How it works
How a communications team puts AI to work, from planning through to lasting capability. Five phases, one connected cycle, and the model behind every template, prompt, and workflow in the 74-template library.
The cycle
Transform feeds back into Strategise. The 5-phase framework is a cycle, not a checklist.
The intelligence and planning layer.
Audience research, stakeholder mapping, competitive analysis, message architecture, campaign planning, channel strategy, and measurement design.
Comms work begins with knowing who you are talking to and what they already think. Every campaign and every piece of content is only as strong as the strategic understanding behind it. Strategise is the front of the cycle because nothing else holds without it.
The production layer.
Drafting, editorial planning, content repurposing, internal communications, community content, and event materials.
Strategy without output is invisible. Create takes the planning from phase one and turns it into things people can actually read, share, and respond to.
The quality and risk-control layer.
AI use policy, AI tool register, approval workflows, tone verification, claims substantiation, accessibility review, brand consistency, and crisis preparation.
Before anything is published it must be defensible. Govern sits between Create and the world: it is what stops a draft from becoming a problem.
The intelligence and detection layer.
Media and social monitoring, issue tracking, sentiment analysis, campaign measurement, competitive intelligence, and stakeholder reporting.
Once content is live, the work shifts to watching. Monitor reads what landed, what missed, and what is brewing: the signal that drives every next decision.
The capability layer.
AI readiness assessment, workflow redesign, capability gap analysis, tool evaluation, and team upskilling.
Transform sits at the back of the cycle so its outputs can feed forward. It takes the lessons from Monitor, redesigns the way the team works, and resets the strategic ground for the next cycle.
Communications work is not a linear march from Strategise to Transform. Teams move between phases as campaigns develop, issues emerge, and organisations mature. A crisis might start in Monitor, move immediately to Govern, then loop back to Strategise. A product launch moves through all five in sequence. A thought-leadership programme cycles through them every month.
The 5-phase framework organises the map. Each phase has a clear job, and Transform exists so the lessons from one cycle reshape the next.
One person can work through the 5-phase framework straight from the library. The harder job is making it the way a whole team works, so output quality does not depend on who picks up the brief. If you lead AI adoption in an agency or an in-house function, treat the five phases as a shared operating model rather than a pile of prompts.
Rolling it out is one thing. If you deliver AI capability to comms people yourself, as an agency, a CPD provider or a training business, the 5-phase framework can also be licensed or delivered with you rather than rebuilt from scratch. That is a partnership conversation.
Want the thinking behind the model? Applied / Comms With AI is where we write it up in practice, including how project folders make AI workflows repeatable.
Read the analysis on AppliedThis page explains the model. Start Here shows you how to apply it: which five templates give you the most coverage fastest, how the AI-prompt-plus-review workflow runs, and where to begin if you are new to the 5-phase framework. This page sits inside the Learn hub, alongside live sessions, their write-ups, and training.
Or talk it through: Consult Comms With AI , £300 for a 45-minute session and a written advisory note.