CollectivNews
Welcome to a monthly round-up of information relevant
to comms professionals and everyone interested in the fractional model.
May 2026
Call My Agent!
By Chris Gee
AI Educator and Advisor
Every communicator I talk to right now gives me some version of the same answer.
“Oh yeah, I use AI. I use ChatGPT.”
And I get it. A year ago, that was the right answer. Getting familiar with the tools, testing them out, figuring out what they could and couldn’t do. That was the work. That was progress.
But we’re past that now. And if your relationship with AI still begins and ends with a prompt box, you’re not behind yet. But you’re about to be.
Here’s the distinction I’ve been making with clients and students for the past year, and it’s the one that actually changes how you think about this:
There’s a difference between using AI and building with it.
Using AI means you open a tool, type something, get something back, and move on. It’s reactive. It’s manual. And it scales exactly as much as you do, which is to say, not very much.
Building with AI means you design systems. You create workflows that run on a schedule, surface what you need before you go looking for it, and handle the bottom of your task stack so you can stay focused on the work that actually requires you.
For communications professionals, that bottom of the stack is enormous. The weekly monitoring sweep. The inbox triage. The legislative scan. The briefing that needs to land in a client’s inbox by 8 in the morning. These are all things that matter, but they don’t require your judgment. They require your time. And right now, most of us are still giving them both.
The communicators who figure this out first are going to have a different kind of edge. Not because the technology is impressive, but because they’ll have built something real. A system that works for their practice, in their voice, on their schedule.
The good news is that the barrier to entry is lower than it’s ever been. You don’t need to know how to code. You don’t need to understand large language models. You don’t need an engineering team or an IT budget. You need a clear problem, a willingness to design a solution, and the right tool to build it in.
That’s what I’ve been working on with CommsCollectiv Partner, Monica Talan, and it’s why we’re launching AI Agents for PR Pros on May 5th.
It’s a 6-week cohort for communications professionals who are ready to move from dabbling to building. Every participant leaves with a working agent they built themselves: a custom Issues Intelligence Briefing Agent that monitors their topic area and outputs a stakeholder-ready summary on their schedule. No code. No API keys. Built in Claude Cowork.
If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to make this transition, this is it.
Space is limited and filling up fast! Learn More
Is Storytelling Losing Its Meaning in Comms?
In an industry that prides itself on words, communications has embraced “storytelling” with near-constant frequency. The term appears in job titles, LinkedIn profiles, agency pitches, and strategy decks. Everyone, it seems, is a storyteller.
But has the term become so overused that it is starting to lose its meaning?
When Everyone’s a Storyteller
“Storytelling” has gone through cycles of popularity. It resurfaces every few years as a defining label for communications professionals, only to become diluted through overuse.
There is a growing sense that adding “storyteller” to a professional identity can unintentionally diminish the depth of the work. Communications leaders are not simply telling stories. They are shaping strategy, managing risk, influencing perception, and driving outcomes. Reducing that to “storytelling” flattens a complex discipline into something that sounds more creative than consequential.
There is also a subtle credibility issue. Outside the profession, storytelling is often associated with fiction. That can create confusion about what communications professionals actually do, especially in high-stakes environments like healthcare, finance, or public affairs.
The Work Behind the Word
None of this dismisses storytelling entirely. At its core, communications is about making information meaningful, human, and relevant.
The nuance lies in how that happens.
The work often involves uncovering the facts, insights, and tensions that matter most to an audience. It requires shaping narratives that connect strategy to real human experience, and translating complex ideas into something that resonates without sacrificing accuracy.
These are distinct capabilities, yet they are frequently grouped under a single label.
That is part of the problem. “Storytelling” has become a catch-all, used to describe everything from message development to content creation to brand positioning. When a term tries to cover that much ground, it inevitably loses precision.
The Risk of Oversimplification
Overuse of “storytelling” can also lead to oversimplification in how communications work is evaluated.
When storytelling becomes the primary lens, there is a tendency to prioritize narrative flair over strategic rigor. A well-told story has value, but only when it is grounded in truth, aligned with business objectives, and delivered to the right audience at the right time.
Communications is not just about telling a compelling story. It is about deciding which story matters, why it matters, and what impact it should have.
That distinction is easy to lose when the language becomes too broad.
