PR and AI: 21 ways artificial intelligence is changing the PR game

As artificial intelligence and public relations continue to develop, it will significantly impact public relations. But don’t fear. AI and public relations can go hand in hand. AI can assist in managing and monitoring communications, identifying potential crises, and generating content. AI technology is constantly changing and shows no sign of slowing. We only need to look at recent ChatGPT innovations to see this. Here, we will look at what AI is and explain everything about how AI is changing the industry.

May 16, 2023

What is AI, and how does it impact businesses?

AI (artificial intelligence) refers to machines that can perceive intelligence, synthesize and infer information.

It is the science and engineering of intelligent machines that can mimic human intelligence to perform tasks and then, on the information they collect, improve themselves based.

AI is designed to significantly enhance human capabilities and contributions, making it a valuable business asset.

The chances are that you're already using AI in your everyday life. When you ask Alexa to play Spotify, use sat-nav to get you to your destination, or even do just a basic grammar check on an email before you send it, you're already harnessing the power of AI.

It intercepts many different areas of our lives and public relations AI has come on leaps and bounds in recent years. We're only just beginning to tap into its uses in the business world. Take, for instance, the utility of AI when creating copy. It can help produce high-quality text with minimal input and help you turn it into something amazing. This is just one area in business and the PR world where the impacts of AI are being felt. Applied artificial intelligence is now used for marketing campaigns, customer service responses, strategic planning, and many other functions in business.

The uses of AI in PR

Recent AI public relations developments have generated both enthusiasm and fear. AI regularly features in the latest PR trends and shows no signs of slowing. AI could help you create new content and maintain existing. As we all know, content is king when it comes to SEO. AI can help automate the process.

With more companies implementing automation technology, those who get on board early will have the advantage. Teams will have more time to devote to growth-supporting projects by utilizing AI to automate certain tasks. Here are 20 ways artificial intelligence can be used in public relations.

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1

AI for ideas and inspiration

AI can be used to brainstorm creative ideas and stimulate creative thinking. Consider the brand, category, and target audience for some thought starters. You can gain context quickly and easily through mediums such as ChatGPT and Writesonic. It is also possible to structure your request so that you receive more helpful information. You should ensure each query includes a "speaker." An example could be:

“You are an experienced copywriter working in tech and want to know the top 10 tech enterprises where little or no investment is needed. Write in a professional tone.'”

Obviously, this process cannot replace traditional research altogether, and these points are always subject to validation. But it is a great place to start.

2

Creating press releases and reports

One significant application is Natural Language Generation (NLG) technology, which enables PR practitioners to generate personalized content tailored to their target audience. By automating routine tasks, AI allows professionals to allocate more time to creative content creation and strategic thinking. However, it is essential to remember that automation should not replace the discernment and judgment of PR practitioners.

Most PR software executives believe that AI will complement and enhance the work of PR professionals, augmenting their human intelligence rather than replacing creativity and human interaction. While AI can undoubtedly contribute to crafting engaging press releases and reports, the participation of human professionals remains indispensable in the communication process.

3

Creating media lists

An AI media list generator incorporating machine learning algorithms from GPT-4 is a cutting-edge solution now available. This revolutionary tool aids PR practitioners in building customized media lists, identifying media coverage prospects, conducting sentiment analysis, and monitoring media impressions. With AI support, PR professionals can redirect their attention to strategic initiatives, allowing machines to handle mundane tasks. Undoubtedly, AI and PR is transforming the landscape, but it's important to acknowledge that human involvement remains vital in communication.

4

ChatGPT

Using ChatGPT, you can effortlessly generate media lists, create content or develop ideas that suit your specific requirements, saving you time and energy. It should be used with caution. It can produce inaccuracies and misinterpretations and cannot grasp human emotion. A careful approach tChatGPT is an AI-powered language model created by OpenAI. Its purpose is to simulate human-like responses when given text prompts. In order to learn and respond to many different topics and queries, it uses the vast amount of textual information available online, utilizing the GPT architecture. The ChatGPT platform has been featured in several headlines and at the forefront of discussions about artificial intelligence, its ethics, and its uses. It's designed to understand context, generate coherent text, and mimic human-like interactions. ChatGPT has extensive applications. ChatGPT offers undeniably huge automation and content generation benefitso this innovation is required, and human communication should not be neglected.

Learn more about how to use ChatGPT for public relations
5

Videos

Yes, that's right. AI technology has now entered the video creation field. With the latest AI animation software, high-quality videos can be created quickly. Videos are a valuable addition to your website and social media pages. About 80% of online content is video, which is in high demand.

