Netflix recently advertised a director of communications role paying up to $775,000 a year. No coding experience required. Anthropic tripled its communications team last year to around 80 people. OpenAI has multiple comms roles open at over $400,000 each. The hottest job in tech right now is not engineering. It is storytelling.
The numbers behind the trend
A major Business Insider investigation published this month lays out the scale of what is happening. AI companies are hiring communications professionals at salaries that rival, and in some cases exceed, senior engineering roles.
Netflix posted a director of product and technology communications role with a salary reaching $775,000. OpenAI has several open communications positions listing compensation above $400,000. Anthropic tripled its comms team to around 80 people in a single year and is still hiring, with each role paying $200,000 or more. Adobe is recruiting an AI evangelist to lead its artificial intelligence storytelling. Andreessen Horowitz launched an entire New Media team to help founders win what they call the narrative battle online.
To put those numbers in context, the average director of communications in the US earns around $107,000, according to Indeed. These AI companies are paying 3 to 7 times the market rate for the right person.
And it is not just the AI labs. A Korn Ferry survey of Fortune 500 chief communications officers found median base salaries have climbed to between $400,000 and $450,000, up from $350,000 to $400,000 just 2 years ago. Nearly half now earn 7-figure total compensation. More than half sit on their company’s executive committee. The communications function is no longer a support role. It is a strategic one.
Why communications skills are surging now
Two forces are driving this. The first is the content flood. AI has made it trivially easy to produce text. LinkedIn is awash with AI-generated posts that all sound the same. Internal teams are buried in verbose, low-quality output that wastes time and erodes trust. Even Sam Altman has said that online discourse is starting to feel very fake.
The result is that human-crafted communication, writing with judgment, tone, and strategic intent, now stands out more than ever. As Gab Ferree, former VP of global communications at Bumble, told Business Insider, there is so much garbage out there that companies will pay a premium for someone who can cut through the noise.
The second force is narrative as strategy. AI companies are in a trust race. They need to explain complex, sometimes controversial technology to investors, regulators, governments, employees, and the public, all at the same time. Getting that narrative wrong has real consequences. We saw that play out with OpenAI’s Code Red moment, which I covered in episode 253. Perception matters as much as performance. The people who shape that perception are now among the most valuable in the building.
The irony for communications professionals
Here is what I find genuinely interesting about this. For the past 3 years, communications professionals have been told AI is coming for their jobs. Writing was supposed to be one of the first things automated. And yet the opposite is happening. The more AI-generated content floods the market, the more valuable human communicators become.
The Wall Street Journal reported that job postings on LinkedIn mentioning the word storyteller doubled between 2024 and 2025. Meanwhile, open software engineering positions dropped by more than 60,000 in the same period, according to CompTIA data. Communications graduates now have a lower unemployment rate than computer science graduates, 4.5% versus 6.1%, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
As Cristin Culver, founder of Common Thread Communications, put it: if everyone is a writer, then nobody is a writer. That is exactly what is happening with AI-generated content. And it is making the professionals who can think, strategise, and communicate with clarity more valuable, not less.
What this means for you
If you have read my book AI Playbook or attended any of my training sessions, you will have heard me say this: AI is communications, not coding. I say it all the time because I believe it. And now the data is catching up. The most in-demand skill in the AI era is not programming. It is the ability to think clearly and communicate clearly. To take something complex and make it understandable. To know your audience. To shape a narrative that builds trust.
Those are communication skills. And they are exactly what organisations need to translate AI into real value.
If you are a communications professional listening to this, your skills have never been more relevant. But you do need to understand AI well enough to explain it. You do not need to build the models. You need to be able to ask the right questions, spot the risks, and tell the story in a way that your stakeholders, whether they are ministers, board members, or the public, can act on.
That combination, communications expertise plus AI literacy, is where the premium sits. And that is exactly what the AI Playbook Diploma is designed to build.
If you want to build your AI literacy and skills, I can help.
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Sources
Business Insider, “The hottest job in tech: Writing words” (3 February 2026): businessinsider.com
Entrepreneur, “Netflix and OpenAI Are Paying Up to $775,000 For This In-Demand Job” (4 February 2026): entrepreneur.com
Korn Ferry, “Chief Communications Officers’ Rising Influence and Compensation in 2025” (18 December 2025): kornferry.com
Wall Street Journal, “Companies Are Desperately Seeking Storytellers” (January 2026): wsj.com
Axios, “Communications chiefs cement their place in the C-suite” (18 December 2025): axios.com
Show Notes
- Netflix director of comms role: up to $775,000 salary
- OpenAI comms roles: $400,000+
- Anthropic comms team: tripled to ~80 people in 2025, roles at $200,000+
- Average US director of communications salary: $107,000 (Indeed)
- Fortune 500 CCO median base salary: $400,000-$450,000 (Korn Ferry, 2025)
- Fortune 500 CCO median total compensation: $900,000-$1,000,000 (Korn Ferry)
- LinkedIn “storyteller” job postings: doubled from 2024 to 2025 (WSJ)
- Software engineering open positions: dropped 60,000+ between 2023-2025 (CompTIA)
- Unemployment: comms graduates 4.5% vs computer science 6.1% (Fed Reserve Bank of NY)
About the Podcast Host
AI and Communications Specialist | Author | Podcaster | International Speaker
Joanne Sweeney is a recognised leader in digital marketing and digital transformation, specialising in the practical application of AI to enhance communication strategies. The founder of Digital Training Institute, Joanne, empowers leaders and communications professionals to leverage AI responsibly and effectively, ensuring transparency, trust, and tangible results.
She completed the Harvard Kennedy School Executive Programme in AI and Public Policy this summer before launching her fourth book AI Playbook, in September. Joanne has also published two editions of Public Sector Marketing Pro, which were preceded by her first title, Social Media Under Investigation Law Enforcement and the Social Web.
Her books have become go-to resources for governments, public sector and policing agencies, as well as marketing and communications professionals, all navigating the challenges of the changing Internet.
Joanne is the host of the AI SIX Podcast, a daily six-minute podcast that provides actionable insights, expert interviews, and practical advice to help professionals navigate the new world of work.
