✅ Monday briefing: Understanding the impact of AI on public relations
We've published a new management paper for corporate communicators and public relations practitioners about the Impact of AI on public relations
Artificial Intelligence (AI) will significantly impact the public relations profession in the same way as the internet and social media before it. You should give it urgent attention as a public relations practitioner for two reasons.
It has the potential to impact the relationships and reputation that gives your organisation and its customers the licence or permission to operate
It will disrupt how you work within the next five years and replace functional, mainly junior, roles within public relations practice
The term Artificial Intelligence is nonsense. It’s artificial, and it isn’t very intelligent. It is based on training an algorithm to manipulate a data set called a large language model. AI predicts words or phrases based on the data set or large language model it has been trained on.
AI originates from the 1950s as a means of machine learning. It came to the forefront of the public sphere in November 2022 when OpenAI launched a chat-based application called ChatGPT.
Wadds Inc. has produced a management paper for corporate communicators and public relations practitioners called The Impact of AI on Public Relations. It covers the following topics.
AI and management
AI has the potential to help organisations improve efficiency and effectiveness, but it also gives rise to several areas of risk. This includes bias, copyright, privacy, and misinformation.
The impact of AI on public relations practice
The optimistic perspective views AI as an assistant that will help public relations practitioners work smarter by acting as an assistant or researcher. The pessimistic view is that AI will eliminate roles based on administration, content creation or production.
New opportunities for public relations practitioners created by AI
AI may eliminate some jobs, but it will create new roles for public relations practitioners. Professional advisory and policy work is an obvious opportunity. There is also the need to engage with machines called prompt engineering which is the task of writing AI instructions.
The adoption of AI by public relations in practice
Public relations does not have a good track record when adopting new technology. It was slow to adapt to the internet, search engine optimisation, and social media. The early signs are that history may be repeating itself. Less than a fifth of practitioners are upskilling.
Examples of AI tools that can be applied in practice
Ignoring AI tools, for now, is possible, however Adobe, Google and Microsoft will force mainstream adoption in the business and consumer environment as soon as they incorporate it into their applications.
Five practical steps to exploring the impact of AI in your work
The paper sets out a five-step plan for corporate communicators and public relations practitioners wanting to learn about AI and its potential impact on their organisation and work.
We've developed a supporting one-day workshop for agency management and communication teams that digs into the theme arising from the paper and includes a series of practical sessions. We also provide bespoke training and support.
I founded the CIPR AI in PR panel in 2018 and have supported the CIPR in this area for the past five years. Hit reply if you or your organisation need help in this area.
Media
🔄 SOCIAL SHIFT: Facebook's role as a news source has significantly decreased, while video-based platforms such as YouTube and TikTok have gained popularity, especially among younger audiences. However, Twitter's news usage remains stable. Mastodon has minimal use. Read more. (Source: Stephen Waddington, Reuters Institute Digital News Report).
📧 NEWSLETTER STRATEGY: Reach prioritises a 'newsletter-first' approach to enhance audience engagement, reducing their focus on their website. It plans to roll out this strategy further to attract more readers. Read more. Source: Alan Morrison, Hold The Front Page.
📰 TIKTOK NEWS: Online news consumption is changing worldwide, with the format leaning more towards the TikTok style and less towards shared articles, marking a decrease in traditional news readership. Read more. (Source: Andrew Bruce Smith, Nieman Lab).
📝 CODE BREACH: Boris Johnson has breached the ministerial code by accepting a column with The Daily Mail days after he resigned as an MP. He failed to seek the required permissions from parliamentary authorities. Read more. Source: Julian Christopher, BBC News).
Research and insight
🏢 CCO INFLUENCE: Practitioners are obsessed with a board seat however we can still maintain management influence without directly reporting to the CEO. The value of the role lies in business planning, forecasting the impact of comms on different areas of business performance, and optimising investments as marketplaces and audiences change. Read more. Source: Mark Strouse, PR Week.
🔍 RESEARCH WORKFLOW: We’ve applied a task-based approach to innovation to develop smarter ways to manage research literature workflow. We did a similar exercise recently to figure out how AI could help write press releases and media pitches. Read more. (Source Stephen Waddington, Wadds Inc.
Artificial intelligence
🗞️ AI CONTENT DEALS: Tech giants, including Google and OpenAI are negotiating deals with media groups to use their content for training AI technologies, potentially leading to subscription-style fees for content usage. Read more. Source: Andrew Bruce Smith, The Financial Times.
🔮 JOB SECURITY: The Economist suggests that an AI-induced job apocalypse isn't imminent as many fear. Doom-mongering claims made by economists typically go untested. Read more. Source: Andrew Bruce Smith, The Economist.
Tools
🔍 ANALYTICS UPGRADE: Looker Studio has introduced 170 new fields for reporting, providing advertisers with detailed insights for more informed decision-making. Additions include landing page, user conversion, page location and session conversion rates by event data. Read more. Source: Andrew Bruce Smith, Search Engine Land).
👁️ MONITORING OVERREACH: Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf has said he was "disturbed" by reports of a hospital board spying on bereaved families. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) admitted monitoring the online presence of critical individuals. Read more. Source: Alan Morrison, BBC News.
There’s no Wadds Inc. newsletter next week. We’re heading to Glastonbury from Thursday to Monday. Have a great week.