Intranets and AI in 2026: Key Takeaways from the Intranets 2026 Virtual Conference (Day 1)

Will AI replace the intranet? That question hung over Day 1 of ALI Conferences’ Intranets 2026 Virtual Conference on August 26, and the answer from speakers was a clear no. AI is changing how employees find information, but it makes a well-governed intranet more important, not less.

Chairperson Ben Skelton, Vice President at Habanero Consulting, guided a day that moved from live Copilot demos to a framework for the modern digital employee experience to a candid panel of communicators at very different points in their AI journey. Here are the biggest intranet and AI takeaways.

The intranet’s new role in the AI era

William Hardy, Practice Lead, Employee Portals at Habanero Consulting, opened with The Intersections of Intranets and AI. He argued the intranet now plays four roles AI can’t replace:

• The trusted source of organizational content. AI is only as reliable as the content it reads. Without governance, ownership and review cycles, AI will pull answers from wherever it finds them.
• Intentional curation. Employees ask AI about what they already know to look for. The intranet presents what the organization needs them to see.
• Culture, purpose and direction. Stories that help people understand where the organization is going aren’t things employees would think to search for.
• A hub for employee connection. Conversation and community still need a home.

Expectations are rising fast. Hardy cited a Gallup finding that more than half of U.S. employees now use AI at work, and noted that close to 59% of Google searches in the U.S. and EU end without a click because the AI answer is enough. Employees bring that expectation to work.

Six ways to use AI on a SharePoint intranet today

Hardy then showed six practical examples, all achievable with SharePoint and Microsoft 365 Copilot and no coding:

1. Intranet search assistant. A branded chatbot built in Copilot Studio summarized how to submit an expense claim and pulled benefit details out of a PDF. It respects SharePoint security trimming, though not audience targeting.
2. Embedded site agent. An agent pointed only at a well-governed policies site found separate overtime policies for union and non-union employees and built a side-by-side comparison table. Scoping an agent to trusted content is a smart move if governance elsewhere isn’t where you want it.
3. Generative content suggestions. Copilot drafted a new-hire welcome post from a recorded Teams meeting and related messages.
4. Custom AI skills. A saved, no-code task (“review for acronyms”) that any author can trigger. Skills could check pages against a style guide, writing-for-the-web practices or page age.
5. AI-assisted page creation. Drafting content for specific sections of a page, then refining tone and length.
6. Copilot-generated FAQs. Turning a dense benefits PDF into categorized questions and answers in minutes.

His cautions: AI isn’t perfect, so don’t retire search; always validate the source; and reassess often, because Microsoft changed how agents appeared in SharePoint while he was preparing the talk. You also don’t need Copilot licenses for everyone to start. Licensing only your content authors is a fine first step.

Beyond the intranet: five keys to the modern digital employee experience

Preston Lewis, Senior Vice President, Communications and Consultant at Segal Benz, led a workshop built on three shifts and five keys. He began with a human-centered reminder: find out what keeps people up at night, because until their concerns are addressed, “no one’s gonna listen to anything we have to say.” He also urged teams to evolve their listening strategy as fast as the technology.

Three shifts

• Hyper-personalization is now easier. Better profile data, lists and agents make targeting practical. Update your personas, and use personalization to speed up onboarding as average tenures shrink. Add opt-in subscriptions so people can follow content beyond their default audience.
• Content anywhere. Lewis cited McKinsey research that people spend roughly eight to nine hours a week looking for information. With so many bots and search bars, communicators need to guide people to the right tool. Federated search means content no longer has to live in one place, but governance matters more than ever. Create once and publish to the intranet, digital signage, the app and the newsletter.
• An AI communications operating system. Communicators are now building, not just buying, including vibe-coding a town hall question site in minutes. That makes governance and candid conversations about shadow IT essential. He runs “AI Commsathons,” hackathon-style sessions for groups of 10 to 12, and suggests starting with automating your communications intake process.

Five keys

1. Treat employees like customers, using data to target messages, such as reminding people about benefits they’ve shown interest in across three channels.
2. The intranet is a facilitator, not a destination. Remove features nobody uses, A/B test, and balance business-critical content with surprise and delight.
3. Meet people where they are, including AI-generated digests.
4. Earn the attention by measuring business outcomes like speed to performance and benefits participation, not just clicks.
5. Build for trust, not transactions, including full accessibility. “There is no real excuse anymore.”

Panel: the future of internal communications in a personalized, AI-driven intranet

Skelton moderated a panel with Mindy Romero, Director, Internal Communications at Lennar; Kam Hodge, Internal Communications Manager at NORC at the University of Chicago; Justin Joffe, educator and curriculum designer at the University of Florida; Kristine Frech-Barstow, SVP, Corporate Communications at Amplify; and Kimberly Wirtz, APR, Communications Director for the Washington State Senate Republican Caucus.

Making intranet content relevant

• At NORC, employees opt in to the news feeds they care about, but can’t opt out of critical corporate communications. Suggested reads and role-targeted announcements add relevance. Joffe called opt-in “a trust lever.”
• Frech-Barstow sees the intranet as one part of a total communications architecture. Static, rarely updated content such as benefits and compensation belongs on the intranet, and channels like Slack should link back to it.
• Lennar built its communications function about two years ago on ServiceNow Employee Center Pro, piggybacking on an HR operations rollout. It has since added AI and launched an app. Video is the CEO’s favorite channel.
• Joffe’s easy, repeatable win: connect every town hall to the intranet with a follow-up post or call to action.

Measuring what matters

Amplify’s newsletter follows every biweekly town hall and tracks opens, read time and click-through. Compensation topics are always among the most clicked, and strong ERG engagement earned those stories better placement. At NORC, a personal question in the newsletter (“What’s your favorite summertime drink?”) drew participation from about 90% of openers, far more than a quiz about a company program. Hodge’s bigger point: measure behavior change, such as how many people actually completed open enrollment, not just opens.

AI for first drafts

• Lennar’s team drafts in Claude using brand voice guidelines and tightly controlled guidelines for individual leaders’ voices. “It’s never the final draft.”
• Amplify requires AI training for all staff and builds Gemini agents with brand guidelines, while insisting AI use must sit alongside company AI principles and privacy protections.
• The Washington State Senate works within ethics and public records rules. Its HR team uses a GPT grounded in state law and Senate policy to check messages before they go out.
• Joffe urged communications teams to own AI governance with IT and legal, using a simple green, yellow and red model for use cases.

Skelton also offered a candid explanation for why intranets are hard to fund: senior leaders are often the least likely people to use them, because they already know the strategy and the policies.

Frequently asked questions

Will AI replace the company intranet?

Speakers at Intranets 2026 said no. AI changes how employees find information, but it depends on a trusted, governed source of content. The intranet also curates what the organization needs employees to see and hosts culture and connection, which AI search doesn’t replace.

How can I add AI to a SharePoint intranet?

With Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing, you can add a Copilot Studio search assistant, scope site agents to trusted content, use Copilot to draft pages and FAQs, and create no-code AI skills for authors, all through configuration.

What is hyper-personalization on an intranet?

Using profile data, audiences and engagement data to show each employee content relevant to their role, location and interests, including opt-in subscriptions and hiding content they’ve already read.

Continue the conversation

Join intranet and employee channel leaders at the Employee Communications, Intranets & Channels Conference on November 17-19, 2026, or get hands-on with Copilot, SharePoint, Teams and Viva at the Internal Communications Strategies with M365 Virtual Conference on November 4-5. See all upcoming events.