✅ AI reinforces the tactical media and communications role of public relations (but it needn’t be so)

Corporate communications, public relations, media and management insight

The increasingly common view of AI in corporate communications and public relations is that it is an editorial tool to automate research and writing tasks. This perspective reduces our work to tactical tasks. It also largely ignores ethical concerns.

While practitioners focus on using AI to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of communications, there is a more valuable strategic opportunity: using AI to enhance the core function of public relations practice in building and maintaining meaningful relationships between an organisation and its public.

AI can support practitioners by helping analyse and understand audiences or publics. The ability to test alternative stakeholder viewpoints and synthetic stakeholder focus groups supports planning. It can assist with research and data analysis to identify meaningful patterns and insights that inform relationship strategies and enable more personalised engagement opportunities.

The key is using AI to enhance practitioner capabilities while safeguarding genuine human interactions.

The pitfalls of efficiency-driven AI adoption

A new study by Matthew Salzano and Drew T. Ashby-King, published this month in Public Relations Inquiry, suggests that public relations practice is missing this opportunity.

Their research found that public relations practitioners are overwhelmingly focused on using AI for productivity improvements – viewing AI as a tool to generate content faster. While efficiency has the potential to improve productivity, deliver savings in headcount, or improving profitability, this approach overlooks the strategic opportunity of stakeholder relationship management.

The research team critically analysed 63 blog posts and articles published in the six months following the release of ChatGPT in November 2022. They claim that practitioners are being encouraged to adopt AI without considering its ethical and strategic implications. This perspective also overlooks the professional advisory opportunity.