AI: Your Freaky New Coworker

My relationship with AI is a lot like the one I have with the bearded dragon I’m pet-sitting this summer: awkward, confusing, and a little terrifying. We’re both unsure of each other, the interaction is high maintenance, and I still haven’t figured out exactly what I’m doing. He’s my creepy new friend who won’t leave, just like AI – a constant presence in today’s communications landscape – it’s a strange but essential presence we can’t ignore.

On July 16th, NYWICI hosted a thought-provoking panel exploring the evolving role of AI in the workplace. The discussion, moderated by Linda Gharib, VP of Brand & Communications at Wolters Kluwer, focused on how professionals can utilize AI to enhance performance, accelerate go-to-market speed, increase efficiency, and even redefine how marketing success is measured. But beyond the buzzwords, the night made one thing clear: embracing AI isn’t just about keeping up—it’s about transforming how we think, work, and connect.

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Efficiency = The Competitive Edge

Regardless of the industry, AI is undeniably accelerating the pace of way we work, and panelists agreed that efficiency is one of the most transformative shifts in today’s landscape. By eliminating manual, repetitive tasks, AI is giving teams the space to focus on higher-value strategic and creative thinking.

“We’re shifting from execution-based work and leaning into more strategic work, based on the efficiencies that we’re seeing from some of the AI implementations,” explained Jon Clark, Managing Director at Moving Traffic Media. “What used to take hours now takes less than five minutes.”

Kirti Naik, Global Head of Brand Experience at Neuberger Berman, echoed that sentiment: ” we’re building backend solutions using AI models for our website CMS . That’s the first thing we are starting to do, and we are starting to see that there are gaps and opportunities in terms of the kind of information people are looking for on our website. Our [future] goal is to be able to bring them to the right kind of investment solution.”

AI Impact on Strategy & Workflow

One of the most significant shifts brought about by AI is the way marketing performance is measured. “People aren’t going to Google, clicking templates, then exploring your site—the whole funnel has been disrupted,” explained Lindsay Hagan, VP of Global Marketing at Conductor. “We’re seeing dramatic drops in traffic, not only on our site, but on our clients’ as well. As a marketing team, you have to reinvent what you’re measuring. How visible are you in search? How often is your brand mentioned in AI search?”

This speed and constant evolution mean that the marketing strategy itself can no longer remain static. “Because the world is changing so fast, the team has to think flexibly and have a growth mindset,” said Gillie Nevel, VP of Medicare Marketing at Aetna/CVS Health. “It’s not personal—it’s not that your idea isn’t good anymore—it’s that the world has shifted in as little as three months.”

Panelist Jon Clark added, “The power generally of AI is the speed to the end product.”

The Innovation Game

AI may be our ‘creepy new friend who won’t leave,’ but its persistent presence is exactly what’s pushing vendors and teams to innovate at lightning speed. It has also redefined how teams approach innovation—by analyzing large volumes of data, it provides companies with deeper insights, accelerating processes that once took weeks into just hours. “The vendors and partners we’re working with are eager to win the innovation game,” said Zoe Fournier, Director of Digital Marketing at Wolters Kluwer. “The last significant innovation was the iPhone. Now AI is touching everyone, and everyone is like ‘if I’m not relevant, I’ll be out in two years’.” This urgency is reshaping how organizations develop their strategies, driven by the pressure to stay competitive in a rapidly evolving landscape.

Empowering Teams, Not Replacing Them

The biggest concern people have about AI is that it removes humans from the equation and replaces them with machines. However, just because the tools have changed doesn’t mean the human connection has vanished—it simply means we must be more intentional about preserving it. To avoid demotivating teams or making them feel that AI is replacing them, companies are taking a proactive and empowering approach.

“When I joined, there were folks who’d been here 15–20 years—I told them, you’ve got to embrace it, or you’ll be left behind. We’re not trying to be obsolete,” said Kirti. Through thoughtful coordination and collaboration with the tech team, this strategy has become a powerful ‘North Star’ for the company’s evolution – individuals are motivated to explore use-cases to improve their workstreams.

Beyond strategy and structure, human moments still matter. “I’ve noticed human connections on my team are more important than ever,” said Lindsay. “Creating moments for in-office connection—happy hours, things we used to do more of before COVID—matter again. People are craving human-to-human contact in a world where work feels intense.”

