In a world increasingly shaped by AI, it is often human creativity, judgment, and authenticity that create real commercial impact.

In a recent live masterclass, University of Cambridge academic and former BBC news correspondent Simon Hall explored three fundamental building blocks to impactful communication.

This article brings you the some of the highlights from the masterclass, including Simon’s three foundations of compelling communication, and selected audience questions. You can watch the full masterclass(Opens in a new window) to learn more.

The three foundations

1. Tell them why they should care

The best product or service descriptions offer complete clarity. The value of what you are offering.

You need to be completely clear, and you need to be short, sharp, and simple about it. You need to address the why. Why should anybody be interested in what you're offering, whatever it may be?

If you're not clear what you're offering or saying, no one else will be either.

2. Simple isn't stupid. Simple is smart.

This one often comes as a surprise because it can sound counterintuitive and not what you were told in school, at college, and in the world of work.

We’re led to believe that the way to impress people is to use really long words and complex sentence structures because it makes us sound more informed and knowledgeable. But actually, it's completely the opposite.

Short, sharp and simple. Remember that and it will always improve your communication. You don’t want big words or jargon. Instead, keep it simple.

3. Less is more

Whenever you're talking about something where you want to impress your audience – maybe it's a sales pitch, maybe it's a new idea, maybe it's a product or a service – the temptation is to talk, talk, and talk some more. Say as much as you possibly can about your subject to convince everyone of your expertise. But actually, less is more. You make more impact through fewer words.

Humans, like computers, only having a limited amount of memory. So if you throw too much at them, they won't be able to hold onto it.

The more you tell people, the more they forget, the less you tell them, the more they retain.

Your questions

Applying the core foundations of commercial communication takes skill and time to perfect. During the Q&A, our live audience explored how clarity, simplicity and brevity can be adapted to different situations, audiences and communication challenges.

Question: We've talked about clarity, we've talked about brevity, but what would you consider an oversimplification?

Simon: You've got to get the balance right. What we tend to teach in the Compelling Communication Skills course is what we call the pyramid structure.

Imagine a newspaper. The headline at the top sums up the story. And then if you want to find out more, you follow the pyramid down, and the information, although still interesting, gets progressively less important.

Make sure you prioritise information, give people what they need at the top, and then when they want to find out more, you structure the rest from most to least important.

Question: How important is it to adjust your communication, depending on your audience?

Simon: You should always think, who am I speaking to? If you're a scientist, for example, and you're at a science conference, you've got to think, what will my audience expect here?

This principle goes back to the ancient Greeks and Aristotle. He proposed that in order to persuade or engage an audience, you need logic, emotion, and credibility.

It's called the rhetorical triangle – which is all about balancing these three elements. Depending on who you’re talking to, you may want to amplify or reduce one.

For example, this presentation needs to be fun and engaging, so needs more emotion. Or this business pitch is serious and needs to demonstrate impact, so needs more logic.

You’ll always need to include credibility in commercial communication, to show why you are positioned to talk about something.

Question: How do you think AI has impacted commercial communication?

Simon: I use AI as a coach, and I think it's a very useful coach. But I have a fundamental principle: start with your brain, creativity, and your own character, authority and individuality. That's such an important part of maintaining authentic communication alongside using AI.

I'm all in favour of AI, but used carefully. I think it has opened up a fantastic opportunity for those of us who think about the way we write, the way we speak, the way we tell stories.

I hear so many people complaining that it's all just AI slop now, on LinkedIn for example.

But that’s a brilliant opportunity. Let everybody else use AI. By all means, use it for a coach, for research, for helping you along. But if you use your mind and your creativity first, and the principles of clarity, simplicity and brevity, you’ll be the one who stands out.

People will say, ‘oh, wow, this person sounds interesting’.

For more insights into practical techniques for communicating with greater clarity, simplicity and impact, watch the full masterclass on demand(Opens in a new window).

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