Multi-Channel Storytelling for Internal Communications: Key Takeaways from ALI’s 2026 Virtual Conference

On September 16, internal communicators from Syngenta, Coursera, Thumbtack, Kewaunee Scientific, Cisco, Akamai, Atlantic Health and dozens of other organizations joined Day 1 of ALI Conferences’ Enhancing Internal Communications Through Multi-Channel Storytelling virtual conference. Chairperson Jordan Berman, founder and CEO of creative agency OFC, set the tone early: time with fellow communicators is part learning, part networking and part group therapy.

The day covered three big questions for anyone responsible for employee communications. How do you earn attention for a message people don’t have to read? Where does AI help your storytelling and where does it hurt? And how are working communicators actually using AI right now? Here are the key takeaways.

1. Stop defaulting to the announcement

Jessica Warshaver, founder of Studio Jess, has spent 13 years in internal communications and several in social media. Her workshop, Stop Posting Announcements: How Social Media Thinking Can Transform Internal Communications, started from a simple observation. In internal comms, the question is how to get employees to pay attention to something the organization needs them to know. In social media, it is how to get someone who owes you nothing to stop scrolling. Social teams have become very good at the second problem, and internal comms can borrow a lot from them.

She pointed to research on how fragmented attention has become: people average about 47 seconds on one screen before switching, and Microsoft’s 2025 Work Trend Index found employees are interrupted by a meeting, email or ping roughly every two minutes. Then we send them a perfectly accurate announcement. As she put it, “technically correct and successfully communicated are not the same thing.”

Five questions to add to every communication

Communicators already ask whether a message is needed, who needs it, where it should go and when it should land. Warshaver adds a social media layer on top:

• What deserves the opening? Skip the “corporate throat clearing” such as “We’re excited to announce.” If you only had the first line, what would you lead with?
• What format fits the idea? Social has built a library of formats people already understand: lists, rankings, POVs, tours, reactions. Before inventing a format, ask whether culture has already invented one.
• How should it work where it lives? Keep the idea, but re-express it for each channel instead of copying and pasting it everywhere.
• Who should tell it? The company logo is rarely the most interesting narrator. Pick the messenger who adds something no one else can.
• What can the audience response tell you to do next? Comments and questions are the brief for your next piece of content.

Attendees then rebuilt a dry “LearnHub is live, activate by October 15” announcement in real time. The group chose the benefit angle (free access to 1,000+ courses), a ranking format (“I tried five LearnHub courses”), Teams or Slack as the home, and employees as the narrators. Imagined replies such as “Can my manager see which courses I take?” and “I don’t have time during work” instantly became the next pieces of content: a privacy FAQ and a list of the shortest courses.

Warshaver shared examples from her own career, including a return-to-office safety video set to “The Safety Dance” that went on to be used in new hire onboarding, and an MTV Cribs-style tour of a new office. Her closing advice: sometimes the clear email really is the right answer, but it should be a decision, not a default.

2. AI can make your content faster, and also invisible

In his session, AI All In on Next-Generation Storytelling, Jordan Berman walked through how his team uses AI across text, images, video and audio, along with a warning. Large language models predict the most likely next word, so the output tends to be “the average of the average.” OFC’s tagline sums up the risk: typical is invisible.

He shared a script a client had generated with AI that opened, “Today, companies are adopting new technology to keep pace with a changing world.” A quick look at competitors’ websites turned up nearly identical language. Audiences are noticing too. Berman cited data showing consumer preference for generative AI creator content fell from 60% in late 2023 to 26% by mid-2025, which is part of why authentic, human content is becoming a premium.

The tells of AI writing

Berman reviewed a list of common giveaways, originally published by Forbes, that make readers tune out:

• Contrastive framing (“it isn’t just X, it’s Y”)
• Asking and answering your own rhetorical questions
• Dashes everywhere
• Triplet framing (three adjectives when one would do)
• The inspirational pivot
• Claims of authority with no source
• Quotes with no attribution

A live poll showed attendees split roughly 50/50 on using AI for a first draft versus a last draft. OFC leans toward research, fact-checking and refining, because an AI first draft tends to anchor everything that follows.

