NRF recently hosted the annual Retail Communicators’ Network meeting in Washington, D.C.
The acceleration of AI continues to transform the retail industry, from consumers to associates, across the store and the corporate office.
The Retail Communicators’ Network brings together communications, public relations and investor relations professionals within NRF retail member companies to discuss current and emerging issues facing the industry.
NRF recently hosted senior corporate communications professionals for the annual NRF Retail Communicators’ Network meeting at our office in Washington, D.C.
Through presentations and roundtables, the group discussed artificial intelligence, the impact of tariffs, internal communications, community relations, the state of the consumer and the economy, and how to mitigate reputational risk.
The topic that dominated most conversations was AI, and how it’s redefining storytelling and brand reputation management. The rise of AI means communicators have a new audience to serve when crafting messages — machines.
Liz Stein, managing director at One Strategy Group, put it this way: “Communications has always managed human perception. Now it must also manage machine perception.”
“Communications has always managed human perception. Now it must also manage machine perception.”
AI assistants generate responses to prompts using large-language models that synthesize information from public data sources — press releases, blog posts, social media posts and profiles, reviews, earnings reports and so on.
Anything posted by a brand or on a company’s website is fair game to be fed to LLMs. To shape a favorable “machine reputation,” communicators need to be clear and intentional in brand messaging across all public-facing channels.
Stein’s tip: Brands should audit their machine reputation by asking AI assistants to summarize what their company is and what it does. If the response isn’t accurate or ideal, there are several ways for communicators to improve the narrative over time through earned and owned media.
Landing a front-page story in a national news outlet will likely always be a win for public relations professionals, but the importance of coverage in trade publications shouldn’t be overlooked. Stein noted that trade verticals often contain a higher density of keywords on certain topics, effectively establishing them as expert and credible sources to LLMs crawling the web for relevant information. The more stories placed in a trade with messages about your brand that you want AI assistants to feed to others, the better.
Stein also encouraged communicators to make quotes from company leaders short, snappy and easy to digest in press releases, and keep their Wikipedia pages up to date.
In the age of AI-driven discovery, communicators should work closely with their SEO and marketing counterparts to increase the chances of LLMs picking up desired messages. Stein shared a few additional best practices for optimizing owned content:
Connect the dots. Integrate strategy, financials and product into one cohesive message when possible. This allows AI to capture a complete picture of your brand when pulling from your owned content.
Proactive engagement. Communicate consistently and transparently across all editorial channels.
Be concise and clear. AI rewards content that’s useful and digestible. Break copy into question-and-answer formats with headings that match common customer questions. Consider using summary boxes, FAQs and other bite-sized content callouts.
Establish credibility. Publish white papers, case studies, original research and thought leadership pieces about topics that are relevant and specific.
Communicators brought up some AI pitfalls. Some of these shortcomings emerge when retailers enlisted artificial intelligence for help drafting copy. AI “hallucinations” presented false information, like fake quotes from made-up company executives.
Attendees also discussed AI’s shortcomings in interpreting sentiment. For example, if an AI assistant is responding to comments from customers on social media, it could mistake a positive review for a negative one, or vice versa — particularly when slang words or emojis are used.
These risks underscore the importance of carefully reviewing AI-generated content and implementing oversight to determine if AI tools are really saving time or creating more work.
Managing this new audience challenges communicators to think differently. It also presents an opportunity for communicators to take on a greater leadership role, guiding teams through change.
