AI-generated language is making corporate communications easier to create, but it is not making these communications more complaint or comprehensible.

For example, ESG-related shareholder proposals had broad ripple effects this year — but not because of AI-generated language. This portfolio describes how and why.

For example, for the first time this spring, corporations were allowed to decide for themselves whether to put shareholder proposals on their proxy statements. The SEC passed “No-Objection” policies interpreting Rule 14a-8 to allow just that. Interestingly, more discussions took place between advocates and corporations this year, despite proposals being left off of proxy statements.

AI-generated language cannot create correlations such these. Shareholder proposals are focal points around which corporations interact with investors, customers, suppliers, prospects, the media, and other constituencies. Communications with these stakeholders require a strategic, disciplined, and nuanced approach.

As a strategic AI editor specializing in corporate disclosures, I work with governance teams to refine and elevate management’s statements in situations such as these. Unlike attorneys who are focusing (obviously) on legal arguments, I focus on how these legal arguments are interpreted by investors and other audiences.

My role is not to replace a corporation’s formal language, but to improve its credibility and impact.