. 

In the public sector, there is still value in X/Twitter as a platform to reach journalisms and MPs.So, for me right now the filter for your corporate Twitter should be content you want to pitch to journos and politicians. 

I keep saying this, but there’s been more change in the past 12 to 18 months with the media landscape than there has in the past 12 years. 

That’s not going to change.

Understanding this is how we’ll earn our money.

I go through phases with my news consumption, do you?

Some weeks I’ll consume everything. All the news all the commentary and all the opinion on the commentary. A whirling gyre of thoughts and impressions that never fully resolves itself. It just gets taken over by the next one.

Other times, I hang back. Part of lockdown was like that. I’d maybe check the BBC headlines once a day and then leave it at that.

Right now, I’m largely switched off from news. Gaza, Israel, Ukraine. It’s all bad. The news that America has voted for, lets face it, fascism, is just enough. It feels as though I need to save my resilience.

Four in ten in the UK avoid the news, research has shown.

Of course, as a former reporter I feel a moral obligation to consume news and as a voter I need to know what’s going on, right?

This passage in an email I’m subscribed to is from ‘Please Scream Inside Your Heart: Breaking News From the Year That Wouldn’t End‘ by Dave Pell chimes with me.

“The notion that you need to know about world events right when they happen is a marketing creation of media brands. And yet, those news stories mingle in the same lock screen with the personal reminders and calls from your mom. The stuff that has something to do with you is now almost impossible to distinguish from the stuff that doesn’t. Trust me, that news alert can wait until later. Like most things on the internet, it can wait until never. You’re not Batman. You’re not going to do anything about the news alerts, so they can wait. As a general rule, you don’t need to be immediately notified of any breaking news that’s happening more than about eighteen feet from where you are right now. At most, your alerts should only cover your locality. Even Bruce Wayne only covers Gotham.”