Your Strategy Is Useless If You Can’t Communicate It

Author

Charlene Li
June 10, 2025

"What's your strategy for this coming year?"

I was working with an organization on their digital transformation when I posed this question. 

The CMO confidently replied, "We just had a whole team retreat and came up with our strategy. Team, why don't you tell her what it is?"

What happened next was painful. The entire team scrambled through emails and PowerPoint files, desperately searching for their strategy. 

How could they possibly act on it when they weren’t sure what it was? 

Here's the truth: You can create the most brilliant AI strategy in the world, but if you can't communicate it effectively, it will gather dust on the virtual shelf.

Communication Is Your Anchor

How do you know if you’ve clearly communicated your strategy? Ensure everyone can answer three questions:

  • What's the future we're headed towards?

  • What's our strategy to get there?

  • What is my personal role in making that strategy successful?

But your job doesn’t end there.

Building Trust Through Transparency

With AI in particular, creating psychological safety becomes paramount because of the fear and distrust around it.

Executive listening sessions where leaders simply listen to feedback without jumping in to correct or defend. Anonymous question platforms where people can ask without fear of judgment. Designated AI champions who address and elevate concerns because they’re there for both the technology and the people. These efforts cultivate the trust necessary to enact your strategy. But you must also account for and communicate coming changes.

The Workforce Reality Check

AI's impact on the workforce will happen in three stages.

  1. Stage one is where we are now—augmentation and enhancement. Our jobs get easier.

  2. Stage two brings role transformation. Jobs evolve as tasks get automated, and careers change.

  3. Stage three is what people fear most: restructuring of the entire workforce, where jobs disappear. You won't need as many entry-level people writing code because AI will handle that.

Organizations must anticipate these stages and communicate what they're doing about them. Laying the groundwork in stages one and two in anticipation of stage three builds trust. But external stakeholders must understand the plan too.

Internal vs. External Communication

Many organizations assume internal communications can serve external needs. They can't.

I recently saw this with Shopify and Duolingo, whose CEOs posted their internal AI-first memos publicly. Shopify got positive reactions. Duolingo faced backlash about "firing people to replace them with AI"—even though the memo said they wouldn't fire people; they just wouldn't hire external contractors when AI could do the work.

The message was lost because customers need different communication than employees do. Duolingo could’ve saved some pain by crafting communications targeted to address customer needs, rather than recycling internal messaging.

Creating Predictable Rhythm

Finally, stay consistent. This is not the time to set it and forget it. Consistency in communication conveys stability during uncertain times. Weekly updates, monthly reviews, quarterly assessments—these touchpoints establish predictability when everything else feels chaotic.

Communication of your AI strategy is just as important as creating the strategy itself. Don't let brilliant plans gather dust.

Your strategy is only as good as your ability to bring it to life through communication.

💭 Your Turn 

How are you currently communicating your AI strategy both internally and externally? What's working, and where do you see the biggest challenges?

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What I Can’t Stop Talking About 

  • Your workplace culture is stuck in 2019, but AI transformation is happening now. While technology evolves daily, most organizations are asking employees to navigate radical change with outdated training and cultural frameworks. You’ve got to bridge the adaptation gap and prepare your team for an AI-powered future.

  • Removing barriers beats red tape every time. While most organizations get stuck in committees and ROI requirements, one 65,000-employee firm's radically simple approach created 300+ custom AI applications for just $300K. Here’s how they did it.

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