AI and machine learning can now create videos without a crew, actors, sets, and complex editing software. You can create an engaging video ready for posting on your website or social media with an article or script in just a few clicks. In Text-to-Video AI, images and clips are matched with text using technology. When you paste an entire article, the AI creates a slideshow-like video based on stock footage and text overlays. Great for turning listicles and informative articles into videos for thought leadership and opinion pieces.

6

Video monitoring

You can even track "deep fake" videos, which may negatively affect your brand's reputation. These are manipulated and fake videos to impersonate an image or voice of someone. By monitoring social media for such videos, AI can help you take action to remove them. Thanks to AI, these videos are recognized by AI algorithms. Deep learning enables PR professionals to identify fake videos by analyzing visual and audio cues. Press reports can also be released to clarify the action taken after filtering fake videos.

7

Email replies

AI-powered tools have the ability to compose emails in a calm and professional manner, enabling effective client communication.

These tools analyze language patterns and context to produce polite and empathetic responses, helping to avoid any unintended passive-aggressive or negative undertones.

They can also provide suggestions for rephrasing or adjusting the tone, offering constructive feedback to improve the clarity and positivity of the message. Additionally, these tools ensure consistency and efficiency by adapting to individual preferences and organizational guidelines automatically. By promoting respectful and considerate communication, they play a crucial role in maintaining strong client relationships, leading to enhanced client satisfaction and overall business success.

8

Rapid decision making

Effective planning and decision-making processes can benefit greatly from using AI tools. These tools leverage user-provided datasets, patterns, and trends within those datasets to analyze large volumes of information swiftly and accurately. By extracting valuable insights, they provide crucial strategic planning and decision-making input.

AI tools excel at identifying patterns and trends, allowing businesses to anticipate future scenarios, optimize resource allocation, and manage risks effectively.

Furthermore, the knowledge and insights gained through AI-driven analyses contribute to developing new ideas and innovative solutions, promoting continuous improvement and growth within organizations. Ultimately, these AI tools empower businesses to make well-informed decisions, enhancing efficiency, competitiveness, and overall success.

9

Audience analytics and media analysis

In AI in public relations, sentiment analysis powered by AI is widely used to monitor, measure, and handle public sentiment toward brands, campaigns, or public figures. Its applications in PR include:

Reputation management

PR professionals utilize AI tools to analyze online conversations, social media mentions, and news articles to assess public sentiment toward a brand or organization. This helps them identify positive or negative sentiment patterns, track the effectiveness of PR campaigns, and proactively manage and safeguard brand reputation.

Crisis communication

During crises or sensitive situations, AI-based sentiment analysis aids PR teams in monitoring and evaluating public sentiment. By swiftly identifying negative sentiments or emerging issues, PR professionals can promptly respond, address concerns, and mitigate potential damage to the organization's reputation.

Media monitoring

AI-powered sentiment analysis supports PR professionals in monitoring media coverage and evaluating sentiment towards their clients or organization. This enables them to gauge the success of media campaigns, track brand perception, and identify opportunities for media engagement or necessary intervention.

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13

Predictive analytics

Predictive analytics and AI have revolutionized the field of public relations, empowering professionals to harness the power of data for strategic decision-making. By utilizing AI tools, you can efficiently analyze vast information to uncover valuable insights that guide your PR strategies.

This saves time and means you can predict the messages that will hit home with your target audience. With AI, you can enhance campaign effectiveness and make better-informed decisions based on solid data.

14

Social media management

Utilizing social media automation tools, such as AI-powered scheduling features, can greatly assist in managing and automating social media content posting.

These tools enable the scheduling of tweets, the creation of content calendars, and the timely sharing of images at consistent intervals.

Businesses can save valuable time by leveraging automation while maintaining a consistent online presence that fosters connections with their followers. However, it is crucial to remember that genuine human interaction should not be replaced by automation. It is essential to engage authentically with the audience, responding personally and fostering real connections to create a meaningful social media presence.

15

Attribution for earned media

PR tech tools powered by AI, such as Cision Impact and Onclusive, are valuable assets for PR professionals. They offer features like media tracking, impression analysis, and the ability to attribute sales results to earned media coverage. By leveraging advanced technologies like sentiment analysis, predictive analytics, chatbots, and natural language generation, these tools enhance efficiency, refine strategies, and deliver positive returns on investment by leveraging data and making insightful predictions.

