Think back 12 months, the world was different. Undeniably, the conversations about artificial intelligence in professional communications have shifted.
Katrin Maurer, Google's Corporate Communications Manager for Australia, believes the sector has moved decisively from thinking about AI as a novelty to utility.
Speaking at the Generative AI for Public Affairs and Government Communication conference in Canberra on 22 and 23 April 2026, Katrin said the Google Communications team has moved into deliberate, structured implementation of AI tools.
"We moved from experimentation to implementation and from novelty to utility," she said.
Past years were characterised by teams testing AI across writing, reviewing, and research workflows. The 2026 difference is strategy.
As chair of the event, I had a front-row seat to her thinking — and it offered a useful benchmark for comms practitioners navigating what many at the conference believe is the biggest change management challenge most of us will face in our careers.
I'll have more to say about that in the next few days, but back to Katrin's thoughts.
Central to Google's strategy is starting with problems, not technology, she said.
Rather than adopting tools because they are available, Katrin's team mapped their most time-consuming tasks and built a vision, Vision 2030, around systematically eliminating low-value administrative work.
"We didn't start with the technology.
"We started with the problems we are trying to solve," Katrin said.
The goal, she believes, is freeing communicators to focus on relationships, strategy, and impact.
In practical terms, Katrin's team is finding significant value in three tools, naturally all from Google.
NotebookLM for synthesising research from curated sources,
Gemini for rapid intelligence gathering across platforms, and
AI agents capable of autonomously reviewing content against established risk parameters.
[I couldn't agree more with her first choice, and whilst Gemini is great, and agents present potential, there are other tools I'd prefer in my toolkit.]
Katrin was also clear that tools alone do not constitute a strategy. For leaders managing teams through this period, she offered a pointed reminder that AI-enabled transformation is organisational change that must be led accordingly.
"We need to lead with empathy," she said, "and make space for ideas."
That means psychological safety for experimentation, honest acknowledgment of team anxieties, and a clear north star that provides direction amid relentless uncertainty.
Her practical advice for the next six months is grounded: if your team (and I'd add organisation) does not yet have clear AI usage guidelines, establishing them is now a leadership priority.
The message from one of the world's most watched communications functions is unambiguous. The question for comms leaders is no longer whether to integrate AI, but how deliberately they are doing so.
I'll be sharing further insights from other speakers at the conference over the coming days. This article was generated by a transcript generated by Apple's Voice Memos App, then drafted by Claude and edited by me in Type.ai.