It’s December, meaning that Christmas advertising is in full swing, with companies throwing everything and the kitchen sink to secure advert of the season. One early contender has fallen short with Coca-Cola trying something new with their traditional “Holidays Are Coming” ad.

They decided to use artificial intelligence.

We all know how it plays out; Santa sagely sending out the Coca-Cola delivery trucks through pine forests with snow falling from the sky. Only this time, some details weren’t quite up to scratch for many viewers. Reindeer and polar bears are coated in a slightly uncanny sheen, the delivery lorries boxier and without texture than in years gone by. All of this carried the asterisked disclaimer “Created by the Real Magic AI” which many commenters thought looked “soulless as hell.”

However, Coca-Cola stuck by their guns with Pratik Thaker, the company’s global head of AI, saying “If I want to go very realistic, maybe it’s difficult, but if I want to go hyper-realistic and fantastical, A.I. is actually a much better tool.”

In many ways, consumers are still enjoying the nostalgia of the original, because fundamentally the message hasn’t changed.  Brands like Coca-Cola have made it clear they can see a future of AI-produced campaigns especially when they’ve become so adept in utilising it as evidence from their previous work.

In terms of internal comms, however you end up using AI, you need to clearly communicate the alignment with your goals and values. Coca-Cola achieved exactly what they intended to with their advert and the criticism that was left was much broader talking points surrounding artificial intelligence. With your own communications, you need to demonstrate to your audience why this activity speaks to your core values.

Connection with your peopled doesn’t have to be lost just because you’ve used automation. Imagine if you used ChatGPT to create a script for you from the POV of your leader for future company updates. It may make things more efficient and personalised but loses the resonance with your people. That connection to your workforce is incredibly value to your culture and output.

Staying true to those signifiers of your company values shows that you respect and understand your audience’s point-of-view, even when trying new strategies to do so.