Part of empowering teams also means relieving them of the repetitive, dreaded tasks that stall momentum. Gillie explained: “Everyone has parts of their job that are just super painful. For me, it’s writing mid-year reviews. I’m passionate about people development but sitting down to write ten reviews is a lot. The value to my team is not in my prose, it is in the discussion” Their HR team introduced an AI tool that helps write a first draft of reviews, allowing leaders to focus on coaching and meaningful development conversations. “If we can target AI to help with the un-fun stuff first, it becomes less scary and more like, ‘Oh, this is great.’ It’s a very practical way to say: let’s use AI on the things that drain us so we can focus on what matters—such as talking to our teams.”

Ultimately, AI isn’t replacing people—it’s helping them focus on the things that only humans can do: building, connecting, and creating meaning.

AI + Human = Better Creativity

AI can feed you prompts, but it can’t capture the lived-in nuance of a real human story—or the strange charm of watching a bearded dragon catch mealworms. That’s why brand truth and creative spark still start with people. AI might be fast, but it’s human insight that makes content meaningful. As Jon explained, “What we see from our customers and in our data is it’s really about having unique insights and wisdom. It’s about customer stories. It isn’t about the generic things AI can pump out. You need to go out into your business and find that wisdom—a piece of insight from a trader or someone on the team. One of our clients is a big consulting company, and every single one of their consultants has a unique piece of wisdom they can mine—something AI can’t craft.”

Kirti echoed the importance of grounding AI in a human perspective. “No matter what AI does for you, you’ll always need to spend human time with other humans to identify your brand truth. And brand truth isn’t just about products and services—it’s about the experience or knowledge you want to transfer to your clients or prospects. For us, we’ve been rethinking how to bring people into the back end of our data, to be more transparent about what we’re sharing, and how we generate meaningful in-person experiences. And while AI is there—our creepy new friend we have at the table, the desk, the phone, or in our ear—we also need to remember that we’re human beings.”

Summing it up, Zoe said, “Yes, for the journalist—but also for people searching on AI and all the tools—because they don’t want boring content. They want something different.”

Red Flags & Responsible Use

There are some things AI shouldn’t do—at least not without human oversight. “Maybe one day it will get there, Gillie shared. “But right now you still need a person adding a layer of logic on X or Y or Z. We need to ask: what is the level of risk? That’s where we work with clients, partners, legal teams—and use our feeling and thinking selves with the AI tools to get to the right answer.”

She continued: “If it’s a headline, it may not be perfect. But is it accurate? Are we saying, ‘Call us now’ versus ‘Call now’? And AI is giving you the three words or two—you have to filter that. I always say: use the Wall Street Journal test. If AI made this decision and it was on the cover, how would you feel? Would you be okay with it?”

Take performance reviews, for example. “I may feel comfortable having a tool take the first pass at a written review, but I’m still going to read it, edit it, and have a conversation with a human. Because at the end of the day, it gives me time to have that human moment.”

Kirti added, “And I don’t think AI will ever have a 100% confidence level. I mean, unless someone can prove that out—it would be crazy.”

The Skills That Matter Now

Adapting to AI isn’t optional—it’s essential. “It’s really about evolution,” Zoe emphasized. “In six months, everything will change again. You don’t want to be the one lagging, not embracing what’s coming.”

Lindsay agreed, adding, “Intellectual curiosity is the name of the game right now. The teammates who are hungry, critical thinkers with an open mind—those are the ones who will thrive. The ones saying, ‘I’m not touching AI’ are the ones who will fall behind.”

Whether it’s your current job or your next one, she warned, “there will be an AI proficiency test or question. We’re all starting from the same gate—it’s the curious, the learners, who are going to win.”

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Kirti put it best: “It’s like vegan cheese. Two years ago, you could barely eat it. Today, it’s more edible.”

The same goes for AI: it’s initially clunky, but it’s improving with every iteration. And as we’ve heard from every panelist, embracing it with curiosity, care, and human connection is how we turn that awkwardness into an advantage. Because in the end, it’s not about man vs. machine—it’s about how we work together to build something more innovative, faster, and just a bit more human. AI might feel like a creepy new friend—or an awkward pet you’re still learning how to care for—but it’s here, it’s evolving fast, and it’s not going anywhere.

Tools & scripts referenced during the discussion: 