How AI helped Chris Gee streamline comms tasks to free up creativity

The integration of AI into the daily workflows encourages us to look closer at its applications for communicators. Aside from its prompt-creating capabilities, AI is useful for creating summaries of meeting transcripts, helping communicators uncover deeper narratives and more.

We spoke with Chris Gee, founder and CEO of Chris Gee Consulting about his content creation journey with AI, how the tech has improved to become more practical for communicators to implement, and what he sees on the horizon.

Sean Devlin: How exactly does AI factor into your role?

CG: As CEO of Chris Gee Consulting, AI is central to my business. Most of my work revolves around AI adoption and implementation workshops. While “consulting” is in the name, a significant portion of my offerings focuses on equipping teams with practical AI skills and strategies tailored to their communication needs.

Tell us a little about how you first started interacting with AI in your role, and how it’s evolved.

Chris Gee: I began using AI, specifically generative AI, to streamline the content creation process for slide decks. As an agency executive, I had to produce a massive volume of slides weekly. Often, the content was repetitive, and I’d frequently need to condense ten slides into three or expand five into fifteen.

By training the AI on frequently used slide content, I cut the time spent on slide creation by half. The efficiency boost was so significant that it almost felt like cheating!

What’s something about AI that you think communicators need to be talking about but aren’t discussing enough?

CG: One topic that needs more attention is bias in AI systems. While discussions around privacy and data integrity are rightly at the forefront, mitigating bias is equally critical and often overlooked. This is especially pressing as more companies develop private, on-premise AI models.

Chris Gee, founder and CEO of Chris Gee Consulting

In my workshops, I teach clients how to spot bias and identify where it might arise, helping them build more equitable and accurate AI-driven systems.

When you first started using AI, how did you educate yourself on how to use it?

CG: I started exploring generative AI tools in the fall of 2023 when ChatGPT and Midjourney became widely popular. My learning process was largely self-taught through trial and error, supplemented by the knowledge I gathered from communities on platforms like Discord. Experimenting hands-on and engaging with online communities accelerated my AI adoption.

Have you seen any changes to your workflow or customer/stakeholder satisfaction since you’ve begun using AI and automation?

CG: Absolutely. One major shift is that AI has automated many routine tasks, freeing up my time to focus on high-impact work. While it hasn’t necessarily reduced my work, it has allowed me to prioritize tasks that drive the most value.

It’s also helped me overcome procrastination by handling tedious activities I’d typically put off. Clients have noticed this efficiency and appreciate the enhanced quality and speed of deliverables.

Do you have a big prediction for AI usage in the next few years?

CG: I try to avoid making bold tech predictions because innovation evolves unpredictably. For example, when the first iPhone launched, few could have foreseen its role in giving rise to companies like Uber. We were happy to combine our digital camera and phone into one device.

But if I had to make a prediction, I’d say that communicators have an unprecedented opportunity to reframe how our work is valued. By using AI to measure and amplify the impact of strategic communications, we can push companies to value our contributions in more concrete, data-driven ways.

If used effectively, AI will enable us to optimize messaging and provide clearer insights into how our efforts drive organizational goals. In a few years, we could redefine the strategic importance of communication functions in the corporate world.

To learn more about the future of AI in communications, check out Ragan’s AI Horizons Conference, taking place in February 2025 in Miami.

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports and hosting trivia.