How artificial intelligence and public relations can go hand in hand

While human touch will prevail, there are many ways we can make artificial intelligence and public relations work together in order to execute more efficient and strategic campaigns. Robots can certainly write press releases, but that won’t be vital to the future of this industry. 

Decision making is the most important process in any company. Therefore, digital transformation fundamentally changed the way a company works and adds value to its customers. Business management levels, through new technologies and digital platforms, are a guarantee of success and efficiency within these organisations.

In today’s world, new technologies are speeding up, optimising and perfecting a large part of the activities we carry out on a daily basis. In turn, corporate communication today is something that has come a long way, a method of communication that is much faster than before.

The traditional example of modern communication is what happens specifically on digital platforms and the Internet: transmitting messages, images, videos and all kinds of documents from different parts of the world 24 hours a day is something that has displaced the sending of physical documents by other means. Immediacy is the key.

For this reason, as technology evolves, more companies are turning to artificial intelligence as a means of optimising repetitive processes and finding efficient alternatives round every corner. Our PR industry is no stranger to this trend, as companies explore new ways of using AI in ways that allow them to get faster news exposure and with better arguments than competition.

Artificial intelligence refers to the ability of digital platforms, robots and machines in general to learn and make decisions based on data, analysis and background; resolve questions, doubts or support decision-making through scientific support or true and verifiable information.

As it is, artificial intelligence can help companies identify patterns and trends in large data sets, making informed decisions accordingly. AI has become a powerful tool for business growth, and ever more frequently, companies are embracing it to take advantage of machine learning.

However, before applying it to a corporate environment and to areas such as Marketing, Communications or Customer Service (to name a few), it is essential to understand how data collection and analysis relates to this tool. 

Therein lies the key to its use and if we’re talking about PR, it will make it possible to boost efficiency in the relationship processes, improve the speed and consistency of the content that is generated and the knowledge of audiences and journalists will be used to discover opportunities to open markets and expand operations.

AI tools and platforms can become irreplaceable at a frightening speed, but our true understanding of how these technologies affect the global marketplace, how they should be regulated and how to avoid adverse effects on society is slowing down. It’s like “changing a tire while in movement.”

Society and the market are faced with infinite possibilities of new technological advances and a greater presence of AI, with the urgent need to limit possible abuses, as well as the harmful consequences of misusing these tools.

Additionally, the implementation of AI has transformed the media landscape, revolutionising the way we create and consume information and content. 

The introduction of technology has rapidly transformed the media landscape, revolutionising the way we consume and create content. From personalised news to the rise of AI-generated articles, artificial intelligence has turned the industry upside down, challenging traditional methods and changing processes.

In turn, the platform BuzzFeed recently announced plans to incorporate artificial intelligence into its core business, using AI to generate contests and other types of content on its website. The predictions of McKinsey Global Institute indicate that while AI is being applied to real-world business problems in nearly every sector of the economy, the two industries most likely to feel the effects are marketing and sales; where customer services, message delivery logistics and optimization of time and resources are the preferred target for applying AI sooner.

Should communication professionals be concerned about the arrival of AI? It should be noted that presence, reason and human talent will always be essential. But, yes, an AI-generated platform – like Chat GPT – can produce stories at a breakneck speed. So, what’s to stop companies from leveraging this type of technology to stay relevant? Perhaps nothing will stop it, which is why the best thing PR professionals can do is to get ahead and find ways to incorporate AI to improve the customer experience.

For their part, public relations and marketing agencies, information generators, journalists and large conglomerates in the publishing world are using AI tools as an arm to create content more quickly and efficiently, minimise human error in repetitive tasks, perform searches broader in reduced times or temporarily replace certain functions as has just happened on Chinese television, where a robot (created with AI) was released as a news presenter.

But ultimately, AI can help us analyse and optimise PR campaigns, starting with analysing large amounts of data and identifying patterns and trends that may take consultants a little longer to spot.

This indicates that an adequate use of these platforms can go beyond the social listening and press monitoring so that at the end of the process it is the criteria of the PR consultant who decides how to identify the best moments and channels to publish their public relations content.

On the other hand, the Chatbots powered by AI allow us in communication and public relations, to be able to provide service to customers, users and/or the media 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, helping companies to interact with their audiences in real time.

But the competitive advantage goes further; and the proper and strategic use of AI in public relations helps to manage as well as boost a brand’s reputation. From high-speed monitoring of what is being said on social media and news sources, looking for mentions of the company, to detecting early alerts of negative or potentially harmful comments to respond quickly to any problem that arises. Much more effective than just having Google Alerts.

In closing, AI ​​can support us in the development of content, because in using these tools in a responsible and ethical way we can analyse data on our audience of interest and their consumption habits to offer them just what they want to read and identify content strategies (referring to SEO) that are more likely to resonate with readers.

There is no doubt that there are many more ways to apply AI to public relations to keep the focus on what we do. Strategic communication and for whom we do it: the clients. Merging our public relations work with artificial intelligence tools will be very challenging, but in the end, the key will be knowing how to combine creativity and data in public relations campaigns with the tools that bring information closer and facilitate the most operational processes.