PR AGENCY DIARIES: IS AI THE IQ YOUR COMMS FUNCTION IS MISSING?

Described by The Verge as ‘the great leveller’, offering the capability to make everyone a get sh*t done person, AI is here to stay. And you’ve probably been using it for a while anyway (Grammarly, Siri, Netflix anyone?).

So, in the interests of disclosure we’re going to come clean that this, and likely every piece of content on the Undertow Media blog, social media and website, will now be helped along by the most sophisticated business tool to come out since the internet.

Don’t hate the player; hate the game, etc..

Its adoption and rise is said to be as instrumental as the industrial revolution and electricity(!), so even if your company isn’t officially dabbling, you can bet your bottom dollar that the savvier of your crew aiming to shortcut their to-do lists are.

While universities are rallying against its use, we’re of the firm opinion that everyone will need to come to terms with it being accepted and used as part of our day to day.

But what is its role in PR and marketing or are we all about to lose our jobs?

First thing’s first, let’s weigh up some of the pros and the cons of AI in marketing.

Pros:

• No skills required: like that one friend who organises the group dinners, AI doesn't need you to do anything. It's got it all covered

• Speedy Gonzales: robots are faster than Usain Bolt on a good day

• It’s cheap: AI can help cut costs – think in the software and productivity realms rather than people

• Automation station: automation is the name of the game. It's like having your own personal robot butler handling all your tasks, freeing up your time for execution and strategic magic dust

• SEO and AB superstar (among other things): for the social folk amongst us, AI can be used as a complex problem-solver that can optimise content for search engines or do your AB testing to a tee – i.e. it can be taught to know your company ticks and superpowers better than your company founder

• Goodbye writer's block: AI never runs out of ideas or hits a creative wall. It's like an endless fount of knowledge for you to drink from each and every day

Cons:

• Algorithm angst: sometimes algorithms can have issues. They might miss nuances or context that a human *hopefully* wouldn’t

• Quality quandaries: quality can be inconsistent. One day it's like Shakespeare, the next it's as boring as a monotone politician

• Plagiarism pitfalls: there's a risk of plagiarism when AI pulls from various sources to create content. It's not trying to cheat, but sometimes it stumbles

• Personal touch: AI is not exactly known for its sparkling personality, right?

So far, so so? The pros list is about as big as the cons.

So will brands be using it as a bolt on to PR and marketing or INSTEAD of PR and marketing?  Let’s get in the weeds with a good old Q&A to come to some semblance of a conclusion.

Broadly, what are the benefits of using AI in comms?

PR’s main game is to influence opinions, shape perceptions, and foster goodwill through reputation management – not any of these things. It’s like the charming host at a party, making sure everyone is having a good time and thinks highly of the event. 

With its shiny algorithms and data-crunching skills, AI can be seen as the secret weapon in a PR pro's toolkit. AI will sharpen our sword by being able to analyse vast amounts of data quickly and accurately, identifying trends and insights that help shape targeted messaging and campaigns.

Need to monitor media coverage? AI's got your back. Want to predict potential PR crises and respond accordingly before they blow up? AI is on it. Want to check the tone of your release or spellcheck it, AI can be that second pair of eyes. Got some research to do? AI will give you as much or as little as you need minus the hours trawling the interweb. Got a release to write? Erm, no. AI is not there yet.

But by the by, it's like having a super-efficient assistant who never sleeps – minus the anxiety.

Ok, so should we be disclosing anything we produce using AI or can I pass it off as my own?

It seems that the consensus leans towards a resounding 'yes'. PR agencies are encouraged to fully disclose the use of AI to their clients. PRINZ has already issued guidelines suggesting thorough disclosure of the use of generative AI. 

As things develop, we reckon the lines will blur, and it will just be that everyone assumes AI was involved in some capacity in almost every comms and creative out there in one way or another (if not to create then to inform).

Currently, there will be a reticence and glossing over of AI generated work as not only is there a stigma associated with it, but it’s not black and white.  Say, if you used AI to write a first draft press release, and then added a human editor, the final output is still overseen and approved by humans, but who wrote it?

Long story short, this will be an evolving space and of course, like all new things, there will be conjecture and blurred lines abound, much like when the ASA guidelines were put in place (something we still have some gripes with).

