Can robots be used to write press releases? You might be thinking well, why not but isn’t this future of the industry? Tell you what: This might seem to be a distant dream to a few; however, this is real now. In this post, we’ll explore how to leverage artificial intelligence in public relations and use it effectively to shape the conventional ways of brand communication, as we know them.
Personalization is going nowhere; it's irreplaceable and will always prevail. As marketers or business people, one should, however, know that there are many ways in which we all can wisely utilize AI in order to run more efficient and effective PR campaigns.
AI is in a continual state of evolution and many companies are turning to the technology to streamline repetitive processes and find efficiencies wherever they can.
PR firms across the globe are looking for ways to use artificial intelligence for certain aspects of their business so that they can benefit from the AI functions.
For people tackling AI conventionally, embracing AI in PR can be a worrisome affair. People working in PR seem concerned about their jobs being replaced by programmable technology, but that is not the case.
Public relations firms can benefit from the use of AI particularly when it comes to the sheer volume of information that they need to sort through.
PR firms aim to be on the top of the latest news and trends which can be a cumbersome task for employees with information getting missed due to the sheer volume of information available or getting bogged by irrelevant information.
Firms using artificial intelligence (AI) are able to search through all the information available across omnichannel including the digital & physical platforms at a lightning-fast speed. Thus, the content that is relevant to the clients can be fetched out and additional content can be prepared by taking that content as ideal by programming the bot to search out specific words and phrases. This will ensure that high-quality and relevant content has been prepared and distributed by the PR firm.
The author of “AI’s PR Problem,” Jerry Kaplan describes how artificial intelligence has a bad reputation and connotation among customers, mostly because they perceive the technology to be intimidating and largely futuristic. He explains that machine learning has been taking over skilled works for centuries now. However, they aren’t looking for better jobs or higher employment as many people might be scared into believing.
Sam Frizell author of “At Your Service,” describes the current use of artificial intelligence that’s popular currently. This piece of artificial technology is very similar to Siri and Alexa, and other forms of home installations of artificial intelligence by Amazon and Apple respectively.
In a study titled "Humans Still Needed," conducted by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) in 2018, it was predicted that by the year 2023, 38% of the total skills of a PR practitioner can be either contemplated or replaced by AI. The conventional PR functions such as media monitoring, distribution, and content creation will get automated as computers will be able to better capture and understand knowledge at speeds much faster than those performed by human brains which will eventually lead to the much faster processing of the mundane and repetitive tasks, in a more reliable way.
(An estimate of tools capability in 2023 with regard to public relations skills and abilities. The red color represents the tasks that would be increasingly done by AI. Source: CIPR)
Some of these operational tasks will include the following:
- Production of press releases and media reports with the help of Natural Language Generation or NGL.
- Transcribing the audio files to written text via the contemplation of speed-to-text feature of the media interviews, press releases, podcasts, and presentations.
- Any text release such as press releases, blogs, and articles can be translated into videos and speech that complements written and visual content to give your target audience groups an alternative way to consume information.
- While working with global clients, any audio, video, or text files can be translated into multiple languages for wider distribution. This strategy also helps overcome the language barrier encountered in PR activities.
- Marketers can find and connect with the influencers that are most likely to have a connection with their target audience groups.
- Relevant and frequent news can be provided to marketers in real-time.
- The AI-tech enables one to automatically fetch the journalist contacts and publication names within their niche with a high likelihood of covering a specific brand, instead of manually bidding the list using keyword-centric and categorical searches.
- Custom suggestions can be provided to the journalists based on their niche specialty and areas of interest.
- The impact of negative reviews can be predicted, analyzed, and done away with through an effective omnichannel reputation management approach, focused on implementing all the predictive measures.
- Any distorted content such as fake news or malicious videos which can be detrimental to the reputation of a brand can be tackled more effectively by responding quickly to protect the brand.
In the words of George Karapalidis, head of data science at Vertical Leap, "AI holds great potential for the content creation industry. By no means should it be viewed as a threat?"
AI can be used to monitor media coverage of the competitive product lines of the competitors to ensure that the clients are reacting as needed or getting a fair share of media coverage with their own campaign. AI bots can also track the media impressions of a particular client of the PR firm as well as their competitors.
Wrap Up
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be used to track media coverage for the clients by scanning news coverage and can also track the emerging and evolving trends in the topic that the PR firm may want to get head off. With the automation of scanning information, artificial intelligence can also determine the best time of the day to schedule the press releases. The benefits of AI in PR are massive. AI also provides the most important pieces of information and also derives relevant data from audiences' interactions that help in preparing hyper-tailored pieces to content that strikes an effective communication with the brands.
As the field of brand communications and PR is continuously evolving, it is all set to be used by brands in more effective ways to strike a more reasonable conversation with their target audience groups.
AI is inferring hyper-personalization into the PR realm, keeping the human touch of the process intact and enabling public relations professionals to focus on tasks that can't be automated such as brainstorming creative ideas, determining the steps to strengthen client relations, performing repetitive tasks, and striking a more effective interaction with the clients.
Embracing artificial intelligence (AI) will make your PR strategy more effective. It will provide efficiencies in data gathering so that the employees can focus on their endeavors and refining the personalized experiences for their clients.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly finding applications in PR-related applications. However, they have received little scholarly attention. Co-opting artificial intelligence to conduct their day-to-day activities can empower organizations of all kinds to enhance their capabilities. Beyond AI's potential for task automation, marketers across the globe are increasingly realizing that AI holds immense broader technological, societal, and economic implications that demand much critical attention and offer the diversity of the AI extent required. The PR practitioners and brand communicators need to develop a sufficient understanding of AI's present & future potential.
Hope the post helps you understand the impact of AI in the PR realm.