From Anxiety to Agency: What CCOs Are Really Feeling About AI | Scriptorium Initiative

There's a word for what many communications leaders are feeling right now about AI: "exciety." It's the peculiar state of being simultaneously excited and anxious, caught between possibility and peril. This was a key takeaway from the Scriptorium Initiative's inaugural conference in Amsterdam last October, where senior communications executives gathered to grapple with a technological shift faster than any before. Instead of a consensus, the event offered valuable, candid perspectives from leaders navigating this rapid change.

What follows are select voices from that gathering—practitioners, academics and researchers primarily from Europe—each offering distinct insights on how AI is reshaping comms leadership, agency relationships, trust dynamics and information integrity. Their perspectives reveal both the urgency and the opportunity facing the profession.

The pace is different this time

Christopher Storck, partner at FGS Global and lecturer in corporate strategy and communication management, captured the unique intensity of this moment. "This is not about an evolutionary process," he said. "It's a fundamental disruption that we are facing."

That disruption demands constant attention. "I'm very tired in the evenings," Storck admitted, "and I don't think it's going to be better through the next years." It's the cognitive load of maintaining two realities: the existing communications infrastructure that still operates, and the emerging AI-native model developing rapidly alongside it.

For Storck and other consultants advising CCOs, the challenge is strategic. "We have two realities at the same time. We still have the old reality," he explained. His dilemma: How do you modernize when incremental improvements might already be obsolete? "While I'm doing that, I'm asking myself, why are we doing that? Because what we do here is evolution. Shouldn't we just do the revolution?"

Agency relationships and economics shift

Wesley ter Haar, speaking from agency experience, addressed how AI reshapes the fundamental economics of communications work. "If you're a comms leader and you're talking to your agency, you should ask them how they're using AI and more importantly, how it's impacting your outputs or your outcomes," he advised.

The scope is significant. "Agents, which are LLMs with a job, can start doing meaningful parts of a job to be done, 30%, 40%, sometimes up to 80%," Haar explained. "At this moment in time, the quality of the people guiding the agents is still really key to getting consumer-facing craft." This creates tension with hourly rate models that, as he noted, don't "incentivize speed" or "innovation."

His vision: "A smaller team, an army of agents, but people really creating the context for those agents to be high performing. A perfect symbiotic relationship between both."

Trust and the evolving CCO role

Zeynep Ozbil, a communications leader based in Europe, framed the challenge directly: "How do we establish relatability, reliability, cooperation within our teams and beyond?" AI is "reinventing the rules of trust and changing power dynamics in ways we've never seen before," particularly as "power is predominantly held through data by big tech."

She described the evolving role of the CCO as threefold: "A balancer of efficiencies created by AI and data-driven personalization with emotional nuance and authenticity. A mediator of information integrity and trust where lines between truth and fiction are extremely blurred. And an architect of proper frameworks that maintain human agency in an era where we need humanity most."

Her advice centers on capability-building: "The appetite to learn, to use technology and not to be scared of it is what's going to make all the difference." While acknowledging junior staff concerns about job security, she emphasized: "The future is exciting if you equip yourself with the talent, tools, and learning required."

Misinformation accelerates, audiences evolve

Vilma Luoma-aho, a researcher focused on information environments in Europe, presented concerning data. "AI speeds up the pace of misinformation," she explained, citing examples like political robocalls. "AI is able to make more harm in the same time frame" while also masking "the intent and the actors" behind campaigns.

Her research on younger audiences reveals a generational shift: "They don't really care that much where it originates as long as it's entertaining and it helps them connect with their peers." For those who've never known a world without AI, "whether something is true or whether it is AI or bot produced doesn't play as big a role as for older generations." This creates a fundamental challenge for communicators building trust when audiences' relationships with truth itself are evolving.

The call for deliberate action

Despite challenges, these voices converge on boldness over caution. Storck stated it directly: "My wish is that CCOs become more courageous, maybe even more ambitious, but I think courage is the most important thing." He acknowledged risks: "We have to accept that we're going to fail quite often." His conclusion: "Even if we do everything to avoid risk, horrible things will happen with disinformation, misinformation. So it will happen anyway. So then let's take risks."

Haar framed it as competitive advantage: "There is great opportunity in being a little faster and first to adopt because it allows you to operate at different unit economics. That means you can be more competitive, faster, more relevant than your industry and competitive set."

Moving forward deliberately

These European perspectives reveal a shared understanding: the path forward requires moving deliberately into uncertainty rather than waiting for clarity. The simultaneous feeling of excitement and anxiety isn't a problem to solve—it signals engagement with the right questions.

For communications leaders navigating this transformation, the practical wisdom is consistent across these voices: build capability, accept learning curves, and maintain focus on the profession's core purpose—trust and behavior—while the tools and methods evolve rapidly around it.

About the Scriptorium Initiative

The Scriptorium Initiative is a nonprofit think tank exploring how artificial intelligence is transforming the future of human communication. Through research, convenings, and collaboration, Scriptorium helps leaders understand and navigate the profound implications of AI—not just as a tool, but as a new paradigm for trust, connection, and influence.

In partnership with Page, Scriptorium is working to equip senior communications leaders with the insight, fluency, and foresight needed to lead in an AI-native world. Together, we aim to produce actionable thought leadership, build frameworks for ethical and strategic engagement, and shape what responsible communications looks like in the age of intelligent systems.

Let's keep the dialogue open - before the algorithms decide it for us. Contact or learn more at www.scriptorium-initiative.ai or connect@scriptorium-initiative.ai.