As I pursue my master’s in public relations and corporate communications, a key lesson I learned in my first semester is that a communications degree will be the solution to AI fatigue. Generative tools may mimic the structure of language, but they lack emotional intelligence, strategic thinking, and ethical judgment. Human beings are complex creatures. AI systems may be heavily trained with data, but they can never truly decipher what a human being wants or needs. This is where strategic communicators come in because you cannot automate emotions. We provide the human context. 

AI is not a new phenomenon. It has always existed. One of the reasons why AI has taken center stage in the past few years is because of how rapidly it has evolved. The way AI is always phrased to the masses is that there’s no escape. You’re either with it or you get left behind. The fear-mongering narrative has caused us to give in to AI without having a chance to properly process it. And so, we are at a point where AI has fully infiltrated how we experience the world. 

Advancements in technology are inevitable, but how that technology is utilized will shape the trajectory of our society. As AI has become increasingly prominent in everyday life, literacy rates have been largely impacted.  The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported that the percentage of American adults ages 16 to 65 who fall in the lowest level of literacy has increased from 19% in 2017 to 28% in 2023. This speaks to the larger collapse of critical thinking skills. What people don’t seem to realize is that their overreliance on AI tools is adding to the rise of anti-intellectualism and a lack of basic human empathy. People, especially the younger generation, don’t know how to have original thoughts because they are constantly relying on AI for the most basic tasks. A 2024 study by Statista.com researcher Veera Korhonen found that, “a whopping 86 percent [of students] said they were using artificial intelligence tools in their schoolwork. Almost a fourth of them used them on a daily basis.” The human brain, like any other muscle, needs to be exercised. If we keep offloading all the “thinking” tasks to AI platforms for the sake of convenience, we will reach a point where we will lose our originality and agency. 

But with that said, I think that a degree in strategic communications actually combats the decline in literacy by training us in key skills that AI lacks – ethical judgment and bias detection. A University of Minnesota research found that AI-generated content often has representation gaps and algorithmic bias. This is where strategic communicators act as navigators of ethics by ensuring that our messaging remains inclusive, transparent and grounded in a human reality.

Ultimately, the rapid evolution of AI is actually working in our favor. As audiences become more wary of synthetic content or AI slop, the demand for human-verified authenticity grows. As strategic communicators, we hold the power because our work shapes public perception. I don’t know how AI will impact the human experience in the coming years. What I do know is that my role as a communicator is not going anywhere. AI may be masquerading as the superhero now, but the real heroes are the strategists who use their humanity to ensure technology serves society, not the other way around.