When Corporate Messaging Drifts, AI Can Pull It Back

For years, the firm positioned itself as a leader in sustainable investing, with CEO Larry Fink’s annual letters making the case that ESG considerations are central to long-term value. But as political pressure mounted and client expectations shifted, BlackRock adjusted its language, placing greater emphasis on fiduciary duty and investor choice.

Individually, these messages were defensible. Collectively, they told a less coherent story. Critics accused the firm of greenwashing. ESG supporters saw retreat. Internally, even employees were left to interpret what, exactly, had changed.

This is the paradox at the center of modern corporate communication. Companies must tailor what they say to investors, employees, customers, and regulators. But the more tailored those messages become, the harder it is to ensure they still add up to a consistent whole.

Paul Argenti has been watching this problem for years. In his research and advisory work, he’s seen how easily messaging fragments inside large organizations, where marketing, investor relations, the CEO’s office, and others all communicate in parallel, often without full visibility into one another.

Mark DesJardine has encountered the same issue from the outside in. In his research on shareholder activism, he’s noticed that even subtle inconsistencies in how companies describe their strategy can raise red flags—prompting investors to question credibility or push for change.

What both have come to believe is that most communication breakdowns aren’t strategic failures. They’re coordination failures. In global organizations, with teams spread across functions and geographies, alignment is difficult to sustain. “It’s pretty hard when you have people all over the world,” Argenti says. “Alignment isn’t going to happen naturally.”

At the same time, the stakes have risen. Investors, analysts, and the media routinely triangulate across earnings calls, press releases, speeches, and social channels. When messages don’t line up, trust—and value—erodes.

AI now offers a way to manage this complexity, not by replacing human judgment, but by making it possible to see the full picture. Where no single executive or team can track every message a company produces, AI can analyze and compare communications across channels and flag where they begin to drift.

The goal isn’t uniformity, but coherence: the ability to tailor messages to different audiences without contradicting the core narrative. In “The AI Advantage in Corporate Communication,” a paper forthcoming in Management Business Review, DesJardine and Argenti argue this kind of alignment is not only a communications fix, but a strategic capability that delivers a real advantage.

Companies have never been able to control how their messages are received, only how clearly and consistently they are communicated. Today, that communication is getting harder. The volume of messages has exploded, audiences have multiplied, and the gaps between what companies say in different places are easier than ever to spot. The firms that get this right won’t just avoid missteps; they’ll build credibility with investors, employees, and the market.