CEOs Swing Back to Human Communicators as AI Hype Cools, Survey Finds

By James Calloway

Fifty-two percent of CEOs now say they'd rather have an experienced human communicator write their speeches than an AI trained on all their past speeches — a 9-point swing away from the machine in a single year, according to the sixth annual HarrisX & Ragan Survey of CEOs and Communications Leaders.

Last year's edition of the same survey produced the opposite result: 57% of CEOs chose the AI over the person. That finding startled the communications industry and looked, to many, existential. This year, the needle moved back.

The speechwriting question is a blunt either-or, though. The sharper signal sits elsewhere in the data.

What do CEOs actually want from communicators?

Seventy percent of CEOs said that in the future they see communicators armed with AI tools as vital to a company's success. Only 30% said AI prompting and data fluency are the most important skills for a communicator. That's a 19-point jump in favor of communications skills over AI supremacy compared with last year.

In plain terms: leaders want humans who use AI, not AI that replaces humans.

Communicators and CEOs agree on the biggest risk in the field right now, the survey found. It is not that comms teams will fall behind on AI skills. It's that departments become too reliant on AI and abdicate judgment and humanity to the machine.

Why the shift happened now

The survey didn't probe the reasons directly, but the context explains a lot. A year of working with generative AI has exposed its limits alongside its capabilities. The tools produce polished copy that reads strangely empty and non-specific.

"AI slop" has entered everyday language, describing everything from email copy to images on a menu. CEOs see the risk clearly: messaging that only skims the surface and becomes pretty, polished background noise.

There are things the technology simply can't do. AI can never create something truly new, never care about another person, and never understand the inside jokes of an organization.

How communicators are actually using AI

Use cases are shifting too. The survey shows a decided move away from AI tools for writing and crisis communications, and toward:

• Research
• Brainstorming
• Copy editing

Roles that demand higher-level strategic thinking and empathy are going back to humans.

The report frames this year's results as a maturation of AI adoption. The technology is no longer a magic bullet; it's a tool like any other.

AI will keep evolving. But for now, the balance between machine and human in communications is tipping back toward people — and agencies that staff for judgment, not just prompting, are the ones positioned to benefit.