AI and the Future of the Craft
As AI tools become more capable of generating content, the industry is confronting a new reality. If storytelling is defined narrowly as producing narratives, then parts of that work can and will be automated.
But the deeper aspects of communications (judgment, context, ethics, and strategic alignment, etc.) remain firmly human responsibilities. AI can assist, but it cannot replace the discernment required to ensure that a message is not only compelling, but also appropriate and effective.
AI systems also remain inconsistent. They require oversight, calibration, and ongoing management. Fully automated, out-of-the-box solutions are emerging, but they are not yet a substitute for experienced communications professionals.
This reinforces an important point. If the profession defines itself too narrowly around storytelling, it risks understating its own value at a time when that value needs to be clearly articulated.
Moving Forward
“Storytelling” is not going away, nor should it. It captures an essential truth about the role of narrative in human communication. But it should be used with more intention and precision.
Communications professionals should ask:
Are we using “storytelling” as shorthand for something more complex?
Does the term accurately reflect the strategic nature of our work?
Are we distinguishing between creating content and driving outcomes?
Language shapes perception. If we rely too heavily on a single, overextended term, we risk underselling what we do.
The challenge is not to abandon storytelling, but to put it back in its proper place: one tool among many in a broader, more sophisticated discipline.
We’ve Never Been More Connected…or More Alone
By Jane Randel, Partner, CommsCollectiv
Few people on the planet can say they have not felt lonely at some point. It’s almost inevitable. But for many, that feeling persists, impacting their lives, their health, and their jobs.
Once unthinkable to talk about, it’s hard to open a newspaper, magazine, or Substack without running into at least one article that looks at loneliness and social isolation in our society. Declared an epidemic in 2023 by former Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, the need for social connection in every facet of life is undeniable.
But social disconnection is not just a public health issue, it’s a business issue often hiding in plain sight, with wide ranging impact on recruitment, retention, reputation, and consumer engagement. Consider:
- Globally, 1 in 4 people report feeling lonely with 58% of Americans experiencing loneliness – consistent with pre-pandemic rates.
- One in five employees experiences daily loneliness at work.
- Gen Z is the loneliest generation (79%), followed by Millennials (71%).
Proactively addressing these challenges can unlock measurable impacts on productivity, innovation, employee health and well-being, and long-term economic performance, driving both business value and social impact.
There is also a protective factor. Those who feel connected are likely to have better overall health, increased feelings of belonging, and improved job satisfaction and engagement.
Building Connection
Undertaking employee wellness efforts, many companies will say they are also addressing loneliness. However, a January 2026 article in Psychology Today points out the futility of taking the “same approach for everyone—group activities, lunch-and-learns, wellness apps” and being shocked that half a year later, nothing has changed.
That’s because one size rarely fits all. People relate differently, have varied interests, and time commitments. As the article aptly points out, “Personalized interventions outperformed generic approaches by 95% in a simulation—same cost, better targeting.”
Dr. Constance Hadley offers similar advice in her article We’re Still Lonely at Work (HBR, Nov-Dec 2024), identifying where companies go wrong with the best of intentions. Her research suggests incorporating more “practical techniques” for increasing in the workplace. The first step: Be intentional and put loneliness on the agenda. The second step: don’t try to address this issue in a vacuum. Before you do anything, measure the prevalence of the problem and who it impacts the most.
Building a Coalition
Recognizing that business has the power to drive real change, last December, the Foundation for Social Connection launched the Corporate Working Group for Social Connection (CWG), bringing together forward-thinking private sector organizations across industries to help reduce loneliness and social isolation and improve social connection. By itself, the network is beneficial, but the CWG’s true value lies in the opportunity for businesses to learn from top researchers, share best practices with each other, measure and improve social connection (internally and externally), and drive culture change.
Founding members include Cigna, Match Group, the NFL, Nivea (Beiersdorf), Signet Jewelers, Spotify, and Workday, but there is a strong desire to grow this group exponentially.
Building a Movement
Americans spend 30% of their time at work, and a brand’s influence reaches beyond company walls to employee families, communities, consumers, and the broader culture. That means, the more businesses large and small that focus on uniting people and helping them find where they belong, the bigger collective impact we can make.
Small and local. Large and global. Imagine an international moment of connection. A day, an hour, a minute where people stop feeling alone and apart and instead realize how much stronger we are together.
Please reach out to me directly at jane@commscollectiv.com if you are interested in learning more.