Top Strategic Questions for Communication Leaders in 2025

In 2025, communication professionals are once again expected to stretch far and wide – and in many organizations, resources have been cut even further. Katariina Ahonen and Kasper Stenbäck, CEOs of Kaiku, explore the hottest issues on communication executives' desks and share how to tackle them effectively.

How can we support a workplace community that has lost its sense of connection? How do we navigate crisis communication and preparedness—or empower managers to communicate effectively during change? And what does it take to make AI truly understand communication target audiences?

Kaiku CEOs Katariina Ahonen and Kasper Stenbäck share their top insights and practical tools to help tackle the hottest communication challenges with confidence.

1. Align Actions with Strategic Goals

Many Finnish organizations have undergone change negotiations and budget cuts. Yet results are still expected. In this environment, communication must be tightly linked to strategy—there’s simply no room for anything else. Every self-respecting communication professional should at least roughly assess how much of their work truly supports the organization’s strategic goals.

Communication work always includes a certain amount of ad hoc tasks—calls from journalists, social media comments, and internal requests for help. But ask yourself: are you drowning in daily surprise inputs, or are you still able to make progress toward strategic goals?

2. Invest in Community Building in Remote and Hybrid Work

Community and connection are often talked about in internal communications, but rarely fall under anyone’s clear responsibility—making them difficult to develop. So what should a communication leader bring to the table? One of the most effective ways to strengthen community is to improve the organization’s communication and interpersonal skills.

What could a company-wide training program look like to support a sense of community? From a leadership perspective, it means managing community and communication culture as part of the organization’s strategy—with clear goals. For managers, key tools include a coaching and inclusive leadership style, and actively maintaining team communication in remote and hybrid environments. For the whole staff, essential skills include collaboration, taking shared responsibility for a healthy workplace community, and the ability to clearly communicate about one’s own work.

It’s easy to assume that every organization working in a hybrid model already has effective practices in place. But hallway conversations often tell a different story. If your organization lacks clear practices for day-to-day communication in hybrid work, start the conversation—within teams, among leadership, or across the whole organization.

3. Be Prepared for a Crisis

Last year highlighted many crisis communication themes—cyberattacks, challenges to corporate responsibility promises, flare-ups in DEI discussions, and fast-moving social media commentary. What can communication professionals learn from these?

Crisis communicators stood out—even in difficult situations—when their messages were timely, well-considered, and consistent across different spokespersons. The right people were speaking up, and the situations had likely been rehearsed in advance.

In some industries, crisis-prone topics and scenarios are well recognized, and communicating about them is seen as essential. But a crisis can strike any organization—and in today’s polarized media environment, especially on social media, there’s little mercy for those unprepared. Communication teams must increasingly anticipate risks and keep a close eye on emerging undercurrents.

4. Leverage Synthetic Audiences

Another year of experimenting with AI has passed—and the learning continues. One emerging trend is the use of synthetic audiences. They’re changing the way communication is planned and tested—something that, in our experience, often gets overlooked due to limited time and resources.

Synthetic personas act as virtual target audiences. They can simulate reactions to communication and help tailor messages to better serve the intended audience. With their help, organizations can test campaign messaging, visual elements, and even crisis communication strategies.

The painful truth is that synthetic personas are only valuable if they're built on solid data. With incomplete or weak input, you'll get incomplete or weak results.

Building and applying customer insight is essential—and synthetic personas are a key step in that process. We've observed that even communication professionals often struggle to fully integrate customer needs and perspectives into everyday content such as images, texts, and videos. AI can serve as a powerful catalyst in bridging that gap.

5. Ensure Managers Can Communicate Effectively During Change

Change is constant—we all know that. But don’t assume managers naturally know how to communicate through it. It may sound odd, but during major transitions, it can feel as if the humanity of leaders and managers starts to fade: they put up walls, harden themselves in the face of tough decisions, or stop listening—especially when the change is beyond their control.

Leaders and managers are often under immense pressure—they’re guiding others through change while going through it themselves. The best outcomes come when they can show up as their authentic selves during times of transition. That’s why it’s crucial to invest in their communication and interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence, and listening abilities. These are the qualities that make change easier for everyone.

In times like these, no communicator should have to go it alone—or even in pairs. Where do you need the most support right now? At Kaiku, we’re here to help—especially if those hot potatoes are starting to burn your fingertips.