Public Relations in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

In B2B Tech PR, AI has become the defining topic of our time. From the latest product and software innovations to dominating event keynotes and boardroom conversations, there is no real escape.

Like any new technology, we see the evolution of how it transforms industries, workplaces and even our everyday lives. And so, we are often presented with the question: embrace it or get left behind?

History is full of scepticism towards technology. Just one hundred years ago was the first demonstration of moving images by Scottish inventor John Logie Baird, with the official high-definition public television broadcasts officially launched by the BBC in 1936. Early industry leaders and the general public dismissed televisions (and computers too) as expensive novelties for impractical everyday use.

***“People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night” *- 20th Century Fox President Darryl F. Zanuck, 1946 **

Now look at us. We have multi-generational technology adoption which is ever-changing and accelerating. So, why do so many fear AI?

Unlike televisions and computers that typically sit firmly in our living rooms, AI is almost everywhere we look, and because it’s so easy to generate hyper-realistic fake images, audio and text, it is becoming increasingly more challenging to know what is real and what is fake.

In my world, the public relations world, that has been truly eye opening. A technology that can destabilise information systems and threaten public trust, and in some instances, even credibility!

It may be naïve of me, but even as a “digital native”, that wasn’t something I expected to see in as little as 10 years after completing a Journalism & Media Studies degree at the University of Portsmouth. A place where I was taught the “rule of three” in writing and discovered my love of the em dash — something that ChatGPT has rudely stolen from me! I don’t know whether to be flattered or offended really…

“I have a degree in Journalism, so I know what I’m talking about” just won’t cut it.

Naturally, because AI has been created by humans, it has been rooted to mimic such language models and behaviour patterns. As a result, many creatives have had to adjust their ways of working and content creation style to stand out from the crowd.

For public relations professionals specifically, the core challenge is maintaining trust and authenticity. As more companies develop content in-house, there has been a shift from pure content generation to strategic reputation management. The sheer volume of AI content created has arguably diluted content quality, making human-generated narratives PR’s most valuable currency.

For those who fear technology such as AI due to the potential risk of job displacement, we must address the ongoing future of work discussion. While it is inevitable there will be significant shifts in the workplace, there is an irreplaceable nature of human interaction and value that should not be overlooked.

It’s no surprise that AI is considered the most profoundly “disruptive technology” of the modern era, impacting virtually every profession and driving companies to rebuild operating models.

So, I repeat the question: embrace it or get left behind?

Disclaimer: I declare that no artificial intelligence technologies were used to generate or revise the text of this work. You can probably tell…