AI In PR Does Not Replace Humans…Completely
PR agencies of all shapes and sizes are deploying AI technology into their workflows, covering diverse aspects of their work flows, changing the face of PR dramatically and forever. Despite this, the heart of PR–the journalist and PR pro relationship–remains little changed.
Some reports postulate that approximately three-quarters of PR professionals now employ generative AI in their work. When deployed in the media, AI technologies are referred to as “communicative AI.”
There are numerous ways in which PR professionals make use of AI. For instance, more than 80 percent of PR professionals employ the technology to brainstorm angles.
The industry also uses AI for research, formulating pitches, brainstorming, outlining, as well as writing and refining PR drafts. Some PR professionals even use AI to completely write press releases, from draft to final version. AI can also personalize press releases based on audiences. AI can also assist journalists to better understand a journalist’s beat so that PR professionals can tailor personalized pitches.
PR professionals are using AI to forecast trends and simulate crisis scenarios. In order to pre-empt any crises, AI can monitor online discourse to flag criticism of a brand. The AI can then suggest potential responses to the critique in order to better satisfy customers.
AI can also sift through demographic data, behaviors and preferences so as to create targeted messaging. PR professionals these days are tasked with working to get their clients mentioned in LLM answers.
AI can also be deployed to check real-time sentiment towards brands in online communities, such as social media and review websites.
AI has the potential to make online PR more measurable. Vanity metrics such as impressions, media mentions and Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE) will slowly go the way of the buffalo. AI will be able to track outcome-oriented results in a more precise and actionable manner.
Deploying AI today is essential for PR professionals to stay competitive in an age of social media trends and supersonic news cycles, allowing them to focus on strategic oversight and heartfelt story telling.
With that said, AI cannot, and absolutely will not, replace humans in the PR industry. Humans are the brains behind the AI’s processes. We tell the AI what to do. Humans are also the soul of creativity, relationships, and ethics. Whereas in the past PR professionals might work in a vacuum, they can now consult an AI and make determinations about the best strategies, making them as important as ever for strategy.
At the end of the day, however, AI won’t change the importance to PR professionals of journalist relationships. It won’t change what journalists are looking for–that is, surprising, ironic, controversial, novel, and authentic storylines.
PR pitches remain vital to the work of journalists, but the industry cannot allow AI to take away from human attention to detail. While AI can help PR professionals dial-in pitches, journalists–as writers themselves–can instantly recognize when they are being bombarded with AI generated pitches.
Instead, AI should help PR pros to be more thoughtful and informed when it comes to pitching individual journalists.
AI can help formulate ideas and more. But PR professionals must first and foremost emphasize their relationship with individual reporters, using AI to find where our client can fit into a conversation.
What’s more, there remains opportunities for increased adoption of AI by the PR industry, such as discovering journalists, for which many PR pros are not yet using AI.
AI has the potential to make online PR faster, more accurate, as well as measurable. Success, nevertheless, remains dependent upon humans to build trust and relationships.
