As the communications industry evolves, so must our skills. Discover the top skills professionals need to master to stay relevant and deliver value
Communications is a field that is as dynamic as it gets, and the changes we see in the world around us have undoubtedly influenced the practice of communications, PR, marketing, and other communications-related fields.
Let’s take corporate communications, for example. We’ve seen a massive shift in how organisations communicate on digital platforms. In the past, companies only communicated when they had something specific to say. Think press releases, statements, and other formal announcements.
And now? We get to see work culture content, the faces behind brands, ‘day in the life’ content, throwback content, and even skits. Interesting changes for sure.
But where does this leave the corporate communications professional? How do you keep up with these changes? And what does this mean for the skills you need to do your job well when you can see your KPIs changing in real time?
Similarly, most of us remember the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI). We rapidly moved from the campaign against AI to believers in it, and you are now expected to actively use AI in your day-to-day work.
Employers expect this and factor it into the output they want from you, whether that is content creation, research, data gathering or analysis. To refuse to adapt is to risk being left behind. So, the next question is: how do you learn to use these tools responsibly while maintaining your authenticity in the process? How do you continue to own your work?
The Comms Spotlight is a series we run where senior professionals with over eight years of experience share their career stories and lessons. We have interviewed over 200 professionals, and we often ask them a particular question: “What advice would you give to young or aspiring communications professionals?”
Despite the different niches and career paths of these professionals, there is always one recurring answer, expressed in different ways but with the same central theme: learn continuously and adapt.
More recently, Lynn Berowsky, CPRP, Employee Communications Manager SA, De Beers Group, shared this in response to the same question:
“Firstly, stay curious. The best communicators are lifelong learners because the world, technology and the ways people consume information are constantly evolving.”
For those entering the industry, these evolving changes have raised the bar for the skills needed to stand out in a competitive job market. For mid- to senior-level practitioners, they reinforce the need for continuous learning, adaptability, and a willingness to rethink how we work to remain relevant and deliver the desired impact.
In this piece, we explore some existing and emerging skills that are increasingly relevant across communications roles. These are skills we are seeing more frequently in job descriptions and KPIs, and developing them can support your career growth and increase the value you bring as a communications professional.
Strategic Thinking Is Fundamental
Contrary to popular belief, communication is an art as well as a science. It’s not merely creating social media content, writing press releases or taking photos. These are part of the execution of communication strategy, but there is also long-term thinking, research and planning behind the work.
So, what is strategic communications?
Sia Papageorgiou, Managing Partner, Centre for Strategic Communications Excellence, defines it as “a deliberate and structured approach designed to effectively plan, organise and deliver communication for an organisation to drive business outcomes.”
A good understanding of how to approach your work strategically can take away the struggle of trying to prove its value to your employer.
While you can’t anticipate every challenge that comes with execution, strategic communications gives you the principles and frameworks to guide your strategy planning, stakeholder mapping, alignment with organisational goals and, importantly, communicating the value of this work to senior leadership.
Communicating strategically is a timeless skill that remains essential across any niche you choose to build your career in.
Being strategic also means understanding where communication happens. A significant part of communications strategy is now executed in the digital environment. You therefore need to be intentional about learning how to navigate social media in the workplace, understand how different platforms work and their regulations, and manage an organisation’s digital presence.
Building this digital fluency allows you to understand how to effectively reach your stakeholders and target audiences through these platforms.
AI and the Future of Communications
Of course, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a major catalyst for many of the changes we are seeing in communications and the workplace at large. The pace at which it is evolving means communications professionals need to be intentional about learning how to use it and understanding how it can support their work.
The question is no longer whether AI has a place in communications, but how you can use it effectively.
This shift was captured well in Agency 101: Your Guide to Building a Future-Proof Career in Public Relations:
“AI is compressing the distance between an idea and a first draft. Research that once took a junior team member a full day can now take an hour, which means the value we offer has shifted further from pure production.”
The implication is that as AI becomes more capable, the value professionals bring increasingly lies in judgement, strategy, creativity, and the ability to ask the right questions.
It is equally important that we understand the best practices for using AI in the workplace. How can we use it to improve productivity without compromising privacy, confidentiality or data protection? We, as communications professionals, need to understand these considerations and use AI responsibly, particularly when working with sensitive organisational or stakeholder information.
Prepare for Crisis Communication and Reputation Management
After learning about strategic communications, digital media, and the responsible and ethical use of AI, it is important to recognise that even the most strategic organisations cannot completely avoid a crisis. There are factors at play beyond the control of the comms team. What you can do is prepare for them and have the right frameworks and response strategies in place to mitigate and manage them properly when they occur.
Crisis communication and reputation management gives you the tools to think through potential risks, develop response strategies and manage communications before, during and after a crisis. It also helps you understand how to protect an organisation’s reputation when things do not go according to plan.
As they say, to be forewarned is to be forearmed. Building these skills before you need them can make all the difference when a crisis occurs.
And sometimes, the crisis can come from within the organisation itself. How many times have we seen an organisation thrown into a crisis because an executive said something culturally insensitive during a media session, shared a poorly worded thought online or even showed up in an outfit that caused public outrage? These moments can quickly become bigger than the original action, especially when they are amplified online.
This is why executive media training is an important part of reputation management. Executives are, by default, flagbearers of the organisation, and a single remark in the media can mar years of careful reputation management. Investing in executive media training for C-suite leaders and official spokespersons helps equip them for media engagements, especially when the stakes are high.
Communication Measurement and Performance Tracking
Think of Communication Measurement and Performance Tracking as data analytics tailored to the work we do. It goes beyond writing down numbers at the end of a campaign. You need to understand what those numbers mean, what they tell you about performance and perception, and how they connect to the organisation’s wider business goals.
Ideally, measurement should start even before the communications activity begins. Knowing your baseline helps you set the right objectives and identify the data you need to track. It is also important to know how to interpret that data and present it in a way that is easy for senior leaders to understand and act on.
The importance of this cannot be overemphasised. When you can clearly demonstrate the value of your work and how it contributes to organisational goals, you are in a stronger position to be part of decision-making conversations and make the case for further investment in communications.
Leadership in Communications
As you move into more senior roles, communication becomes an even bigger part of your work. You are no longer only responsible for getting the work done. You have to secure buy-in, communicate with senior stakeholders and increasingly lead your team through change.
The Center for Creative Leadership’s 2025 research, The Core Leadership Skills You Need in Every Role, identifies communication as one of four fundamental leadership skills, noting that communication becomes increasingly important as people move up the career ladder.
This is why preparing for leadership is serious business. The more responsibility you take on, the more you need to communicate clearly, manage difficult conversations and present your ideas with confidence. A great strategy is only useful if people understand it and can act on it.
For communications professionals, developing these skills early can make the transition into leadership easier. Public speaking, presentation skills and communicating confidently across different levels of an organisation can all help as you take on greater responsibility.
Conclusion
Above all these skills, is one thing: a willingness to keep learning. The communications profession will continue to change, and the ability to stay curious, adapt and keep building your skills will serve you throughout your career.
At The Comms Avenue, we have carefully curated our training courses to help communications professionals build the skills they need at different stages of their careers. You can explore the full range in our updated course brochure.
Our goal is to help you strengthen the skills you need to stay relevant, deliver better work and create greater value.
