Artificial intelligence is everywhere, and communications teams from across the housing sector are grappling with how to move beyond quick fixes to strategic, ethical use.
At the first in our Autumn Masterclass series, See Media’s AI lead Jade Ziola-Sammons, freelance social affairs journalist Hannah Fearn, and AI specialist Guy Marshall discussed this new landscape for social housing and built environment comms professionals.
Here are some of the key insights from the session (which was drafted by Gemini, but edited by Jade!)
The shift from tactical tasks to resident engagement
For many comms teams, the immediate appeal of AI is efficiency. Guy highlighted a critical point: too many teams are spending valuable hours on low-impact, tactical tasks that could be easily outsourced to an AI. These aren’t just minor chores; they represent a significant drain on resources that could be better allocated.
AI, for instance, can instantly check the reading age and structure of documents, ensuring key messages are accessible to all tenants – a fundamental requirement for social housing providers. It can also manage initial content drafting, summarise long legal or policy documents for internal briefings and handle basic social media scheduling.
The real strategic value, however, is not simply saving time; it’s redeploying that time. By automating the routine, comms professionals are freed up to focus on what AI cannot replicate: genuine, high-value resident engagement. This means more time for face-to-face interactions, in-depth community reporting and building the trusted relationships necessary for authentic storytelling.
In the long run, this strategic application of AI is about redesigning the communication process to be less convoluted and more human-centric.
The trust crisis: why journalism is changing forever
Perhaps the most dramatic impact of AI has been felt in journalism, which is currently undergoing a crisis of trust and verifiability. The proliferation of deepfakes, AI-generated news stories and convincing but fraudulent ‘fake experts’ has fundamentally shifted the requirements for credible reporting.
Hannah provided a sobering look at how British newsrooms are responding to the issue. She explained that the era of simply publishing a press release verbatim, common in resource-strapped local media, is “nearly completely over.” Journalists now have a greater duty of scrutiny, meaning press releases need to be robustly fact-checked before they even make it to a draft.
The impact extends to how housing providers present case studies.
- The death of the email quote: Hannah noted that the practice of accepting submitted quotes via email is rapidly dying out. With the ease of generating convincing but fictional content, editors are demanding greater evidence that a source is who they claim to be and that their story is authentic.
- The demand for hard documentation: To verify a person’s lived experience, journalists are increasingly demanding hard documentation, shifting the burden of proof onto the comms team. For a tenant’s story to be used, a journalist might now require evidence such as a P60, proof of Universal Credit, or official correspondence. This is a crucial ethical step for comms teams to be prepared for, ensuring consent is robust and documentation is secure, but it is necessary to meet the new standard of journalistic rigour.
Moving forward: rigour, ethics and reputation
The takeaway for social housing comms is clear: credibility is your most valuable asset, and it must now be constantly defended.
Firstly, AI should be embraced as a tool for rigour. Use it to check your facts, verify data points and ensure compliance and accessibility. Secondly, accept that the relationship with the media has changed. To ensure your organisation’s positive stories and important messages are heard, you must meet the media’s new demand for verifiable sources and hard evidence.
By strategically using AI to manage the routine and refocusing staff time on building trust, both internally with residents and externally with the media, comms teams can navigate this new landscape successfully. Ultimately, mastering the ethical and strategic application of AI is not just about efficiency; it’s about safeguarding your organisation’s reputation in a world where truth is under constant threat.
If you’d like to talk about how AI is changing the role of comms across the sector, or you have an idea for a future See Media Masterclass session, please contact hello@see-media.co.uk.
The full recording of the See Media Masterclass: AI – from newsrooms to neighbourhoods is available here:
Jade Ziola-Sammons is a Senior Account Director and AI Lead at See Media
