Foresights

AI is everywhere you look — and it’s hardly a surprise. It’s a paradigm-shifting technology that has already fundamentally changed the dynamics of the 21^st century economy.

Large language models like ChatGPT and Perplexity are transforming data analysis, content creation, and education; image generation models like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion are impacting marketing, branding, and product design; and deep, specialised AI models are enabling technological development in fields as diverse as medical diagnosis, autonomous driving, and software development.

This rapid change inevitably brings concerns and reactionary backlash — and not without good reason. Nobody asked for Russian bots to peddle AI fake news and deepfakes to pollute the channels of communication our democracies depend upon, but it just goes to show — all tools can be misused in the wrong hands.

For anyone whose role involves spending time working with words — communications consultants, lawyers, copywriters, even novelists — there is a real fear that AI will replace our jobs.

And there is a good reason to be concerned — you might wonder why a PR agency should fund the salary of a new Account Executive, freshly minted from university, when it instead can spend £240 per year on an individual ChatGPT subscription?

But I think this is the wrong way of looking at AI. It’s not a replacement for a PR consultant — not even a junior one. AI is an augmentation, a tool for enhancing a PR consultant’s abilities. It is an evolution in the tool being used to perform the job.

Take, for example, the word processor I am using to write this blog — it is clearly a more useful tool for writing long-form content than using a typewriter; I can edit my mistakes, move paragraphs around, and directly incorporate changes suggested by my colleagues. But learning to use the tool is not the same as doing the job — and the job, when writing a blog, is to crystallise one’s ideas into a form which can be readily absorbed by the reader.  And nobody is seriously suggesting that we revert back to writing on analogue technologies like typewriters (at least, not until Skynet takes control of our entire digital infrastructure).

In the same way, using AI to prepare the first draft of a press release does not bypass the media relations consultant — the AI tool can rapidly expedite the process, but it does not understand the purpose of the task, or where it sits within the wider context of a strategic communications programme — unless it is told.

What this means for a communications consultancy is that, instead of teaching junior colleagues how to write a good press release from scratch, instead we should be teaching them the constituent elements that make a good press release. What does a good press release look like?

It’s first necessary to consider the target audience for the release — who are you trying to reach with this information, and to which publications are you pitching it? Then you need to consider the structure, ensuring the most salient and newsworthy information comes first. The title must be snappy, informative, and appealing to journalists. The key messages should be prominent and consistent, reinforcing your clients’ position and long-term objectives. The narrative should flow smoothly and naturally from section to section. And what about the hook — how does this story fit into wider narratives playing out in the sector; why should anyone care enough to read it? And, of course, is the grammar correct?

Once you have taught a fresh-faced Account Executive these things, and why they matter, they don't need to write a press release in Microsoft Word any more than they need to write it on a typewriter, or using a quill on vellum. Insert these elements of core understanding into an AI model and it will do the time-consuming work for you — just be sure not to feed it any sensitive information!

So, AI shouldn’t be seen as a replacement for less experienced PR professionals, or even as a direct competitor. Instead, it should be seen as a technology which is as transformative to the industry as social media, opening new avenues for growth and development within the sector. Indeed, many PR firms are experimenting with innovative new service offerings like AI-powered PR programmes that cater to smaller companies on a tighter budget.

The AI paradigm shift has already happened — those firms that don't move with the AI trend will fall behind just as surely as those who failed to incorporate social media offerings into their business models.

But AI won’t replace the PR industry. For starters, there are obvious signatures in AI-generated content due to the probabilistic nature of AI word generation, which already raises potential reputational concerns — even the first draft of an AI-generated press release needs careful editing. But, beyond that, even if these technical hurdles are cleared by future AI models, PR firms will always have one key advantage over AI — there is no substitute for the lived experience of multiple team members with long careers and detailed knowledge of what works and what doesn't.

Ultimately, AI is an empowering tool for the PR industry — less time spent in the minutiae of turning ideas into communications materials leaves more time for PR consultants to do what we do best: coming up with creative ideas and helping clients use high-quality communication to support their immediate priorities and long-term strategies.

Though, for the record, this article is 100% organic — no AI needed.