In one of business’ great pivots, high performing Internal Communication teams have switched from full pandemic/crisis mode to become a catalyst for furtherance of company culture as well as organizational impact. Senior leaders across the globe have realized that internal comms, when done right, can be a highly effective lever that moves the needle on critical KPIs.
Findings from our prior report on the State of Internal Communications, and now our most recent research into the State of the Intranet and Future of Employee Technology clearly show that a well-designed, user-friendly intranet powered by AI can revolutionize internal communications. Leading Internal Communication teams leveraging AI-powered intranets already see significant improvements to employee engagement, productivity and more.
We’re at a pivotal moment where AI is poised to enhance every facet of IC — making this an exciting era for IC teams, many of which are just beginning to explore AI’s capabilities. Employee communications represent one of the most immediate and impactful applications of generative AI. And as forward-thinking IC teams harness this power, they’re achieving measurable results.
Get your free copy of the comprehensive report for a deep-dive into our survey of more than 1,000 senior intranet program leaders, or download the executive summary for key findings.
The report showcases a range of applications for AI in internal comms — from personalized content delivery to automated governance — each with the potential to transform digital workplaces.
The impact of high-performing intranets: What the data tells us
Our findings uncover the transformative potential of sophisticated intranet platforms that are easy to use and integrate AI and other advanced capabilities. Organizations leveraging the best intranets report substantial improvements across multiple bottom-line metrics:
- 97% report higher levels of employee engagement, with nearly two-thirds observing substantial improvements
- 97% report a positive impact on employee well-being
- 95% report productivity gains
And the majority of respondents with high-quality intranets report significant increases in other key success metrics including revenue, profitability, employee retention, productivity, customer satisfaction and sales performance to quota.
These findings underscore the critical role that an AI-powered intranet can play in shaping internal communication strategies and driving organizational success.
AI’s emerging role in the workplace
Survey respondents strongly believe that AI is impacting employee technology, including intranets. An impressive 87% agree that AI is or will become an important resource within their organization. This awareness translates into action, with 66% using AI-powered tools either “almost constantly” or “very frequently” as part of their job responsibilities.
And that’s having a huge impact on efficiency and productivity:
- 73% of respondents say AI has substantially impacted their work efficiency or productivity
- 40% report that AI has impacted their work efficiency or productivity “to a great deal”
- 33% say it has done so “to a large degree”
Now, let’s explore three research-backed ways IC teams can leverage AI-powered intranets to increase engagement and unleash productivity.
1. Create highly relevant and engaging communications experiences via AI-powered personalization and targeting
Effective employee communication is at the heart of employee engagement, and AI-powered intranets are invaluable tools in this arena. An overwhelming 87% of respondents confirmed that their intranets facilitate strong communication, and 82% with high-quality intranet platforms view them as pivotal to effectively managing communications.
Personalization: The key to meaningful engagement
Intranets that purposefully leverage generative AI empower employees to interact with content in a more meaningful and individualized way. AI algorithms analyze user behavior, preferences and historical data to deliver tailor-made content recommendations and automatically serve relevant information.
This ensures that employees receive the information that matters most to them — enhancing productivity, increasing engagement, and cultivating a sense of value and belonging.
IC teams that use AI-powered intranets to personalize and target employee communications ensure that their audiences:
- Zero in on the right communications and content immediately — reducing frustration and boosting productivity
- View feed content customized based on their activity, roles, locations and interests — increasing engagement
- Access information and stories that keep them aligned and inspired — deepening a sense of connection with the organization and each other
This means less time and frustration searching for what’s important and easy access to content that keeps them coming back for more — resulting in increased engagement and productivity and a better employee experience.
Targeting communications: Reaching the right people in the right channel at the right time
Delivering the right content to the right audience in their channel(s) of choice is a hallmark of success for Internal Communication teams. AI-powered intranets enable internal communicators to target messaging by role and location and enable users to interact with that content through their preferred delivery channels (e.g., Slack, Teams, email, digital displays).
The ability to segment and target employee communications significantly increases the effectiveness of internal communications.
