Insights from the Corporate Communications & Brand Summit 2026

The Power of Human Connection

Over 300 communications executives met in Brooklyn in March to consider what lies ahead for the communications function in 2026.

Themes ranged from the power of human beings, to the impact of AI, to the importance of trust, to the ever-increasing strategic guidance that comes from the communications function.

Major takeaways were:

• Communications is now a strategic business advisory and leadership function.
• The 360-degree unbiased view of all stakeholders is the superpower of communications teams.
• The future of humans and AI requires criticality, curiosity, creativity, collaboration, and connection.
• The walls between functions are dissolving—especially between marketing and communications
• As a communicator, you must love the business, solve the problems, and enjoy the job.

A cohort of powerful speakers triggered discussions among the attendees; the key insights from the event are gathered below. Assets from the conference can be accessed here.

“The art of human understanding”

As the nature of the communications function continues to change and the strategic role leaders play becomes more important, you cannot forget the vital skill of a natural communicator—understanding what drives people. Agents might take over some decisions in the future, but there will be people behind those agents with whom businesses must connect. As one speaker put it, “We are in a friendship profession.”

“Brand is our most valuable asset, and reputation is the core component of that”

The interrelationship between the traditional role of communicators in nurturing reputation and that of marketers in building the brand is becoming more intertwined than ever as media channels, AI search, the power of employees, competitive barriers, and customer behaviors all continue to change. Keeping the two functions close, and aligning the factors that drive them, remains critical for business success. As one speaker said, “Marketing drives hype. Comms builds trust. Today, those are closer together than ever.”

“We have to know how to start with a blank piece of paper and create a compelling strategy”

The CCO is now a critical contributor to, and not just the messenger of, corporate strategy. As one speaker said, “Business acumen is now the critical skill of the brilliant communicator.” The power of the communicator to see across all dimensions of the stakeholder audience, to take an unbiased view, and to craft a compelling strategy and story are becoming increasingly important in the noisy world of customer insights. Ultimately, as one speaker said, this will lead to business leaders being better storytellers: “We become better business leaders by being brilliant communicators.”

“The old parts of the job are getting bigger, and the new parts are getting more important”

The traditional role of those in corporate affairs and communications is as important as ever, and as issues continuously arise, the workload is not showing signs of abating. Meanwhile, the expectation that communications leaders will shape business strategy and then share it with the stakeholders in the most compelling way is also rising. This has implications for how talent is recruited, trained, deployed, and retained.

“We need people who have a passion for the business and are in love with the problem”

The most successful communicators will be business leaders with human skills. Business acumen will continue to be a vital component of the team, but the differential characteristics of successful communicators will increasingly be deep-seated interest in the business dynamics and an innate desire to solve the problems in front of them that drive the business forward.

“Criticality, curiosity, creativity, and connections”

The people who will prosper as agentic AI begins to embed in the workflows of the communications teams are those who demonstrate some particularly powerful human skills: the ability to ask important questions and to judge the business value of the answers and the outputs (criticality); the perpetual pursuit of something better, something different, something more profitable (curiosity); the talent to invent new things that capitalize on opportunities or strengthen the current reputation of the business (creativity). And the most important of all, perhaps: the personal attributes to understand and forge relationships with partners inside and outside the business (connections).

“Be brave. Be fast. Go big. Stay simple.”

While people remain paramount, technologically advanced tools are also the focus of all businesses right now. Waiting is not an option. Embracing the way these tools can help with the workflows, the outputs, and the expectations of the communications team is crucial for all types of enterprise. In communications, however, there is no “fail fast and learn” approach that is acceptable. Instead, those in the room decided it is better to “learn fast and succeed” with AI. That might be easier said than done, but action is a priority. There is no doubt that AI is transformative, but as one speaker said, “Transformation doesn’t happen by accident. You need a strategy and a plan.”

“Some of the best work you have ever done has never seen the light of day”

Turbulent events, disruptions, crises, and other potential potholes on the road to a compelling corporate narrative will always pop up. All good communications teams have their scenario plans, their playbooks, and their red hat exercises, but “agility is more important than predictability,” as one speaker said. Having a plan that you never have to use can be seen as a good thing: it forewarned the organization of an issue and changed behaviors to avoid it. However, as one speaker said, “You have a plan for everything, but crises come from the craziest places,” and therefore the ability to respond to the “what on earth” as well as the “what if” scenario is more about the team and operation than it is about the playbook.

“Manage the time until you can tell a different story”

One of the powerful insights in crisis management came from a deeply experienced communicator who has tackled many issues. This is harder to do in practice than in theory, but reading the signals for resolution can sometimes lead to a better outcome by allowing you to react to the problem in a quiet, considered way but then waiting until you can tell a louder, more confident story about the solution.

“Trust and truth are becoming harder to find, more important to build, and harder to believe”

Ultimately, all communicators tell stories, and as we heard from one speaker after another, the importance of trust, transparency, and authenticity keeps rising as a critical topic—not just for the humans to believe you but also for the AI agents. Attendees debated tactics for making this happen, but all were aligned on the pursuit of credible, compelling stories and the role that the medium plays in that—whether it is the journalists, the influencers, the stars, or the newsletter.

“We are exhausting owned and earned media before we think paid, and our best earned channel is employees”

A recurring theme was the importance of internal and external communications working in lockstep. One of the critical denominators of this is the role that employees play in creating, curating, and communicating the corporate narrative. The concept of thinking in the direction of owned, earned, shared, and paid media was first coined by a small consultancy called Unity3 in the mid-1990s. What began as a theory is now a widespread practice, but since the 1990s, employees are now an earned medium not an owned one.