So, what will the role of PR be in a world where AI is everywhere?

One thing AI cannot do is critically think to any great detail.

This means creativity and storytelling will become even more important if you want good stuff – creativity in directing the prompts to get exactly what we want and then storytelling to finesse what comes back into something that doesn’t read like a cookie-cutter answer.

Therefore, despite what people say, AI is not (yet) in a place that makes it a good bet to set and forget all your press release, copy and comms function to. That job is still ours for the taking.

So we won’t lose our jobs?

You probably don’t remember how many jobs were created with the advent of the internet. Goldman Sachs research predicts that 85% of today’s Uni students will have jobs in just 11 years that don’t currently exist. So we’re good, fam.

But we also don’t want to sugarcoat it. Job displacement in more manual tasks is a real side effect of AI's rise. But, seen through the lens of evolving the PR industry, it should only open up time and inclination towards other skills. The new age comms people will be weighted to creativity and storytelling as well as risk mitigation, things we’ve always done well.

With AI’s help, data and insights will become easier to access and more important than ever when working through campaigns, target markets and biases.  Comms people have traditionally been weak in this discipline, instead relying on hunches and past experiences alongside often top-level research. This will change.

So it stacks that comms people who have really strong analytical thinking, can read data and explain this in layman’s terms are going to be the star performers here.

And how can we be sure AI isn’t feeding us disinformation?

Here's the plot twist. AI also has a dark side. From a fetching deepfake of the pope wearing a puffer to the more sinister (napalm recipes, anyone?), disinformation and misinformation are real struggles in the world of AI.

But guess who's going to play a large role in tackling this? Yep, you guessed it. Us. The comms team. We're the heroes of this story. 

Going further than our role as storytellers and leaning into fact-checking will become a very key element of the role that PR agencies and inhouse communications teams perform for clients. Working out what is true and what is false has become more important than ever.

Ok, so it’s our role to help guardrail AI’s use for good? Do we need a regulatory body to oversee the rise of AI?

AI needs the right director. That's where rules and regulations come in. With the right guidelines, AI can be a vehicle for good, driving efficiency and effectiveness in our campaigns or indeed anything it is used for.

The regulatory landscape in the next year will need to catch up quickly. Situations have already started to crop up where there are legal ramifications for disclosures of information to AI tools that breach privacy and misuse personal data. Expect this area to blow up.

Ahhhhh, how are we going to keep up?

The pace of AI is like a high-speed chase scene. It's moving so fast that if you don't keep up, you risk being left in the dust. Savvy comms teams are investing up to an hour a day to learn the ropes. It's not just about keeping up with the tech, but also prepping for the questions that clients will throw at us. We need to be seen as leaders and counsel in this space.

Check out Jasper.ai (wide marketing applications), Whisper.ai (transcribing) and even good old Bing.ai has come back from the brink and is a strong contender for you to use.  Google resources for how to prompt the tech, so that you can get faster and better results every time you log on.

AI might be the new star, but humans will always have the edge. Those with EQ, curiosity and truly human characteristics that AI can't replicate will always rise to the top.

Our advice for getting around and winning with AI

• Be clear with what you will and won’t hand over to AI. As PR practitioners, we deal with very sensitive and often confidential information. Be responsible with that

• Get around it asap. Use it everyday and often. Spend 10 minutes or so upskilling on the different AI tools available that can help us be better and create some shortcuts, plus challenge some of your own biases

• Google and learn how to prompt the tech effectively. This will be the difference between good and bad AI outputs. Surely us PR people are best placed to get the words right to get the best response?  Become the office pro and you’ll never be replaced

• Understand the risks – there are vulnerabilities in all AI and you need to be crystal clear on what you should and should not be sharing if you are the custodian of that info under a duty of care

• Become a force for fact checking – our role is to distinguish the trash from the treasure

• Become a weapon at using AI to provide data and insights that strengthen your position for clients

• Learn skills that the AI cannot do – present enigmatically, problem solve, use contextual information and the like

While AI is in its infancy, you can bet your bottom dollar that there is much more to see in this space.

Want to upweight your comms from cookie cutter to cutting edge? Have a chat with us.