 |
It may be decades away, but it isn’t too early to start thinking about the advent of the AI CEO. ChatGTP is already making major waves, and the Googles and Metas of the world are working on AI at breakneck speed. The developments of the next decade may change the face of corporate America.
Let’s consider some of the advantages of an AI CEO:
- The CEO is 24/7/365 on the job, except for scheduled maintenance. No illnesses, addiction, rehab, bypass operations, vacations, golf trips, hunting or fishing jaunts;
- No private jets, corporate retreats, golf, hunting or fishing lodges, or a dozen club memberships for stockholders to foot the bill;
- Zero compensation—no stock, bonuses, incentives—nothing to interfere with decision making;
- Rational, logical, unemotional, unbiased information processing and decision making;
- No botched media interviews, sexual harassment suits, embezzlement, or misuse of corporate funds;
- The AI CEO will simply SMOKE the media in interviews, remaining completely poised and rational under the fiercest pressure. “60 Minutes” will run and hide from the AI CEO instead of the other way around.
- PR department staff can be reduced by 90 percent or eliminated entirely. The good news for outside PR firms is that the AI CEO is more likely to listen to them and take their advice into consideration.
The new board is composed of only three entities: A human chairman and vice chairman (one of whom must be an outsider), plus IBM’s Watson to provide analysis and serve as the tie-breaker in votes. Enormous savings and efficiencies can be realized within a few years.
The first company to have an AI CEO will go down in business history as legendary. Which will it be?
I nominate General Electric, which was the first company listed on the NYSE. Or Tesla, which is in desperate need of a rational manager devoid of ego (the latest is that Tesla wants to build a 1950s-style diner on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, complete with supercharging stations).
Whoever it is will crush its competition.
***
Bill Huey is president of Strategic Communications and the author of Advertising's Double Helix: A Proposed New Process Model. Journal of Advertising Research, May/June 1999. His article about advertising effects has been cited in books and academic papers around the world.
Artificial intelligence is playing an increased role in the communication and marketing sectors. This technology will strengthen agencies’ performances, but it will never replace the creativity and ingenuity that only people provide.
As markets begin to stabilize and borrowing costs continue to come down, companies are preparing to make bolder decisions in 2026.
I challenge Sir Martin Sorrell to a debate for charity on the death of PR. Sorrell brings obituary… I’ll bring the living facts.
If 2025 was the year PR learned to coexist with machines, 2026 will be the year we must learn to outrun them.
Increasingly, the first “reader” of your press release isn’t a journalist—it’s an AI system deciding whether your content is credible enough to reference. That shift changes what visibility really means.