Our 2024 State of Internal Communications report found that IC teams who segment and target their audience (“Targeters”) rate their current state of IC higher than those who don’t. Targeters are nearly 20% more likely to report improvements in their IC efforts compared to “Non-Targeters,” who treat their audience as one large universe.
This personalized approach ensures that important information reaches the right people at the right time, fostering a more engaged and informed workforce.
Learn more about using AI to personalize and target internal comms
2. Fast-track content creation with AI-powered writing assistance
Publishing engaging, relevant content with a predictable and manageable cadence is challenging for many IC teams. Our survey found that 50% of intranets don’t include the AI functionality that teams need to work as productively as possible. This is where intranets equipped with AI-powered writing assistance can be a game-changer.
Generative AI writing capabilities within the right intranet can help IC teams quickly — and securely — generate ideas, outlines and drafts for content such as emails, blog posts, newsletters, memos and presentations.
This technology empowers IC teams to:
- Produce more on-brand, concise messaging
- Improve writing for clarity
- Build and establish a common company voice, culture and brand across the organization
- Increase the speed and accuracy of creating content in someone else’s voice (e.g., executive messaging)
By leveraging AI in content creation, IC teams can scale their operations more efficiently, freeing time to focus on strategy and high-impact initiatives. The AI can handle routine writing tasks, suggest improvements, and even help tailor messaging for different audience segments. Moreover, AI writing assistants can support a global workforce by offering translation capabilities, enabling quick and secure translation of documents, procedures and announcements without the need for additional tools.
Get tips for optimizing AI prompts
3. Streamline intranet content management with automated governance and content moderation
To maximize the intranet’s impact on productivity, it must serve as the “single source of truth” within the organization — easier said than done. Our research revealed that intranet content governance and ownership issues are key factors hindering success, with 11% of respondents citing unclear ownership and governance as challenges.
Content management is no easy task, and so it comes as no surprise that 16% of respondents noted stale and outdated content as a primary reason intranets fail. In fact, nearly 1 in 5 respondents indicated they would change their intranet’s content management and update functionality if given the opportunity.
For IC teams, AI-powered auto-governance and content moderation can address these challenges by:
- Governing content automatically across the intranet
- Ensuring adherence to organizational policies and compliance standards
- Finding and unpublishing stale content
- Notifying content authors when updates are needed
- Keeping popular content visible using audit and tracking capabilities
- Using analytics to weed out content that employees don’t want or need
By ensuring that intranet content is always fresh, trustworthy and appropriate, IC teams can maintain their intranet as a reliable and secure hub for communication, collaboration and knowledge-sharing.
In addition to freeing up intranet content management time for IC teams, automatically scrubbing the platform of stale content improves the total cost of ownership (TCO) — a valuable proof point for Internal Communication leaders making the business case for better employee communications technology.
Embracing the future of internal communications
As the workplace continues to evolve, particularly with the rise of “anywhere” work, the role of AI in facilitating more impactful internal communications will only grow. Our research clearly shows that AI-powered intranets offer immense potential for IC teams to drive engagement and boost productivity — drivers of other bottom-line success metrics like revenue and retention.
For IC teams looking to stay ahead of the curve and deliver maximum value to their organizations, investing in AI-powered intranet technology is no longer optional — it’s a strategic imperative.
How Simpplr can help
A trusted partner to more than 1,000 leading brands, Simpplr drives employee engagement and productivity through our comprehensive employee experience management (EXM) platform. Leveraging AI, Simpplr delivers personalized, frictionless digital experiences, empowering employees to perform their best work from anywhere.
For Internal Communication teams, we’ll help you deliver beautiful, highly personalized, and targeted employee communications without any technical or design help.
Our Writing Assistant helps you generate solid first drafts for blogs, newsletters and emails in seconds, leveraging generative AI that makes it easy to simplify messaging, enhance productivity and communicate more clearly than ever before.
Our Auto-Governance Engine™ automatically detects and unpublishes outdated content. And our content moderation algorithm combs every feed post, comment and reply to ensure employees use the platform appropriately (e.g., no hateful content, harassing, sexually explicit, etc.). It supports many languages, enabling multilingual customers to keep their environments safe from offensive or inappropriate language.
Request a demo today to learn more.
