As in most industries, there has been much discussion about how AI will (and won’t) revolutionize PR. I was recently on a Social Shake-Up panel called Artificial Intelligence: What Communicators Need to Know Now About AI, and the conclusion was clear. AI may transform the ways we do certain tasks, but it won’t revolutionize our industry as a whole, at least not for a long time. After all, PR is all about relationships – with our customers, reporters, our communities, our employees – relationships that will always require a human element.
That said, AI is impacting public relations now and will continue to do so in the future.
The Top 3 Impacts of AI on PR
The media pitch is slowly evolving. Did you know the AP uses AI to write earnings reports? In fact, it produces 12x more stories than it was able to prior to using AI. As media outlets turn to AI for routine reports and reporters employ AI to smartly scan their inboxes, our pitches, releases and content marketing needs to change. We as practitioners need to be sure our PR materials are easily understood by AI as this practice becomes more prevalent.
Measurement is more impactful. AI can power more sophisticated reporting – quickly gleaning sentiment of social posts and news articles for you and your competitors, and even offering recommendations. Check out some of the sample reports from TrendKite, for example. They include insights on the impact of PR, key message pull-through and sentiment analysis – data that is tedious and time-consuming to analyze manually.
Strategy is becoming smarter. With this type of measurement and insights, PR teams can better identify trends and emerging threats. With this level of understanding, we can create content that speaks to key customer needs, proactively address potential crises before they expand and create smarter overall strategies.
The Key to Success
Each of these examples requires one key trait of PR pros: constant hunger for innovation and learning. At Alloy, our spirited ideals address this need. In fact, four of the six are directly required to make use of AI in PR: Be “Passionately Curious,” Learning Never Ceases, Desire to Be the Best, Drive Change. While you may phrase it differently, PR pros who embody these traits are the ones that stand to leverage AI in PR most effectively.
A Quick Win for AI in PR
Of course, these are all larger transformations requiring data and technology to truly capitalize on. Looking for a quicker way to incorporate AI in PR? Try voice recognition software. If you’re like me, you have some great recordings of webinars, speaking engagements, and conferences that have been sitting around waiting to be recapped. Utilizing voice detection and translation software, you can turn these recordings into written content that can be used to boost SEO and in blogs, sales materials, emails and more.
Are you using any other AI-based tools in PR? How else do you think it will transform our industry? Tell us @alloy_crew.
And if you’re looking for a PR partner that’s constantly pushing the boundaries of our industry, contact us.