AI in Communications: What Pam Boiros Taught Us About Prompting with Purpose
One of the best parts of leading Greenough Communications is bringing new voices into the room, experts who can stretch our thinking and sharpen our skills. Last week, I had the privilege of inviting Pam Boiros, founder of Bridge Marketing Advisors, to spend time with our team for a workshop on AI fundamentals and prompt engineering.
Pam's background is impressive, as she built her career as a marketing leader and now runs a fractional advisory firm that helps companies identify, adopt, and integrate AI. She also created Marketing AI Jumpstart, a training program designed to get teams fluent in the tools and techniques of this new era. But what I appreciated most was how accessible and energizing she made the topic for our team.
The "ChatGPT Moment" that changed it all.
Pam opened with her lightbulb moment back in late 2022. She tested it on something simple — vacation planning — and immediately recognized how profoundly it would change search, content creation, and ideation. That moment pushed her to dive deep into AI, eventually leaving her CMO role to focus full-time on training others. We’re so grateful she did!
My moment came differently; on the day of ChatGPT’s launch, it immediately impacted our client base across all industries, and it continues to. And while the messaging, positioning, and thought leadership work have been both intense and rewarding, it has also been amazing to see the enormous progress our clients have made in the AI space, from streamlining workflows and deeper digital insights to more accurate diagnosis of disease.
These stories serve as a reminder: everyone will have an AI “moment” when the potential clicks. The earlier we lean in, the stronger our advantage.
That’s why we’ve turned inward, too. Today, we’re waist-deep in our own AI transformation as a company, and Pam’s guidance will stay front and center to both our progress and the future we’re designing.
Why communications professionals are built for AI.
One of Pam's biggest takeaways really resonated with us: marketers and communicators are ideal users of generative AI. We're natural experimenters, always testing campaigns and narratives. And we're writers, which means we understand nuance, tone, and precision of language. Those are exactly the skills that unlock the best AI output.
"AI is a team sport. The most effective use isn't replacing collaboration, it's expanding it."
Prompting with purpose.
What made this such a compelling training is that, at the heart, it was practical. Pam walked us through the difference between vague prompts and strong prompts, and showed us how small shifts in specificity, verbs, and adjectives can radically improve results.
Her favorite framework, the GRACE model (Goal, Role, Action, Context, Execute), is one we'll all be using, even beyond prompting! It turns a simple prompt into a mini-creative brief, helping AI deliver more targeted and valuable output. And I loved her double meaning: in this transition, we need to give ourselves and each other grace as we learn.
Guardrails matter.
The training also reinforced something that's core to our approach at Greenough: responsible use. She applauded our AI charter for being AI-powered, human-led. It separates what's acceptable (research, ideation) from what isn't (client-sensitive work in public tools).
"If you're not paying for the product, you are the product." Governance isn't optional; it's essential to protect client trust and our credibility.
Today's AI is the "worst AI we'll ever use."
We saw this with the recent release of ChatGPT-5 where hallucinations, attention to detail, and my personal fave, agent-mode, are addressed. As communicators, we don't just need to keep up with AI. We need to lead with it, experimenting, refining, and finding new ways to tell stories that matter. Thanks to Pam, our team left with both inspiration and practical skills to do just that.
We look forward to our next session!
Also, for those looking to get involved, check out Women Applying AI. The first event is on August 26th, with their official launch event on September 26th in Boston!
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John Donohue, CEO
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