Liberal Arts in the Age of AI: The CCO's Unexpected Advantage

Introducing The New CCO: Brief, a shorter format podcast from Page. In this episode, we look to uncover the most powerful weapon in modern communications today. Spoiler: it isn't artificial intelligence—it's the distinctly human ability to draw insights from art, philosophy and science. Listen to find out why your liberal arts degree might just be your corporate superpower.

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Transcript

Transcript is AI-generated, some errors may appear

[00:00:00] Eliot Mizrachi: One of the problems with having brilliant guests on your podcast is that you often end up with more content than you can actually cram into an episode, resulting in great stuff that hits the cutting room floor.

To fix that, welcome to the new CCO Brief, a new series where we share valuable insights that didn't make it into our episodes.

I'm Eliot Mizrachi. In our recent episode on building trust in a globalized world, we explored how AI is reshaping communications. Today, we're examining a fascinating pattern that emerged from these conversations. The unexpected advantage of having a non traditional background in communication leadership.

Let's hear from our guests first about their paths to becoming top communicators.

[00:00:43] Axel Löber: I'm Axel Löber. I'm chief communications officer at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, which is a science and tech company.

[00:00:52] Shahar Siblershatz: Hi, I'm Shahar Silbershatz. I run Caliber, which is a stakeholder intelligence firm based in Copenhagen, Denmark

[00:00:59] Eliot Mizrachi: I want to, Hear a little bit more about you as, as individuals. Oftentimes we talk about the origin story of CCOs and other communication leaders, how it was that they came to be where they are and what developed their point of view, uh, Shahar, what, what's your origin story?

That's a, that's actually a tough, surprisingly a tough question to answer, because sometimes you look back and you think, how did I end up where I ended up? it's funny all the CCOs that I interview on our podcast, when I ask them how did they start their career, why did they choose communication, they always tell me, I didn't choose communication, communication chose me.

[00:01:30] Shahar Siblershatz: And I think it's probably the same with me because I didn't choose communication to begin with. I actually started out as a lawyer,back in Tel Aviv where I grew up and, working in a law firm, um, I felt it's not really my thing

I was always very interested in marketing and I thought, why don't I combine my law degree with a business degree. And try to see if I can merge that into some kind of a career path. So I went to New York to business school, started working in the consulting industry and thought this is a good way for me to combine a lot of different skills, working on a lot of different projects with different companies.

And as I did that, working primarily on business strategy. I found myself more and more drawn to the communication side and the marketing side where I could work with companies purpose Statements.

So from that, the next turn was going into from business strategy to brand strategy. I moved to London and yeah, And that I really loved. Working with brand strategy for me was a way to define, help companies define what they stand for.

So. For me, I think I ended up here trying to combine a lot of different areas of interest and different areas of study, but at the end of the day, really interested in the psychology. of companies. Um, what motivates them? What's their DNA? How do they connect with people?

you know, in a sense, I think that's the beauty of communication. It's about connecting with people. and I think it involves a lot of different areas of interest. So a lot of us find ourselves in this profession not necessarily by design, but, by circumstance. Um,

[00:02:54] Eliot Mizrachi: That's really interesting. I think a lot of people will find themselves in your story. Axel, how about you? What's your superhero origin story?

[00:03:03] Axel Löber: I studied, uh, German literature, politics and psychology. And, didn't at the time, didn't even know that a job. Profile like communications even exist. I found it via an internship, when I was on university, then started off in a small PR agency and a big PR agency, but actually moved over to financial communications, investor relations did a bit of executive positioning, communication strategy.

Then was assigned to to do a bit of branding, which opened my world and towards towards marketing change to the energy company did marketing and now back in communications, it's kind of a nonlinear. journey, I would say, always be guided by curiosity for new topics.

I have to have to say that, I do consider it as a huge privilege that they had the opportunity to work in these very different areas within the broader field of communications, which kind of gave me a very broad perspective around the centerpiece of how to translate a strategy into a story that is relevant for.

Certain audiences, be it customers or stakeholders. so looking at it from from different point of views it's quite, helpful if you work in a corporation in such a responsibility, because you understand in which situation the colleagues from marketing, the colleagues from investor relations are in, was it planned?

Definitely. No. Um, so. Uh, yeah, this kind of floating, floating in the most peculiar way as David Bowie once sang, could be the headline for that story.

[00:04:39] Eliot Mizrachi: You know what I love about both of your stories? the production of communication is something that AI can do more and more. you hear more that like there's a resurgence of the liberal arts. mind, you know, people who bring different disciplines and perspectives and both of you have done that.

You've come from different places. You didn't intend to go into comms at the outset. but those, that diversity of experiences has served you well. And in a time in our profession where. it's not necessarily about wordsmithing the perfect statement, but it's about understanding the broader context of the organization.

[00:05:16] Eliot Mizrachi: Seeking well rounded and multifaceted candidates to create a versatile team is not just a nice to have. In a forthcoming episode, we spoke with Dan Gaynor, PageUp member and head of strategy and insights at Signal. ai. He shared his perspective from inside an AI company on how he approaches hiring talent and how he uses AI to bridge any gaps that might occur when prioritizing broad experiences over narrow skill sets

[00:05:42] Dan Gaynor: I would encourage folks to think about diversity over familiarity. One of the things that I've seen in starting an AI company and scaling a division within one is that AI allowed us to hire from non traditional backgrounds and scale the skills gap.

In a much faster way. we've hired former bench scientists doing cancer research and analysts who were previously looking at the brains of fruit flies, let alone former political fundraisers and anti smoking campaigners. I'm really, really proud of just the broad brush with regard to hiring.

Instead of just looking for the same sort of talent from the same sort of brands, I can allow you to hire from someone a little bit outside the sphere. And bring them in and scale them up really quickly.

[00:06:29] Eliot Mizrachi: As AI increasingly handles routine communications tasks, leaders with diverse backgrounds bring the creative thinking and human understanding that technology can't replicate, at least not yet. It's our diverse backgrounds and human experiences that help us chart the course forward. Shahar, literature like Axel, or studying fruit fly brains like some of Dan's team, your unique perspective might just be your superpower, and is exactly what organizations need to navigate an AI powered future.

I'm Elliot Mizrahi, and this has been The New CCO Brief