What Generative AI Means to the Future of Public Relations

How do you describe PR’s relationship with AI? Best to say, “It’s complicated,” for now.  

The “Eye on AI: The Promises and Pitfalls Of Artificial Intelligence In P,” event, hosted by Golin in partnership with PRophet and CommPro, brought public relations and digital leaders together at Golin’s Chicago headquarters to discuss the rapid evolution of AI and what it all means for PR.  

“In communications, everything is a workflow,” noted Aaron Kwittken, founder of PROphet, a generative and predictive AI SaaS platform for PR. “We will become communications engineers, using multiple tools to be better.”  

“As it relates to communications and PR, there is so much that will make our jobs as PR professionals easier,” Molly McKenna, senior director of communications for McDonalds, agreed. She equated the moment to the start of her career 20 years ago, when technology was just emerging, by reminding the room of the task of making physical clip books, eliciting groans of agreement from the audience. “There are a lot of things AI will be able to deliver on that will make PR faster and easier, and let communications people concentrate on the big ideas.” 

“We need to this about what AI can solve for, such as who will be interested in my story, and how can I make my story more interesting,” Kwittken elaborated.  

To better understand how AI might work within PR, Laura Sutphen, managing director of social impact & inclusion at Golin, offered a comparison with ESG.  

“AI shares similar value sets as ESG. Both are about finding out and mitigating risk,” she noted. The use of AI tools in ESG provides an example of its utility that is relevant to PR. “The promise of AI in the ESG ecosystem includes shortening the timeframe of data analysis in environmental and social issues, such as using predictive AI to model drought and famine. It lets us see around corners.”  

Using AI tools to predict audience interest, model public reaction scenarios and layer more intelligence onto emerging trends is the stuff of PR dreams. But getting your arms around the fast-moving AI ecosystem can feel daunting. Where to start?  

“Learn by doing,” suggested Amit Wadehra, EVP and head of digital Chicago at Golin. “That is how you get up to speed. Staying abreast is literally trying it out.”  He recommends people start by following creators, begin experimenting with available tools and take advantage of courses such as “Generative AI for Digital Marketers” available from LinkedIn Learning. 

The conversation quickly swung from the potential for efficiency gains to the possibility that generative AI tools could supplant creatives.  

When asked if AI will make us more or less creative, Jeff Beringer, global president of digital, Golin said, “Both,” noting that AI can add experiences humans do not have and provide new starting points for creativity.

“There is, however, a very real threat that we will lose muscle memory about things that make us creative,” Beringer warned. “Some of the assistive tools will take us farther away from the work itself - and it is in doing that work that makes us more creative.”

The impact on creativity is one concern for PR and communication professionals. Countering bias and disinformation are also real concerns. 

“AI is only as good as the humans building it,” commented Kwittken, noting that AI is trained sets of data, and biases within that data will color the output.

Copyright infringement is a related risk the group discussed, noting that because generative AI tools are trained on data people and companies provide, it is very possible that another brand’s content can appear in the output from generative AI tools.

“AI can help inspire and create new ideas, but there is a slippery slope in using content another created, McKenna noted.

Wadehra agreed, pointing out the importance of providing guidelines for use.

“People need to know what they can and can’t do as employees,” he commented. “Knowing what kinds of confidential information should NOT be put into the tools is also critically important.”  Wadehra reminded the group of the presence of the “Do not train” toggle on Chat GPT, which will prevent the inclusion of one’s input into the pool of data used to train the algorithms.

When it comes to countering misinformation, McKenna was quick to point out that doing so will require a coordinated effort across the enterprise.  

“The brand will have to have some responsibility,” she noted. “They will have to rely on their tech and legal partners to figure out how to manage these issues. It is a huge challenge, and you cannot simply blame misinformation or fake coupons on chat GPT.  This is where PR–and strategy for issues management–will become important.”  

The group noted that authenticating content will become important, and that technologies like blockchain will help.  

The group closed by discussing what AI cannot do, and the skills communicators will need to lean into as generative AI becomes baked into PR and communications tools and functions. Wadehra noted that “Prompt Engineering” –a critical-thinking heavy skillset focused on getting the most sophisticated responses from generative AI tools–is quickly growing in importance.  

Beringer highlighted the importance of the things AI cannot do.

 “Part of why we are good at what we do is that humans are connectors, we understand how others tick. We need to keep an eye on that,” he said. Veracity is also important. “We need to still think critically and own our domain expertise. Strategic perspective and human connections will never go away.”