A Communicator's Take on a Communicator's Guide to AI

Neville Hobson 22 Oct 2025 3 min read

If you work in organisational communication and want a calm, credible way to sharpen how you use AI, a new LinkedIn Learning course from Microsoft's Frank X. Shaw and Elaine Q. Chang is worth the hour. It frames AI as a partner – not a shortcut – and gives you a clear mindset to experiment responsibly and raise the quality of your work.

AI is no longer a side project; it is the texture of daily work. Media cycles are faster, stakeholder expectations are higher, and the cost of getting things wrong is rising. In that context, The Communicator’s Guide to AI offers something rare: a grounded introduction built by communicators for communicators.

It focuses less on shiny tools and more on how to think, so you can make better choices, faster, without lowering your standards.

I took the 53-minute course as a refresher and found it both practical and reassuring. It reinforced that an AI-ready mindset – one I have been developing over the past three years – is about intent, not hype. The course helps you keep that intent front and centre.

What you will learn – in plain English

The course is anchored in a simple loop that’s easy to remember:

Aspire – be clear about the outcome you want.
Choose – pick the right tool, data and approach for that outcome.
Tune – iterate, verify, and align to your voice and standards.

There is nothing mystical here. It is the common sense that separates useful from noisy – define success, set up the work properly, then improve it with human judgement. Short, real-world examples show AI speeding first drafts, sharpening angles, testing assumptions, and improving clarity across formats.

Why you should take it

What stood out most for me is how respectfully the course treats the craft. Rather than promising that AI will “do your job”, it consistently shows how AI helps you do your job better.

The framing lowers anxiety because it provides a sensible structure for experimentation – safe, purposeful, and repeatable – while making clear that speed is there to raise quality, not excuse sloppiness.

Ethics is built in rather than bolted on, with accuracy, privacy and fairness treated as part of the working process, not a last-minute check.

How it benefits your day-to-day work

In practice, the ideas land where communicators actually live. You move from a blank page to a solid first pass more quickly, which frees time for judgement and voice. Decision-making becomes clearer because structured prompts surface risks, counter-arguments and stakeholder angles before you publish.

Repurposing gets tighter, too – one core story flows more consistently into leadership notes, media briefs and internal updates. Perhaps most importantly, the habits reinforced here keep standards high: verification, attribution and cultural clarity become routine rather than reminders.

The resources guide is a keeper

The included resources PDF is genuinely useful. It summarises the core ideas and offers starting points you can adapt to your own workflow. Think of it as a pocket reminder of the mindset – handy when you are context-switching on a busy day.

Keep it close: the ACT mindset at a glance.

Access and cost

Many LinkedIn Learning courses are typically paid, but there is good news with this one. Frank Shaw announced that the course is free until 31 December 2025, opening the door for anyone who wants to try this approach outside a paywall.

Who it's for

AI-curious communicators who want a safe, sensible way to begin.
Busy teams who need a shared language for using AI without reinventing the wheel.
Leaders who must set expectations – and boundaries – around AI in comms.
Communicators already versed in AI but want to benchmark their foundational knowledge.

Should you take it?

Yes – if you have one hour and want to move from dabbling with AI to using it intentionally. The course will not drown you in features. It will give you a reliable way to think, test and improve. That shift – from tool-chasing to outcome-driven practice – is the real value.

If you have already experimented with AI, you will recognise much of the mindset here. Take the course anyway. A short, well-structured refresher can reset habits, and this one does so with a communicator’s voice.

I left with a clearer lens and a couple of immediate tweaks to how I brief and review work. Worth the time!