Certified. Practical. Built by Communicators Who've Already Done It.
Your leadership is asking what AI means for the comms function, your team is experimenting without a shared process, and your stakeholders are increasingly skeptical of anything that looks AI-generated. Most "AI in comms" events hand you theory and vendor pitches. This one doesn't.
We're back in Switzerland for a second time — and this year, the Boot Camp is certified: every attendee receives a Certificate of Attendance from the McMaster University Master of Communications Management (MCM) Executive Education program, backing two days of practical, in-house frameworks with academic credibility you can bring back to your team.
This isn't a stage full of AI vendors pitching you software. It's senior communicators who've already redesigned their own teams and processes around AI — sharing what worked, what didn't, and what they'd do differently.
Day 2 is a hands-on workshop led by Dr. Alex Sévigny (McMaster University), where you'll apply the frameworks from Day 1 directly to your own team's challenges. You'll work through your own AI use case, GEO strategy, and process gaps with guided exercises, and leave with an action plan for your team, not just notes.
Group discounts are available. If you're sending two or more delegates, get in touch with Rabije at [email protected]for team rates.
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This case study will explore how communications teams can move beyond isolated AI experiments and build practical, AI-ready processes across their work. Sarah and Stefan will share lessons from the implementation journey, including how to identify the right use cases, redesign workflows, secure internal alignment, and establish the foundations needed to integrate AI responsibly and effectively into everyday communications.
Stefan Probst, Global Lead Tools & Data Strategy, BSH Home Appliances Group & Sarah Lehmann, Global Corporate Communications, BSH Home Appliances Group
Most communications teams have run an AI pilot by now — the harder problem is what comes after. This session moves past isolated experiments to look at what it actually takes to scale AI into a sustainable, everyday part of the communications function. Aferdita will share perspectives on translating early AI initiatives into applications that hold up across teams and workflows, not just within a single use case, and what separates a pilot that stalls from one that scales.
Aferdita Kastrati, Head of Data & AI Strategy, Global Communications, Merck
As AI capabilities matured, ABB's content and digital communications team faced a practical question: how do you organise a team to work alongside AI rather than around it? This session explores what it takes to transition into a hybrid team, where human expertise and AI tools work together across the content lifecycle. Laura will share how the team identified where AI could take on work, how roles and workflows shifted as a result, and the lessons learned along the way — including what worked, what didn't, and what she'd approach differently.
Laura Villaescusa, Group Head of Content & Digital Communications, ABB & Katja Roelants du Vivier, Group Senior Digital Communications Manager, ABB
Bosch pioneered AI in corporate communication with the e-bike campaign hashtag#SantasNewRide in 2017. Since then, Bosch has built up a broad AI driven operating system with more than 100 use cases spanning corporate comms, brand, and public affairs, all under a single global governance framework. This session pulls back the curtain on that journey with a best-of look at the most important and latest milestones: what's actually been built, what governance at that scale requires, and how target audiences worldwide are responding to AI-driven content. Expect a closer look at agentic AI as the next frontier, where it's already being applied in a comms function, and where it's heading next.
Dr. Michael Schmidtke, Vice President Content Flow and Digital Channels, Bosch
This session walks through what it actually takes to build a working AI agent for a communications function — from scoping the first use case to getting it embedded in daily work. Jun will go beyond the initial pilot to focus on what's proven most valuable since: redesigning and optimizing the processes an agent sits inside, so it holds up as AI capabilities keep evolving. Attendees will leave with a practical framework for scoping their first agent and the process changes needed to make it stick.
Jun Li, Lead AI Solutions & Data Analytics, Global Communications, Daimler Truck AG
As AI-powered search reshapes how people discover information, communicators need to rethink how earned media content is created and optimized for visibility. This session explores Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and what it means for communications professionals looking to ensure their brands and stories are discoverable in AI-generated search results. Bettina will examine how communicators can adapt earned media strategies for AI search, what makes content more likely to be surfaced and referenced by AI platforms, and how GEO can become part of a broader communications strategy in an increasingly AI-driven information landscape.
Bettina Weber, Senior Digital and AI Strategy Communications Manager, Syngenta Group
When a story can spread, mutate, and go global within minutes of breaking, the traditional crisis communications playbook is no longer fast enough. This session looks at how AI is compressing the news cycle and what that means for how communicators detect, assess, and respond to a crisis in real time. Kai will share how his team is adapting its crisis response processes to keep pace with AI-driven speed — from early-warning monitoring to decision-making under compressed timelines — and what a crisis-ready communications function needs to look like going forward.
Kai Rolker, Head of Group Communications, Clariant
AI can produce polished corporate text in seconds. This session is about the part that got harder and more valuable.
In October 2025, one of the Big Four published a report on agentic AI with 45 citations. Five of them checked out. Most of the rest pointed at something real, under a title nobody had ever written. The report stayed online for eight months, and four of the organizations it named as success stories said the claims about them were wrong.
Björn takes that failure apart and draws out what it costs to verify a claim, to own a decision, and to still sound like your own organization. Human judgment isn't the final check on AI-generated content. It's the work.
Björn Nübel, AI Communications Strategist & Editor, Group Corporate Communications, UBS
This session explores how AI could reshape not only how we communicate, but the purpose and value of the communications function itself. Alexander considers how communications could evolve towards sense-making, intelligence, digital products and strategic decision support, and the AI, data and governance literacy this will require across both communications and management. Rather than predicting a single future, the session asks how we can prepare the function to create value across several plausible AI-driven futures.
Alexander Gligorijevic, Foresight, Insights and Impact Leader, Global Corporate Affairs, IKEA
As AI reshapes what communications work actually looks like, the profession faces a harder question than which tools to adopt: what skills, roles, and career paths still hold up, and which need to be rebuilt from scratch. This session will unpack how AI is changing the talent equation for comms teams — from the skills now worth hiring and developing, to how career paths in the profession are shifting, to what teams and individuals should be doing now to stay relevant through the transition. This session is a candid, forward-looking conversation about where the profession's talent pipeline needs to go next.
Simon Rieger, Senior External Communications Manager, Telefónica Deutschland
This full-day, professional-level training equips you with practical, immediately applicable skills to integrate generative AI into communications and marketing work. The focus is on moving beyond experimentation toward safe, strategic and measurable use of AI—understanding how modern AI tools work, where they add the most value, where they should not be trusted, and how to manage risks including hallucinations, confidentiality, accuracy, and brand voice drift.
What You’ll Learn
You’ll develop a clear, practical understanding of how generative AI fits into modern communications environments, including:
Applying AI to Real Communications Work
The training is hands-on and grounded in communications workflows you already use, including:
High-Value AI Use Cases for Communicators
You’ll explore advanced and emerging applications of AI that are increasingly shaping communications work, including:
Capstone Build
You’ll design a practical CustomGPT or Copilot-style assistant tailored to a real communications task, such as:
What You Take Back to Work
You’ll leave with:
Alex Sévigny, Professor (Tenured) of Communications Management and Communication Studies, McMaster University
This program can also be delivered as a tailored in-house training for your organization. We adapt the content to your industry, objectives, and level of maturity, focusing on real challenges your teams face and the decisions they need to make. In-house formats allow your people to align on a shared approach, work through relevant scenarios, and build skills they can apply immediately.
If you’re exploring an in-house option, tell us a bit about your team, priorities, and timing, and we’ll recommend the right format.
Contact us about in-house training
AI in Public Relations
