By Glenda Thompson
How public relations professionals can use AI without losing what makes PR powerful
AI is no longer something sitting on the sidelines of public relations. It is already firmly in the PR toolbox.
In fact, more than three-quarters of PR professionals are now using generative AI, with 74% using it to create content and 86% using it to edit and refine their work.
So the question is no longer “Should PR professionals be using AI?”
The better question is:
“How do we use AI intelligently without losing the human thinking, relationships and creativity that make great PR work?”
And I believe that is where the real opportunity lies.
AI SHOULD BE YOUR ASSISTANT – NOT YOUR VOICE
For PR professionals, AI is fantastic for the things that can eat up hours of the working day:
• Brainstorming campaign ideas
• Researching topics and trends
• Developing interview questions
• Creating first-draft structures
• Turning a long article into social media posts
• Generating headline options
• Summarising research
• Editing and tightening copy
• Finding different angles for a story
• Building media pitches
• Analysing large amounts of information
• Helping us get past the dreaded blank page!
But there is a big difference between using AI to help you think and using AI instead of thinking.
Content marketing expert Ann Handley puts it beautifully. She describes AI as a “robot perched on your shoulder” rather than the creator at the keyboard.
That, to me, is exactly how PR professionals should approach it.
Let AI generate 20 ideas.
Your job is to know which one is actually good.
THE PR PROFESSIONAL STILL BRINGS THE MAGIC
PR isn’t simply about producing words.
It is about understanding people.
It is knowing that one journalist wants a hard news angle while another wants a human-interest story. It is knowing when a client has a genuinely interesting story, and when they are simply trying to sell something.
It is knowing which speaker will work for a particular audience.
It is building relationships.
Picking up the phone.
Having the conversation.
Spotting the unexpected opportunity.
Understanding tone.
Knowing when NOT to send the press release.
AI can help with the mechanics. It cannot replace professional judgement.
David Meerman Scott author of New Rules of Marketing and PR, has made a similar point, arguing that AI can make human work easier and give us more time for genuine human interaction. He also highlights qualities such as curiosity, creativity, empathy, emotion, intuition and imagination as distinctly human strengths.
That is an important reminder for PR.
The more AI-generated content we see, the more valuable genuine human thinking becomes.
WHERE PR PROFESSIONALS CAN USE AI REALLY WELL
1. USE AI TO FIND THE ANGLE
Give AI the facts about a client, product, event or business and ask:
“What are the five most interesting stories hiding in this information?”
Often, the best PR angle isn’t the obvious one.
AI can help you see possibilities you may have overlooked.
2. USE IT AS A BRAINSTORMING PARTNER
Instead of asking AI to “write me a press release”, ask it:
“Challenge my thinking. What would make this story interesting to a journalist?”
That’s a much more valuable use of the technology.
3. USE AI TO REPURPOSE, NOT REGURGIT
One good thought-leadership article can become:
A LinkedIn post.
A media pitch.
Three Instagram captions.
A newsletter item.
Talking points for a podcast.
Questions for an interview.
AI can help you get more mileage from good original thinking.
4. USE AI FOR THE BORING STUFF
There is absolutely nothing wrong with using technology to save time on repetitive work.
If AI can take 30 minutes off a task that used to take an hour, use that time to talk to a client, call a journalist or develop the next big idea.
That is where the productivity gain becomes a PR advantage.
THE PROS
SPEED:
AI can dramatically reduce the time spent on first drafts, research and repetitive content.
IDEATION:
It can provide angles and ideas when you are stuck.
EFFICIENCY:
One piece of content can quickly become multiple pieces for different platforms.
ACCESSIBILITY:
Smaller PR teams can do more without necessarily needing larger teams.
ANALYSIS:
AI can process large amounts of information and identify patterns that would take humans considerably longer to find.
CREATIVE CHALLENGE:
Used properly, AI can act as a sounding board – challenging assumptions and suggesting alternatives.
AND THE CONS?
There are plenty.
GENERIC CONTENT:
If everyone uses AI in exactly the same way, everything starts to sound the same.
FACTUAL ERRORS:
AI can confidently produce information that is incorrect. PR professionals remain responsible for checking facts.
LOSS OF PERSONALITY:
A polished paragraph isn’t necessarily a good paragraph. Sometimes the slightly quirky, human sentence is the one people remember.
CONFIDENTIALITY:
Sensitive client, customer or business information needs to be handled carefully and according to organisational policies.
OVER-RELIANCE:
The biggest danger isn’t AI itself. It is professionals allowing their own thinking skills to become lazy.
TRUST:
If audiences feel they are being fed mass-produced content, credibility can suffer.
And perhaps the biggest risk of all:
AI can make average work very easy to produce.
Seth Godin has described AI as creating a kind of “smush” – making mediocre work easier to produce at scale while simultaneously raising the bar for truly exceptional human work.
That is a fascinating challenge for the PR industry.
