How AI is Influencing the PR Industry
Every day, AI is becoming more and more prevalent in everyday life and the workplace. Markus Kreth, CEO of Asia Media Publishing Group, wrote in Forbes:
“AI stands at the forefront of technological advancement, drawing both skeptics and enthusiasts. Many apprehensions surround AI, particularly its potential for job displacement and societal disruption. While AI may indeed lead to some job reshuffling, as is common with innovative changes, it remains essential to acknowledge the potential advantages this technology can offer. AI has the capacity to revolutionize sectors such as healthcare, finance, and manufacturing, enhancing efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Furthermore, just as the telephone and internet generated new job prospects, AI is poised to cultivate fresh industries and employment avenues that are currently beyond our imagination.”
Despite the growing uncertainties, many are utilizing AI as an assistive tool to work more efficiently. AI is especially growing in communications industries, including PR. According to Nicholas Berryman, a communications consultant at Prowly, The State of PR Technology 2023 found in its survey that 67.8% of PR professionals are using AI in their work.
So how exactly are PR professionals utilizing AI?
Ideas and Inspiration
One of the most common ways AI is being used in PR is to help inspire creativity and the creation of content to enhance messaging and communication. Chatbots, such as ChatGPT, can help with this. For example, if you ask AI “Help me write a job resignation letter,” AI will take various job resignation letter templates from the internet database and write a letter. However, it’s important to note ChatGPT and other chatbots should be used as a tool and only a tool. Using AI word per word shows the content was obviously written by a robot. However, you can use the ‘template’ as inspiration to add your personality and voice.
According to Amy O’Connell, the Global Content and Experience Producer at Cision, “Chatbots are interactive AI that emulate a human by answering questions, and they’ve grown beyond handling customer complaints. Businesses today use them to answer frequently asked questions and make personalized product recommendations, and internally to respond to messages and automate tasks. Chatbots can improve customer satisfaction and increase efficiency, making them an essential link between public relations and AI.”
Media Monitoring
In PR, it’s crucial to stay on the pulse of media and see the back end of activity and trends. The amount of data on the internet predicted by 2025 is 181 zettabytes. AI can sift through this data in seconds to find the specific analytics and information needed for a story. It can provide data needed to avoid any potential crises as well as track and perform sentiment analysis to track the success of PR campaigns.
Content Creation
The use of Generative AI can create press releases, images, social media posts, headlines, interview questions and outlines for different target audiences. As mentioned earlier, it shouldn’t be used word per word, but it certainly saves time in starting a writeup, especially for those with writer's block.
Reporting and Media Outreach
AI can help us gather data for reporting and media outreach. According to O’Connell, “AI generated signals can identify changes in journalists’ home mastheads, beats, and contact information, provide insights on their engagement, and more. It can even recommend new contacts based on your past searches. That means you spend less time building outreach lists and more time building valuable relationships.”
AI can also provide various data to help in reporting for earned media coverage. This data includes data analysis, market trends and the performance of PR communication campaigns to help secure future budgets.
Ethical Warnings
Even though AI can be very helpful in content creation and research, it’s important to note that there are still some flaws in the algorithm system. AI can easily spread misinformation, leading to a rise in fake news. Generative AI is also known to hallucinate, meaning it can provide false information.
According to Berryman, “The risk of bias and discrimination by PR AI sits high in the minds of communication professionals. 32.8% of respondents name it among their fears.”
Human fact-checking is still a must when using AI, despite its high intelligence.
Conclusion
Overall, AI is a fantastic tool when used properly. It saves time and energy and provides more room for extra creativity, organization and more driven data insight. When working in PR, AI can assist in crisis management, reputation management, customer engagement, faster content creation and enhance efficiency and productivity. Embracing and maximizing AI will allow for a brighter future.