Practical ways OFC uses AI in production

• Storyboards: AI-generated sketch-style frames to sell in a creative concept before production.
• Brand-safe images: tools like Adobe Firefly, while watching for the “uncanny valley” in AI-generated people.
• Video: off-the-shelf animation finished in professional editing software, and Descript to correct an executive’s eye line when they kept glancing at notes.
• Audio: AI cleanup that turned noisy, cafeteria-recorded employee clips into usable content. User-generated video is great raw material that usually needs sweetening.

3. Panel: The impact of AI on internal communications

Berman moderated a panel with Deanna Miller, Senior Communications Project Manager at Syngenta; Allegra Kipnis, Manager, Internal Communications at Coursera; Susie Decker, Senior Manager, Internal Communications at Thumbtack; and Kelly Smith, Director of Corporate Communications and Brand Management at Kewaunee Scientific.

Your voice is the one employees hear

Smith, whose workforce is roughly 75% manufacturing, reminded the group that employees often hear from the internal communicator more than from the CEO. Employees can tell when a message came straight out of a chatbot. “If I can’t make the time to write it, why should they make the time to read it?” Her fix is to train AI tools in the company’s voice the way you would coach a new team member, and to keep product experts in the loop.

Editing “perfect” AI writing is harder than editing bad writing

Kipnis supports about 3,000 employees on her own. She said stakeholders used to send bad writing. Now they send “technically perfect, crystal clear, logically structured communication that isn’t going to land.” She uses NotebookLM, trained on each stakeholder’s voice, to diagnose what feels off, and isn’t shy about asking, “Are you sharing this message, or is Claude?” She also drew a useful line between an expert and expertise: an LLM can act as an expert on almost anything, but knowing where the real expertise lives in your organization is the human part.

From skeptic to AI champion

Decker described going from Gen X skeptic to one of Thumbtack’s AI champions who run enablement for the marketing and communications team. She built a Claude skill that drafts communication plans, cutting hours of project management down to minutes, and uses an AI note-taker so she can focus on the conversation during employee and customer interviews.

Learning from new hires

Miller admitted she started as a reluctant, slow adopter in a highly regulated industry, on a team that has shrunk from 12 to five. Newer employees arrive already fluent in AI, and she has made a point of learning from them while keeping everyone on legally approved tools.

Advice from the panel

• Play. Get your hands dirty and use AI as a thought partner when you’re stuck (Decker).
• Train your tools. A little investment up front means far better output (Smith).
• Remember you are the impact, not the AI. Learn meta prompting: ask the AI to help write the prompt you need (Kipnis).
• Don’t hide behind AI. Writing and editing fundamentals still matter, and today’s tool could be gone tomorrow (Miller).

Frequently asked questions

What is multi-channel storytelling in internal communications?

It means shaping one core idea so it works in each channel it appears in, such as a newsletter, Teams or Slack, a town hall or a video, rather than pasting the same announcement everywhere. Each version keeps the idea recognizable but changes the opening, format and messenger to fit the channel.

How can internal communicators use social media thinking?

Lead with the most interesting angle, borrow formats employees already know from social media, choose a narrator who adds credibility, and treat comments and questions as the brief for the next piece of content.

Should internal communicators use AI for first drafts?

Attendees were split about evenly. Speakers agreed that AI output needs a human in the loop, should be trained on your organization’s voice, and should never go out unedited under a leader’s name.

Keep learning with ALI Conferences

Want to go deeper on writing and storytelling for employees? Join us for the Strategic Storytelling & Writing for Internal Communications Virtual Conference on December 2-3, 2026, or browse all upcoming ALI Conferences events.