Reflections on AI, Media, and Professional Expertise

The Arkansas Psychological Association’s October 4, 2024 program listed Margaret Rutherford, Ph.D., and me as presenters for From Therapy Room to Thought Leader: Harnessing Media and AI. The session addressed professional visibility, online communication, and ethical considerations around AI.

The official event page provides the session listing and learning objectives. ArPA is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists and maintains responsibility for the program and its content.

The reflections below develop themes from that program. They are a current perspective, rather than a transcript or an account of individual audience exchanges.

Begin with the purpose of communicating

Professional visibility is most useful when it serves a clear purpose. That might be helping an audience understand a topic, making professional resources easier to discover, or contributing informed perspectives to a public conversation.

Publishing more content is not an outcome in itself. The audience, relevance, and accuracy of the material matter. A professional also needs to consider the time required to prepare and maintain it.

Starting with a familiar topic and a defined audience can make that work more manageable. Existing public talks, articles, or educational materials may offer a starting point where permissions allow reuse.

Keep responsibility with the author

AI can assist with drafting and organizing public-facing material. Its output still needs review for factual accuracy, missing context, unsupported sources, and suitability for the intended audience.

A polished draft is not evidence that its claims are correct. Before publishing, the author needs to verify the substance and decide whether the wording reflects their own professional judgment.

I see the most useful role for these tools as supporting a clearly defined communication task. This article does not recommend using public drafting tools for patient information or clinical decisions.

Choose boundaries deliberately

An online presence does not need to reveal personal routines, private contact details, client information, or internal operating methods. An organization can share useful ideas while keeping sensitive material out of public content.

Professional identity should also be represented accurately. A publication can focus on a project or body of work without inventing a person, credential, or endorsement to carry it.

The appropriate level of visibility will differ among professionals. The communication plan should reflect that choice rather than assume that everyone needs the same public profile.

Connect communication with operations

For an association, a communication commitment creates ongoing work. Someone needs to own the material, review it, respond to questions, and keep important information current.

That is where this topic connects with my broader interest in operating design. Technology can assist with the task, but the organization still needs to decide what it intends to communicate and who is responsible for it.

The useful starting point is a clear purpose, a manageable commitment, and content the author can stand behind.

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Selina Parker, M.A., developed Association Architecture™, an organizational design approach for membership-based institutions. She writes on governance, member experience, organizational change, and technology adoption. Connect with her on LinkedIn.