The rise of AI has created much concern and enthusiasm among PR professionals and in-house management.
Some creatives have rushed to use the latest generative AI tools for research, content creation and planning. Results have improved rapidly over each generation of AI, supporting the narrative that AI will soon do it all, from media monitoring, sentiment analysis, pitch creation, reputation management and other high-value tasks.
Perhaps concerned about the accuracy and legitimacy of GAI tools and results, PR and agency leaders have already seen market-specific applications sprouting highly-focused AI tools. In recent years we have seen ERP, CRM and CXM vendors rapidly add AI to their toolsets, creating vertical- or market-focused AI-driven solutions.
Now, PR professionals are getting their own AI-powered toolsets, with features like Agility PR Solutions’ PR CoPilot supporting operators and management through insights, sentiment, outreach and brand influence efforts. Alongside AI for content and outreach, teams still need practical planning frameworks such as a robust social media calendar to ensure consistent execution across channels.
Brand Authority in the AI Era
The switch to AI affects every business and market at every level. PR sees traditional keystones like online search, reputation management, messaging and expert insight shaken up as AI’s own research and results generate very different answers.
This results in clients’ audiences seeing the world and market in a whole different light. So, PR campaigns need to lead with expert insight, unique references and clear corroborated facts, rather than acceptable historical PR fluff, to maintain relevance.
The authority balance swings both ways. Sometimes smaller up-and-coming companies lose out in the AI results game, with similar articles from larger brands with more clout likely to be cited. However, smaller brands can often outpace their larger rivals, especially in new product areas to capture the AI high ground.
Some examples of authority and AI issues can be found in Yoast’s “When AI gets your brand wrong: Real examples and how to fix it,” highlighting how small issues can deal outsize damage to brands. And a clear win for AI is in broadcast and media monitoring, where AI tools can run 24/7 without breaks, adding related insights to reports without the cost of monitoring agencies.
The Age of the AI-Enhanced PR Strategy
Many small bootstrapped companies, and larger organizations looking to trim budget, will be asking their tame AIs to develop a new PR strategy. Most managers will be horrified by the results and resort to the expertise of a PR agency, but some will not know better, having been drinking the AI Kool-Aid since day one.
PR teams can highlight their understanding and AI awareness, and the unique place of AI within PR to counter these enthusiastic moves. Explaining where AI fits within a PR strategy should prove to most prospects that AI is only part of the toolset. That approach can support and boost pitches to new clients where they think they can use AI to generate results.
For all their smarts, an AI can never understand the soul of a business, the cachet of an outspoken CEO or product leader, or what the company stands for. But a modern PR agency can identify those softer skills and place them at the heart of a PR strategy. Then, using AI to perform faster market and audience research, messaging development, and build out the overall strategy, it can move the process along faster than a traditional team can.
An AI can create drafts of content or imagery and video ideas, which should act as the basis for teams to work on, adding their wider market awareness, tone and cultural nuance. At every step, you can share with clients or prospects where unsanctioned use of AI (especially among larger companies) in PR strategy can lead to many issues.
From a total failure to grasp cultural sensitivities, irony or subtext, to creating AI hallucinations, including fake quotes, statistics or sources. These show that AI remains the weak point in any process that creates PR, marketing and should not be trusted, especially compared to a company with decades of real-world experience.
Across the PR industry, most players can see AI playing a strong and growing part in the development of a PR strategy. But, success will only come from the hands of experts and creatives with the power to refine any AI-generated output as part of that strategy. Or, understand the deeper meaning behind coverage maps and sentiment lists that an AI can generate.
