Leveraging Ai to Craft Effective Investor Communications
Is there a role for Artificial Intelligence to enhance the practice of investor relations?
Yes. Ai is an exciting work in progress and is being eagerly embraced across functions and industries. Ai platforms can deliver some real muscle for investor relations professionals by aggregating and tracking insights from millions of documents across market announcements, broker research, media, Company presentations and earnings calls at lightening speed.
This technology is dramatically changing how IR leaders undertake efficient research and proactively monitor market updates, market commentary and analysts’ perceptions, and relevant regulatory changes.
Ai’s most significant impact is the change on valuation processes and investment decisions. But that is another conversation for another day. Watch this space.
Is Ai relevant for Company Secretaries?
Again, the answer is yes. Company Secretaries are the face of Corporate Governance, and this can never be entirely automated. Ai offers an opportunity to enhance judgement and opinion, decision-making and leadership skills, rather than devoting so much time on administrative and pedestrian tasks. Company Secretaries can then fully focus on Governance matters affecting the Board or Company.
How can you enhance your storytelling and competitive positioning?
Historical analysis of how a Company has spoken about a specific topic or theme over time is now efficiently and effectively harnessed with advances in Ai. Consistency is critical when communicating to the market, so this offers a safeguard and can help inform and shape future messaging.
This is also true for sentiment analysis. Ai picks up on nuances in language and understands the context behind statements.
This serves to help IR professionals modify language to address perceptions and adjust the narrative accordingly.
Mitigating risk through preparation is always top of mind for the leadership team. Ai can not only analyse scripts at scale, but it also helps IR professionals to prepare the C-suite for analysts and media Q&A’s. Again, saving valuable time.
Advanced Ai search capabilities allows IR leaders to prepare more efficiently and comprehensively. It can also analyse how peers or competitors are speaking to a topic and examine macro trends that are impacting their industry. Again, very valuable insights.
Market monitoring can sometimes be clumsy and time consuming. Ai allows IR professionals to understand who is talking about their Company, what is being said and how often they are being talked about. This provides insights into what a customer, competitor or supplier might be saying.
Keeping track of your competitive positioning is critical to the success of your IR program. Ai pushes IR professionals to be more prescriptive and strategic with how they communicate to the market. This powers fast, educated decisions.
Ai is advancing at a cracking pace allowing the IR function to better prepare for earnings calls but also follow the full life cycle of their messaging with real-time precision.
Ai platforms can be formidable instruments. Real time insights and market intelligence are powerful weapons to have in your IR arsenal and serve to strengthen the Company narrative.
Recognising Ai’s impact on valuation and investment decisions will change how Companies strategise their IR plans, communications, and advice to Board and Management.
As the use of smart technologies gains velocity, IR professionals will need to keep pace with the transition to position themselves for internal and external influence and impact.
To remain indispensable contributors to corporate success, IR professionals should:
Understand and adapt to how Ais being used externally.
Centralise external communications.
Determine how to use and benefit from Ai internally.
Proceed responsibly and ethically.