Three truths about the future of Internal Communications

Reflections from the 2025 Internal Communications Conference

Last week, our director and specialist in Internal Comms, Lizzie Roberts, attended the Internal Comms conference in London … an annual gathering of experts from the world of strategic business comms and employee engagement.  

Here are her three key learnings from the day …  

 

AI is an ingredient — but human connection is the secret sauce 

AI is transforming internal communications—from sentiment analysis to smart search, copywriting to automated content archiving. But across every session, one truth resounded loudest: AI should support, not supplant, human connection.  

Brentford FC’s @Daniel Oyebamiji described it best—AI is the “rice cooker,” picking up the simple, time-consuming jobs and freeing us up to focus on the ingredients that add flavour, that create the experience.  

In the case of IC, that means investing in real relationships, adding essential colour and, critically, authentic humanity to our comms.  

Because while AI helps optimise content, identify trends and reduce digital friction, it’s the human emotion that gives meaning to the messages we share. 

 

Leaders are the real communicators 

Whether from eBay, Danone, or Pearson, all the IC expert speakers made one point clear: authentic leadership is the cornerstone of effective internal communication.  

When leaders take ownership of the message, use their own voices, tell real stories and show up visibly—whether online or in person—people pay attention. Strategic comms teams should facilitate and empower leaders to do this, so that comms comes from a real person, not dominate employees’ feeds with messages from the faceless ‘Comms Team’.  

At Just Eat, for instance, leaders use private intranet spaces to share honest updates with their teams—on their own terms, in their own tone – leading to improved trust in the leadership and the strategy, a clearer understanding of colleagues’ roles in delivering that, and all the other benefits that highly engaged teams bring. 

 

If you want employees to care, speak their language

From “Connie”, star of the ethics campaign for the Wellcome Trust, to John Lewis’ epiphany over vertical video, the most effective internal content mirrors what employees already enjoy outside of work.  

That means short-form, visual, social-first, and ideally a good smattering of user-generated.  

It also means personalisation: it was great to see the next generation of intranet platforms like ‘The Kitchen’ at Just Eat which serve content tailored to users’ roles and interests.  

When IC meets people where they are—in format, tone and relevance—it earns their attention. 

 

So what? 

The future of IC is strategic, human-centred and designed with empathy.  

As more and more businesses face change because of technology, rising costs or regulation, it’s essential that communicators guide their businesses, and especially their leaders, to speak to their colleagues on their level. We need to be honest and open, but most importantly we must make our teams feel valued.  

Despite the inevitable rise of AI human, authentic story-telling is still the secret sauce when it comes to delivering loyal, engaged and informed colleagues.