My report just spoke to me

For as long as I’ve worked in corporate communications, a report has been treated as the definitive record, the place where a business sums itself up. It’s a comprehensive, assured and often beautifully designed story. Collectively, as an industry, we‘ve worked hard to make them more digitally led, interactive and visually engaging; they still remain essentially static. They tell, but they don’t listen.

That’s now changing.

Today, a company’s report can hold a conversation. Not through marketing copy or speculative AI, but through an artificially intelligent chatbot grounded entirely in the company’s own disclosures, its annual report, ESG statements and supporting materials. It’s still governed, bounded and compliant. But now, it can talk.

And that changes everything about what it means to understand a business.

This outcome isn’t about novelty or replacing the familiar format of a report. The report is still a critical pillar in an organisation’s corporate communication suite. It’s about accessibility and depth. When someone interacts with a company’s disclosures, they can ask the questions that matter most to them, in their own words.

Instead of wading through hundreds of pages, an investor might ask “What are the key risks to profitability over the next three years?”

An employee might ask “How does the company’s sustainability focus align with its growth priorities?”

A journalist might ask “How is the leadership team addressing supply chain resilience?”

Every stakeholder gets their own journey, but all from the same verified source. The conversation stays within the boundaries of what’s published, the risk of speculation or misinformation significantly reduces.

This is what I find most exciting about what we have created: it transforms the report from something that’s read into something that’s experienced.

For more than a decade, the conversation around the evolution of corporate reporting has been consistent: more digital, more connected, more integrated. Many organisations have succeeded in bringing their reports online, embedding videos or introducing microsites. But most of these shifts have been surface-level, visual and functional improvements rather than interpretive ones.

The deeper evolution comes from moving beyond design and distribution towards interpretation. When information can be explored dynamically and safely, it becomes more valuable.

This isn’t about technology replacing human connection; it’s about augmenting understanding. We’ve already built and applied this in practice, and what’s striking is how naturally people engage with it. It feels intuitive because to be curious and to make connections is human.

Corporate reporting has always aimed to build trust, but trust isn’t built by volume or compliance alone. It’s built when people feel they can understand, question and explore without being overwhelmed.

A conversational report does exactly that. It meets people where their curiosity is. It invites dialogue rather than passive consumption. It enables each stakeholder to form a relationship with the company’s disclosures that feels personal yet objective, because the foundation never changes.

It’s still the same assured report. What changes is the experience of discovery.

I often describe it as the difference between reading a speech and having a conversation with the speaker. The information might be the same, but the comprehension and the connection are completely different.

The benefits are immediate and multi-dimensional:

Accessibility – Anyone can intuitively navigate the company’s story without needing to know where to look. It removes barriers for non-expert audiences while enriching the experience for analysts and investors.

Assurance – Because our AI chatbots operate within a closed environment, knowledge bank and strict rules, using only verified disclosures, it reduces risk to both the company and the stakeholder from misinformation.

High-value, dynamic personalisation – Every interaction feels as if you’re sitting down with the senior leadership team, asking direct questions about performance, priorities and future plans. The experience mirrors a one-to-one conversation with management but scaled, consistent and always available. It allows institutional investors, analysts, employees or journalists to pursue their own lines of inquiry with depth and focus.

Insight – Each engagement generates valuable data on what stakeholders are truly interested in. Those questions, patterns and themes can inform future reports, shape investor communications and influence how leadership frames their narrative in the year ahead.

In short, this isn’t just about transforming how information is accessed; it’s about deepening understanding. It strengthens both sides of the reporting relationship – the one telling the story and the one trying to make sense of it.

What matters most here isn’t the interface itself, but the mindset it represents.

For years, reporting has been defined by compliance, governance and the art of disclosure. But the real test of effective reporting is comprehension. Does the audience truly understand what the business is saying and, therefore, be able to believe in its future and place in the world?

When reports become conversational, they no longer speak at stakeholders. They engage with them. That’s the most profound change. It aligns with the broader shift many of us in communications have been championing – from broadcast to dialogue, from assertion to understanding.

This change doesn’t weaken the discipline of reporting. It deepens it, and makes transparency experiential.

Every stakeholder brings their own lens. An investor might focus on performance and risk; an employee might look for purpose and alignment; a customer might be drawn to impact. Traditionally, reports have forced everyone through the same linear narrative.

Now, people can start where their curiosity lies and, most importantly, still arrive at truth.

That’s what makes this approach so powerful: it respects both the structure of corporate reporting and the individuality of human curiosity. It’s not about personalisation through marketing; it’s about personalisation through inquiry.

And when people feel understood, when they can explore freely, safely and intelligently, their belief in the business deepens.

Believability, in that sense, becomes the new measure of transparency.

When I think about where reporting is heading, it’s not towards more content – it’s towards more connection. The question for companies isn’t how to publish more data or design a better interface, but how to help people understand the business better.

Conversational reporting does exactly that. It represents the next stage in making business more understandable, believable and, ultimately, more investable – not just financially, but in terms of time, energy and trust.

At Jones+Palmer, this evolution reflects our ongoing belief that stories should be living systems. They should grow, respond and invite interaction. The ability to hold a conversation with a report embodies that principle – a bridge between compliance and comprehension, truth and experience.

After all, we’re here to help businesses tell it like it changes everythingⓇ.
Now, it really can.

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