Your Research Deserves an Audience: Kevin Anselmo on AI and Strategic Communication
In this episode of The Smarter Campus Podcast, Zach sits down with Kevin Anselmo, strategic communications consultant and founder of Experiential Communications, to explore an overlooked side of the AI conversation in higher education: communication and research impact.
While much of higher education’s AI conversation has focused on cheating, grading, and classroom policies, Kevin argues there is a massive opportunity for researchers, faculty, and academic leaders to use AI as a kind of personal PR assistant. The technology can help translate complex ideas, prepare for interviews, repurpose research, and communicate important work to audiences far beyond academia.
Kevin also breaks down his Clarity, Capability, and Momentum framework for AI adoption. The key is starting with your goals, audience, and message—not the technology. From there, customized AI workflows can dramatically reduce the time spent on communication while still keeping human strategy and judgment at the center.
The conversation also explores “AI slop,” why dismissing AI because of poor outputs misses the larger opportunity, and why higher education may need to rethink everything from slow-moving AI policies to traditional four-year credentials. For researchers in particular, Kevin leaves listeners with a challenge: great research only creates impact if people actually understand it.
