TJ Walker explains how to use AI for crisis prep without letting it make decisions. Before a crisis hits, use AI to generate the toughest reporter questions and worst-case scenarios for your industry, then rehearse your answers. Never copy AI text directly; use it to challenge your thinking and practice delivery, but every final word must come from you.
Chapters
Ultimize. So if AI can create problems in a crisis, how do you actually use it to your advantage? The key is simple. You use AI to prepare. You don't use AI to decide. Let me show you what that looks like in practice. Before a crisis ever happens, you can use AI to simulate questions, tough questions for potential crises. You can ask it to generate the absolute harshest, most hostile questions a reporter might ask you. You can ask it to create worst-case scenarios based on your industry, your role, or your organization. That gives you something incredibly valuable: practice under pressure. You can rehearse your answers. You can see how you sound. You can refine your message before it ever matters in the real world. You can also use AI to test your language. You can take a draft of a statement and ask how it might be interpreted. You can look for phrases that sound defensive, vague, or overly corporate. That helps you improve clarity. But here's where people go wrong. They let AI write the final version. They copy and paste. They assume that because it sounds polished, it must be effective. Well, that can be a mistake because AI does not know your audience the way you do. It doesn't understand your tone. Your history, or the specific sensitivities of your situation. And it can't judge how something will feel when it's clipped and shared. That's your job. So use AI as a tool. Use it to generate ideas. Use it to challenge your thinking. Use it to practice. Now, this is one area where it's really underused, and it's quite valuable. You can use ChatGPT, any of the major AI platforms, have a button you push where you talk to it. Well, now you can ask it to interview you in the crisis situation. You can ask it to judge how you sound, your style, your tone, your speaking speed. It can be fantastic for that. And I should point out, as mentioned in other parts in this section, I do have my own AI clone, tjwalker.ai. There's no charge for it, there's no cost. No monthly fee or anything like that. And you can practice your messages in that AI platform as well. So when it comes to what you actually say in a crisis, you need to be in control of every word. It needs to come from you, not from the AI. The AI can be great as a first draft, be great for refinement, and be great for tweaking, but ultimately it does need to come from you because you're the one who will be judged on it, not the AI tool.
