Words that matter. Judgment that remains yours.
I’m Brent Kerrigan. I write speeches for global leaders, and I train the communicators who support them to work with AI.
I still do both, which matters.
Leaders need words that sound like them when the stakes are high. Their teams need an approach to AI that works in the real world — around their pressures, workflows and responsibilities — without losing the judgment, voice and craft the work depends on.
It's not one or the other. It's about working intelligently with the tools we have to get the job done right — while keeping our souls.
Some of you have been with me for more than 20 years. I was also among the early speechwriters teaching the craft online. The work has changed enormously.
I can't wait to help you navigate where it goes next.
I do two things: I write for leaders, and I help communicators work with AI.
Go straight to the service you need, or keep reading through the work below.
Executive Speechwriting
For senior leaders preparing speeches, opinion articles, briefings and high-stakes messages that have to sound like them and hold up under scrutiny.
AI for Leadership Communications
For communicators and teams who want a professional approach to AI that fits their unique workflows, pressures and responsibilities.
The speech that could only be yours.
For more than twenty years I have written for leaders whose words carry consequence — UN Executive Secretaries, government ministers, chief executives and international leaders. Every engagement begins with the person: what you believe, who you need to reach, what is at stake, and how you speak.
- Keynotes and major addresses
- Opinion articles and thought leadership
- Talking points, Q&A and leadership briefings
- Narrative and message development
Have a speech coming up?
You don’t need to have the brief figured out before we talk.
The fundamentals haven’t changed. The work around them has.
So how do we best adapt while keeping the creativity, ingenuity and beauty of our craft intact?
Into the AI workWe adapt by making AI part of professional communications practice.
Most executive speechwriters and communicators are already using AI. Professional use starts with clear decisions about where it helps, what can be trusted, what remains human, and how a team works consistently. To do that, we have to answer questions such as:
Where does AI help beyond producing words?
How do you know when to trust the answer?
What must stay a human decision?
How should a team work when everyone uses it differently?
I don’t teach prompt tricks. I teach a way of working.
My approach starts with three questions: What are you trying to achieve? What does the AI need to know? And what decisions must remain human?
Learn to use AI professionally — as an individual or with your team.
In both cases, the starting point is the same: the communications work you're doing now.
Move from ad hoc use to professional practice.
You already use AI. Now learn to use it more deliberately — for research, analysis, verification, strategy, voice and rehearsal, not simply drafting.
Live cohort-based learning for speechwriters, executive communicators and other communications professionals.
Build a shared way of working.
I work with communications teams around the work they do — identifying where AI helps, where human judgment must remain visible, and how good practice can become repeatable across the team.
Custom workshops and selective advisory work built around your workflows, systems and constraints.
Trying to work out where AI fits?
Tell me where you are now. We can work out what kind of support makes sense for you or your team.
From those who've been through the workshop.
Anonymized for privacy and organizational confidentiality.
These comments are from earlier sessions. References to prompts are a snapshot of the program in 2025; the work has since broadened toward workflows, source grounding and human decision-making.
Brent's humble, engaging style made AI feel accessible and ethical. He didn't preach — he helped us think.
Before this, I was sceptical of AI. Now I use it confidently, knowing where it helps and where it doesn't.
I found the how aspect of this course very thorough, engaging and useful. I came away with ideas about how to engage an AI model effectively that I would not have come to on my own.
Brent was an engaging instructor who effectively demonstrated how to leverage AI to our advantage without compromising our key roles as human speechwriters and executive communicators. The library of prompts he shared was invaluable.
I was amazed at how many executive communications AI use cases Brent covered. A deeper understanding of how to write prompts to get better AI output is invaluable.
The prompts were the star of the show — a toolkit I use daily now. This training changed how I work.
A working speechwriter. A Canadian work ethic. A global practice.
I’m Brent Kerrigan. For more than two decades I’ve written for world leaders, UN Executive Secretaries, government ministers and Fortune 500 executives — including six years as Head Speechwriter at UN Climate Change (UNFCCC).
I still write speeches and take on a small number of private executive clients each year. I’ve also worked as a communications manager, so I know the work around the writing as well as the writing itself.
Alongside that work, I run AI for Leadership Communications — practical training and advisory work for speechwriters and communications teams who want to use AI professionally without surrendering their judgment, voice or craft.
I approach both sides of the work the same way: no hyperbole, no drama and no evangelism. The work should be accurate, useful, creative and able to withstand scrutiny.
Keep the art. Bring the work ethic.
David Murray, founder of the Professional Speechwriters Association, has long described writing as blue-collar work; his blog is called Writing Boots. I admire the idea. Good writing can still reach for creativity, beauty and even inspiration. Getting there means listening closely, doing the digging, checking the facts and rewriting until the thing works.
Before this, there was Global Speechwriter.
I’m not new to online training. In the mid-2000s, I launched Global Speechwriter and was among the first people teaching speechwriting online. Several colleagues I now work with through the Professional Speechwriters Association were exploring the same ground. Today, the PSA and I partner in several areas, including AI for Leadership Communications.
The idea behind it remains important to me: location matters far less than whether the training understands the work. The technology has changed enormously, while purpose, audience, voice, evidence, structure, creativity — and, on the best days, inspiration — still sit at the heart of good speechwriting and communications.
Our job is to learn what the new tools can add, keep what helps, and protect the standards and craft the work depends on.
Follow the thinking as the work changes.
I write regularly about AI, speechwriting and the changing practice of communications — what is useful, what is overhyped, and what practitioners should be paying attention to now.
Field notes on clarity and voice.
Longer essays on speechwriting, communications, AI and professional judgment.
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One hour on how communicators should think about AI — five practical fixes you can use today. A preview of how I teach.
Watch now →Let’s talk
If you need a speech written, want to develop your own AI practice, or want to explore how your communications team can work with AI more professionally, tell me a little about the work.
- Executive speechwriting · AI for Leadership Communications
- Based in Geneva, working globally across time zones
- Personal reply within 24 hours · confidentiality respected