16

Budgeting

AI-powered tools provide PR professionals with the ability to analyze historical data, market trends, and campaign performance, which in turn offers valuable insights for budgeting purposes. By uncovering patterns and correlations within the data, AI can assist in forecasting future costs, ensuring effective resource allocation, and optimizing budget distribution based on expected outcomes.

Moreover, these AI tools excel in evaluating the cost-effectiveness of various PR activities and recommending optimal strategies for resource allocation.

By closely examining past campaign data and performance metrics, AI can identify the activities that yield the highest return on investment (ROI), suggesting adjustments that optimize budget allocation accordingly.

In addition, AI plays a pivotal role in accurately measuring and evaluating the ROI of PR activities. By automating the tracking and analysis of key performance indicators (KPIs) such as media coverage, website traffic, social media interactions, and lead generation, AI-generated insights shed light on the impact of PR efforts on business outcomes. This aids in justifying budgets and provides valuable information for future planning endeavors.

17

Chatbots

Engaging with customers in real time creates a sense of trust between the service and the individual. It's about conversations. Chatbots allow for data to be shared. They are 24/7, so an inquiry can be registered and automatically routed, ensuring you get all leads. Bots automatically route chats with potential clients to the right team. Chatbots can also help answer frequently asked questions and recommend products based on customer preferences. These capabilities have improved engagement levels. Discovering this intent is helpful and lets us know where to take the lead. AI chatbots can also improve work routines and automate schedule management without the need for users to intervene. The increasing use of chatbots has brought significant changes to the business landscape. Businesses also use AI technologies to analyze customer data, gain insights into their behavior, and become more efficient at meeting their needs. Even though chatbots are AI-powered, that doesn't stop them from being personal.

18

Speech-to-text applications

Step in AI and speech-to-text translation. With meetings and discussions, it is necessary to document these as efficiently as possible to maintain accuracy. Keeping up with note-taking is difficult but made much easier with software capable of dictating speech into written text. Not only are these useful for automated meeting note-taking, but they can write speeches out, too, should there be a need to have one last minute. With speech assistants, anyone can recite a speech, which will be written into text for them.

19

AI assisted recomendations

Similar to the above, regarding PR, AI-assisted recommendations are like having a reliable partner beside you. Consider it your PR expert, armed with industry knowledge to help you maximize your efforts. With the magic of machine learning, AI can sift through mountains of data to offer valuable insights and guide you toward the most effective strategies for your PR campaigns. It can even predict which messages will strike a chord with different audiences, saving you precious time and energy. So, let AI be your trusty sidekick.

20

Influencer identification

In today's marketing landscape, businesses utilize advanced techniques to identify influencers who can make a difference. By diving deep into social media data, experts can pinpoint individuals with significant sway over specific target audiences. They carefully consider factors like follower count, engagement rates, the relevance of content, and the demographics of their audience. With this, agencies can select the most suitable and relevant influencers for collaborative efforts that resonate with audiences.

21

General time saving

AI technology saves time by automating tedious and time-consuming tasks like data entry, appointment scheduling, and customer support. By leveraging AI, businesses can streamline operations and allocate human resources to more strategic and value-added endeavors. Moreover, AI's capability to analyze large datasets facilitates faster decision-making based on data-driven insights. Essentially, AI empowers professionals to work more intelligently and efficiently. Which is a welcome relief. 

Conclusion

We fear what we don't understand. But as we learn more, we can feel more comfortable and see the value firsthand. Doing nothing is not an option. When looking at AI in PR in an AI big data and readiness report, the Chartered Institute of Public Relations found 43% of people said they had limited knowledge of AI and felt less confident using it but wanted to. But how do we learn? We need to understand the tech, even as a creative industry.

It is important to note it won't replace PR professionals altogether.

Many human elements like relationship building and good people management are still absent from AI. And data is data and still needs to be interpreted. Indeed, there are moral issues. Look at the recent ChatGPT ban in Italy. More testing is required too. It needs to solve actual PR problems. We cannot just plug into elements of it. We need to ask how can we improve the work that we do. PR is an intersection of different things—writing, strategy, critical thinking, etc. We’ve seen how it can benefit us in all these areas.

People are getting value from it already. Companies need to be brave and bold. People with domain expertise mixed with AI knowledge could leverage it greatly. Arguably, PR professionals are those best placed to use it. As professionals, we were already slow in adopting SEO and digital PR. Its successful implementation is an existential issue. AI PR is here to stay, though.

May 16, 2023
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