From Software to Services: How AI Agents Are Changing the Language of Tech PR

Language usually evolves slowly. But in the past few months, the language we use to describe and market technology has shifted so rapidly that it’s more revolution than evolution. And, as with most things these days, it’s all because of AI.

I’m not just referring to the way ChatGPT and Claude write. The short, staccato phrases. The verbless sentences. The one-line paragraphs. The parallelism, scalar construction and three-item series (see what I did there?). We see this style of copy absolutely everywhere. Nobody is even trying to hide it anymore. In fact, I’d argue it’s become so accepted that it’s now almost an affectation. In some circles, if you’re not writing (or even talking) like an LLM you’re somehow outmoded. It’s the vocal fry of the AI era.

No, I’m referring to something more than a stylistic change. We’re in the midst of a systemic shift in the language companies are using to position themselves.

The driver is a fundamental transformation in the way technology companies deliver value. For years, software companies positioned themselves as providers of tools. Their platforms helped teams execute workflows, analyze data or automate repetitive tasks. The software accelerated human work, but the human was still the one doing it.

Now that framing is vanishing. Instead of selling tools, companies are selling AI agents that do the work for you. In other words, service as software.

There’s a mountain of content about the economic, technological and organizational implications of this movement. But, as a communicator, I’m fascinated by the impact it has on the words we use. Here are the primary trends I’ve observed, and their implications for PR professionals.

Anthropomorphism

Where companies once talked about tools and platforms, they now talk about agents and coworkers. Product pages invite you to “meet your AI teammate.” Vendors promise a “digital workforce.” Companies talk about “hiring” agents rather than deploying software. Some give their agents names, avatars and personalities. 

For a comms person, this is much more complicated than swapping a few terms in and out. It’s a high-wire act. 

First, we have to balance expectation with capability. When software is positioned as a productivity tool, success is measured by how much it helps people do their jobs. When it is positioned as a service, the expectation is that the job will simply get done. As a result, vendors are increasingly framing their value in terms of outcomes. This puts greater pressure on messaging. When the promise is an outcome rather than a capability, audiences naturally expect proof.

Second, we have to ensure anthropomorphism doesn’t topple over into the uncanny valley. We don’t want these digital employees to be too human. To be clear, no one is really tiptoeing around job replacement fears any more. Not in enterprise tech, at least. But infusing them with too much personality detracts from their main value: we actually want them to be robotic, unphased, tireless, reliable.   

Reassurance

Then there is the issue of trust. If a company is asking customers to hand over a business process to an AI agent, trust becomes central to the story. Buyers need confidence that the system works reliably, that it produces consistent results, and that it will behave predictably in real-world scenarios. Establishing that confidence is a communications challenge.

We’re seeing this manifest visually. Look at websites of AI companies today. It’s a sea of calming neutrals and humanistic serifed fonts, all designed to make you feel comfortable. Copy too is considered, never breathless or excitable, the goal being to convey integrity and thoughtfulness.

Of course, as communicators, we know that building trust requires far more than a soothing color palette or reassuring word choice. It requires substance, action, and, most of all, responsible leadership. Hence the rise in first person perspectives in the form of LinkedIn posts, videos, substacks, memos, and the increasingly popular CEO essay. In themselves, these pieces exhibit a linguistic shift, reading more academic thesis than manifesto. 

Financial fluency

The shift from Software as a Service to Service as Software is much more than a technological change. It’s a change of business model, arguably more profound (and certainly faster moving) than the move from on-premise to cloud. It gets into pricing, revenue recognition, unit economics, cost of goods sold, margin structures. The financial story is, for now, inseparable from the technology story (to the extent that pricing model announcements have become as popular as product launch news). Telling a tech brand’s story today requires being conversant with these issues. 

What’s more, Chief Financial Officers have emerged as a primary buyer of technology. Increasingly, they are responsible for data and AI initiatives, and are taking a much more prominent role in tech buying decisions across the board. We don’t just need to speak the language of CFOs, we need to meet a CFO-level bar with every message and every story.

So yes, the language we use in tech PR is changing. The shift is happening shockingly fast. But this is no stylistic fad. As ever, language is an expression of the deeper forces reshaping society. In this case, the new words and phrases we use reflect a repositioning, which, in turn, is in response to a profound redesign of the technology industry. 

As communicators, it’s our job to forge this new business language effectively and responsibly.