Outcome-Based Pricing Comes to Comms

In the legal world, AI is forcing a rethink of the billable hour. Clients want value, not a tally of hours worked. I think comms teams are heading for a similar shift.

As AI takes on more executional work, leaders are asking harder questions about how we resource our teams and what “value” means. The legal industry’s move toward outcome-based pricing is a good reminder for us: impact matters more than activity. That’s especially true for lean comms teams working under budget pressure.

In a centralized team, that might mean tying funding to enterprise-level business metrics instead of departmental deliverables. In an embedded model, it might mean setting clear agreements with business units on the outcomes your role supports. And in any structure, it means having data to show how comms drives decisions, shapes perception, or prevents costly missteps.

Just like in law, AI won’t make comms less valuable—it’ll make the value case more visible. The teams that can define and measure their worth in business terms will have the leverage to shape their structure, not just survive inside it.