Game-Changing Business Communication Trends You Can't Miss in 2024
Effective communication is the backbone of your relationships with employees, customers, and other stakeholders. However, you must seize the opportunities created by business communication trends or risk losing profits or workers to your competitors.
For instance, 40% of on-site-only roles have shifted to hybrid or fully remote, requiring effective digital communication. Meanwhile, generative AI could help automate up to 70% of employees’ time. These trends can help you create real-life business value—but how?
Read on to learn more. This article breaks down 6 key communication trends in 2024, including practical ways to leverage them in your business.
6 Business Communication Trends
1. Content is hyper-personalized
Businesses are using hyper-personalization to achieve more with their communication budget in a cost-conscious economy. By hyper-personalizing comms like marketing copy or internal announcements, you create “segments of one”, meaning individuals feel you’re speaking directly to them. Audience data and advanced automation tools, including AI, help achieve this.
For instance, you can hyper-personalize communications by:
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Tailoring customer emails based on their browsing history, demographics such as age, and likelihood to buy.
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Adjusting your brand’s tone of voice on social media according to localized economic or political trends.
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Tailoring important company updates to each team, for instance by outlining relevant effects on their day-to-day operations.
Spike’s take: We expect hyper-personalized content to become mainstream thanks to AI, automation, and data analytics advances.
2. Generative AI is an everyday companion
Generative AI technology is rapidly evolving, and businesses are integrating it into everyday communication processes. Open AI’s ChatGPT alone boasts 180 million users, 100 million of whom visit the site weekly.
AI text generators can correct your grammar, create templates, improve email drafts, and more. One study found that 50% of marketers currently use generative AI, 76% of whom use it for basic content creation or copywriting copy. AI can also improve employee experience by personalizing training and predicting workers’ needs.
Here are some generative AI tools for everyday use:
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Chatbot
Produces content based on conversational prompts (e.g. Open AI’s ChatGPT).
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Image generator
Creates new images using instructions (e.g. Canva’s Magic Media).
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Communication assistant
Suggests comms content on your existing platforms (e.g. Spike).
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Productivity assistant
Recommends the next best action in a workflow (e.g. Salesforce’s Einstein GPT for customer relationship management).
Spike’s take: Generative AI will continue to grow, but its full potential is still unknown. Its uses will be shaped by regulations addressing risks like misinformation and copyright infringement.
3. Communication tools are converging
Driven by competition and advances in tech, software vendors are bundling multiple communication methods in one package.
Some providers, like Spike, build extra communication tools in-house, while others add third-party integrations. This convergence lets you communicate more quickly and efficiently with your team, customers, and more.
For instance, converged communication tools let you:
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Schedule social media posts from your email marketing software.
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Create digital workspaces where you hold video calls, assign tasks, and collaborate on documents.
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Organize and send emails, chat messages, and voice notes from a single platform.
Spike’s take: Competition to offer seamless cross-channel user communication will continue among software providers. We may see a shift from email to chat for internal communications.
4. Comms adjust to “true hybrid” work
“True hybrid” workplaces are striking a balance between remote and on-site work, with communication systems adjusting accordingly.
Whether you’re addressing team members, clients, or shareholders, asynchronous communication—where multiple parties are communicating at different times—is increasingly common. Collaborators are going for secure chats and quick, pre-booked check-in calls.
Furthermore, message recipients are working more flexibly outside the 9-5 interval. So, optimal timings for email or social posts, for example, are changing as audiences replace commutes with caring duties or errands.
Spike’s take: The needle is shifting in favor of remote work. Businesses that find the right mix of internal communication tools for their workforce will reap the productivity benefits.
5. Gen Z stakeholders take the stage
Many Generation Z individuals (born between 1997-2012) are in their 20s, becoming customers, employees, and even shareholders. Increasingly, brands are adapting their content and tone of voice to this growing audience.
Gen Z stakeholders have a unique communication style that includes:
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Snappy, to-the-point conversations.
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A preference for texts and social media content (especially on Instagram and TikTok).
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Visual add-ons, including emojis, memes, short videos, and engaging imagery.
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Brands that don’t take themselves too seriously.
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An emphasis on well-being, sustainability, and inclusivity.
Spike’s take: As Gen Z grows in the economy, businesses must meet their needs in internal and external communication to ensure long-term profitability.
6. Audience retention is king
Faced with rising costs, businesses prioritize retention as a cheaper alternative to winning new clients or employees—with communication as a key tool. For instance, employee retention relies heavily on communication during training schemes, performance reviews, and stay interviews.
Communication tools aiding retention include:
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Compelling arguments
Support information and decisions with points that matter to your audience, such as work-life balance for employees.
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Great user experience (UX)
Make it extra-easy for listeners to engage with your comms, for example, by breaking up long-form content and sharing short videos.
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Personalized offers
Make rewards feel personal. For instance, include tenure and achievements in an employee promotion letter and previously bought products in a customer sales email.
Spike’s take: While retention will remain a priority for most companies, many will also have to attract new customers to new products leveraging AI and automation.
Choose Better Communication with Spike
An increase in generative AI use, hyper-personalized content, “true hybrid” communication, and retention and Gen Z focus are key trends to adopt in your 2024 communications.
Also, communication tools are converging under one platform—and Spike is leading the pack.
Our collaboration-enhancing app lets you manage emails, chats, and channels in one view, and stay productive with file sharing, task tracking, and more. Plus, our Magic AI tools help you swiftly craft new content and messages.
Want to learn more? Get started with Spike for free today.
