Training for the AI Era: What Communicators Can Learn from the Olympics

By Veronica Langvee

Veronica Langvee writes about the “moment communicators find themselves in today,” and the need to develop a “Frontier Mindset,” while using artificial intelligence (AI) intentionally and where it can add value, while maintaining the essential strengths humans bring.

Like many of you, I spent a lot of time watching the Olympics. Early mornings, sitting at the edge of my seat, in sheer awe of the talent and composure that these athletes bring to the world stage. What appears effortless in competition (like a backside 1980 melon grab?!), is built on years of preparation, discipline and learning how to perform under pressure when the stakes are the highest.

That reality has been on my mind as I think about the moment we communicators find ourselves in today. Of course, we’re not competing for gold in Olympic hockey. But there’s something familiar in the discipline behind those performances.

Like elite athletes, communicators often operate in high pressure moments. We rarely control the conditions. Context shifts. Competition intensifies. Something lands differently than intended. Yet, the expectation remains the same: show up, make sound judgments and execute with precision when it matters most. Much of our work happens behind the scenes, but the outcomes play out in public.

Now layer AI into that environment.

The pace of change is accelerating, and communicators are often among the first to feel the impact. We’re absorbing new capabilities quickly, adjusting strategy in real time and helping others make sense of what’s changing, often while the work is already in motion. High performance environments are familiar territory for our profession, but with AI, the bar has been raised.

In just two years, generative AI has moved from novelty to general-purpose technology. Axios reports that three out of four PR professionals are already using generative AI in their work – a figure that has nearly tripled since early 2023. As access to these tools becomes widespread, usage alone is no longer what sets communicators apart.

The real question is how can we use AI to strengthen our craft, not just to move faster, but to make better decisions. How do we integrate new tools while preserving judgment, voice and the elements of our work that are fundamentally human?

No athlete can control the outcome of a race. They can only control how much they train. I believe the same is true for us in communications.

Adopting a Frontier Mindset

Inside Microsoft, we often talk about being a “Frontier” employee – someone who questions assumptions, stays open to learning and adapts as AI becomes part of everyday work. In elite sport, talent isn’t enough. The best athletes constantly revisit fundamentals, study their form and unlearn habits that once served them well.

For communicators, adopting a Frontier Mindset means challenging our current playbook. It requires learning how to learn again, even when new ways of working disrupt routines that once made us successful. This is often the hardest part. I still catch myself reaching for familiar approaches before asking a more difficult question: Is this the best way to do the work now, or just the way I’ve always done it?

Growth, in both sports and communications, rarely comes from comfort.

From tool to teammate

AI tools can synthesize information, draft first passes, translate content and automate reporting. At Microsoft, we often describe this as having ‘intelligence on tap’. The capabilities are impressive and evolving quickly.

But they also invite a moment to pause.

When AI is treated simply as a faster keyboard, it gets layered onto existing workflows without questioning whether those workflows still make sense. We accelerate steps that may no longer be necessary and miss opportunities to rethink where human judgment adds the most value.

The bigger opportunity often sits upstream. Rather than starting with a blank page, some communicators are bringing AI into the process sooner: scanning media coverage, surfacing emerging narratives and pressure-testing positioning before a single word is written. The benefit isn’t just speed. It’s having more information at the outset, enabling sharper judgment about what to say, whom to say it to and whether to say it at all.

That’s the difference between inserting AI into work and redesigning the work itself.

True performance improvement doesn’t come from faster production alone. It comes from stepping back to examine where AI can support, where humans must lead and how roles may need to evolve. That kind of redesign takes time and intention.

How to work with AI intentionally

Rather than adopting AI in an ad hoc way, it’s worth being intentional about how and when we use it. We refer to this as defining your “AI interaction mode” – clarifying where AI supports the work and where human judgment must remain front and centre.

I find it helpful to think about this across four core modes of communications work: Research & Analyze, Plan & Decide, Create & Execute and Scale & Repeat. In each mode, AI can act as a collaborator and multiplier. But in each, humans anchor the work, bringing contextual intelligence, accountability, voice and empathy, and stewardship and trust.

For example, in Research & Analyze, AI excels at synthesis, expanding what we can see and freeing time for deeper thinking. The human role is to connect signals, knowing when to double-click into an insight, sensing second order effects, and understanding how something that resonates today may land differently tomorrow.

Mapping it out and structuring AI use this way helps it enhance performance without eroding the human core of our work.

The soul of the story

Even as AI accelerates production, demand for strong storytelling is rising. Organizations aren’t looking for less meaning, they’re looking for more. This remains our edge.

What AI can generate at scale, humans must shape with meaning.

The value communicators bring lies in navigating complexity: sensing cultural context, anticipating how messages will land over time, bringing the right people together, relationships and having the courage to be clear. We operate in ethical grey zones where judgment matters.

Give someone the best skis, world class gear and a top coach. It still doesn’t make them an Olympian. Equipment can enhance performance, but it cannot replace discipline, judgment or the ability to execute under pressure.

The same is true for communicators.

The future won’t belong to those who resist AI, nor to those who outsource their thinking to it. I believe it will belong to those who approach this moment the same way elite athletes approach training: fundamentals and protecting the edge that makes us human.

The pace of change is real, and I don’t pretend it’s always comfortable. Still, this is our work to shape.

Let’s meet this moment with curiosity, skill and integrity, and guide how AI shows up in communications without losing what makes our work matter most.