Why should you attend?
Evaluation is a critical step in the communications cycle, ensuring that activities are aligned with priorities, deliver value to Canadians, and demonstrate measurable results. Yet, many communications professionals find evaluation to be one of the most challenging parts of their work. Identifying clear goals, selecting meaningful indicators, and turning data into actionable insights can feel overwhelming—especially for those without a strong background in research or analytics, or those lacking the time to focus on what has been done.
Generative AI now offers new ways to support this essential work. From helping refine objectives into SMART goals, to quickly analyzing feedback data, to drafting evaluation reports tailored to senior decision-makers, these tools can make the evaluation process more efficient, more insightful, and more accessible.
Using Generative AI to Evaluate Communications Activities has been designed to equip communications professionals with the knowledge and practical skills needed to set measurable goals, monitor outcomes, and evaluate impact—using generative AI as a powerful support tool.
What will you learn?
- Understand the role of evaluation in the communications cycle and why it matters;
- Use generative AI to refine campaign objectives into SMART goals and generate meaningful metrics and indicators;
- Explore how generative AI can analyze both qualitative and quantitative data, including surveys, media coverage, and social media feedback;
- Draft evaluation summaries and reports tailored to different audiences (e.g., senior executives, internal teams, or the public);
- Recognize the limitations, risks, and ethical considerations of applying generative AI in evaluation work, including data privacy, bias, and accuracy;
- Apply prompt engineering techniques to generate more reliable and actionable outputs from generative AI;
What will you take away?
- Notebook consisting of presentation slides
- Case study materials and exercises
- Sample AI prompts and evaluation
- Practical resources for ongoing learning
Meet Your Instructor
Dan Hebert
Dan Hebert is the special advisor to the Director General of Communications at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). He is also currently leading the CRA’s efforts to adopt of generative AI as a communication tool and leads the government-wide community… Read full bio
Sample Agenda
Day 1
| Activity |
|---|
| Introductions and Workshop Overview Why evaluation matters Overview of the reasons that communications evaluations matters to government priorities, why the government is prioritizing generative AI, and how the two relate. |
| Session I – SMART Goals & Evaluation Challenges |
| The current state of communications evaluations • Review the communications planning cycle (focusing on evaluation) • SMART goals: what they are, why they matter • Introduce case study Discussion: common barriers communicators face when evaluating impact? |
| How generative AI fits in How GenAI can assist with: • Goal setting • KPI development • Data analysis and reporting |
| BREAK |
| Session II – Using AI in Evaluations |
| Review best practices for working with generative AI • AI-specific challenges (e.g., hallucinations, data privacy) • Prompt engineering tips for more reliable results |
| Turning objectives into SMART goals Using generative AI to: • suggest meaningful metrics and indicators • identify appropriate data collection methods Exercise: Participants practice using case study data |
| End of Day 1 • Overview of the day’s main points • Preview of next day |
Day 2
| Activity |
|---|
| Welcome Recap of the previous day |
| Session II – Using AI in Evaluations – continued |
| Using AI for Monitoring & Evaluation How to ask the right questions of AI to: • Analyze survey and social media data • Summarize qualitative feedback • Monitor the public environment Exercise: AI-supported analysis of mock campaign data |
| BREAK |
| Session III – Telling the Story of Impact with AI |
| Explore how to use AI tools across every stage of the communications workflow Using AI to: • Draft evaluation summaries • Visualize findings for different audiences (e.g., executives, public) • Make recommendations for improvement Exercise: create a 1-page evaluation report with AI assistance |
| End of Course • Recap of key learnings • What will you try first? • Final Q&A and feedback |
The information provided in this course made me think about briefings in a new context. It caused me to reflect on my own strengths and weaknesses. I was already able to apply the lessons learned in a briefing with my manager at break time.