Executive conversations turn awkward fast when a leader defends a claim about your company's reputation, competitive standing or customer sentiment — and you know the position rests on instinct rather than anything verifiable.

As John Adams once said, "Facts are stubborn things." But making the conversation about who is right rarely ends well. Advisors to Ragan's Center for AI Strategy offer five practical ways comms leaders can close the distance between truth and fiction without the discussion going sideways.

1. Gather outside evidence first.

Catherine Richards, founder of Expera Consulting, recommends you "use AI to gather evidence from outside the company, then use your experience and judgment to determine whether it supports or challenges what leadership believes to be true."

The move shifts the conversation from your interpretation to outside data — evidence that arrives without your fingerprints on the conclusion.

2. Build a private agent, not just a chatbot query.

Michael Lamp, chief digital officer at HUNTER, calls this "a great case for agent building over basic use of existing/commercial large language models."

The path is faster than many expect. "Within a few steps, you can build a knowledge base of internal documents and vibe code your way to a private agent that uses a finite amount of information to deliver against a narrow brief," Lamp said.

An agent scoped to a specific question produces a specific answer, and that specificity is what makes it useful in a leadership conversation.

3. Let the data do the disagreeing.

Jonny Bentwood, global head of data and analytics at Golin Ketchum, puts it in plainer terms: "Let the data do the disagreeing. When a CEO insists 'everyone knows us for this reason,' run the evidence: what the models say, what surfaces when customers ask, where the perception gap sits."

4. Argue the other side before the meeting.

Chris Gee, founder of Chris Gee Consulting, pushes the preparation earlier. Before the meeting, he said, "load your executive's own memos, town halls and earnings calls. Then, build out key stakeholder personas and let AI argue their side back at you."

The result: "You'll either kill your own point in 20 minutes or walk in with their objections already answered." The friction disappears when you have already had the argument before the room fills.

5. Run AI-assisted pre-mortems.

Anika Gakovic of Phyusion reframes the use case as a governance tool rather than a tactical move. Comms leaders can "facilitate 'let's run the AI model' pre-mortems that generate 'plausible set-back' scenarios to prepare executive team responses," she said.

Traditional strategic planning stays bound by the assumptions leaders already hold. AI surfaces the threats they have not yet imagined — and makes the conversation collaborative rather than adversarial.

What to have ready before the next leadership meeting

• Run the outside evidence first. Gather sentiment, coverage or model-generated answers on the claim in question before you walk in, so you can support your position rather than assert it.
• Build the agent before you need it. Scope one internal knowledge base to one recurring brief. A narrow agent will produce a specific answer, and a specific answer is harder to dismiss than a general one.
• Pre-mortem the point you plan to make. Load relevant internal documents, build the opposing stakeholder persona and let AI play devil's advocate. Walk in with the objections already resolved.

Stephanie Nivinskus is principal at Ragan's Center for AI Strategy.

Source: Ragan Communications (https://www.ragan.com/5-ways-to-use-ai-to-challenge-executive-assumptions/)