5 ways PR pros want to use AI in the future

ACCESSWIRE and PR Daily partnered to find out how PR professionals are currently thinking about AI — whether they use it, what they want to apply it to, what they’re excited about and what they’re afraid might happen. The result is our latest report, “The Future of AI in PR.” 

The insights in this report can help guide the development of tools and the way they’re shared and implemented, both within organizations and the wider world.  

Here’s a look at some of the takeaways from the report. 

Of the more than 200 responses to the survey, 64% had not yet incorporated AI tools into their workstreams, while 36% had. We asked PR pros what they hope to use AI for in the future and where they can see it creating efficiencies. 

Seventy-one percent hope that AI will assist in content generation. This stat will likely come as no surprise given the ubiquity and rise of chatbots that can write copy in a flash and image-generation tools. The majority of respondents who are currently using AI said that they are using it for content generation, but they find that the work AI tools produce still needs a heavy edit. They hope that this will improve in the future so the tools can be used for, “social media post tweaking, generating basic surveys, creating talking points, help with FAQ documents, and helping to turn drafts into better content.” 

• 59% seek predictive analytics for PR planning. Conclusions around cost-benefit, budgeting and product launches may be more precise and comprehensive with mass data analysis. 

• 42% want to use AI for automated media sentiment analysis. Although many social listening tools use AI for this purpose, they can be pricey. In the future, developments in AI may enable organizations to bring this in-house. 

• 29% want AI to help maximize crisis management systems. Perhaps influenced by the past year, marked by brand backlash and social media platform upheaval, AI has the potential to more quickly analyze sentiment and develop frameworks and response plans. This priority may also have a content-generation angle: “If a company is going through a small media crisis, AI could be used to quickly create the content that is time sensitive to the crisis,” one respondent said. 

• 29% look forward to the use of more chatbots for customer engagement. Although this technology has been around for quite some time, chatbots have historically not been able to solve or meet all customer needs; more advanced conversational data emerging from new AI tools is poised to ultimately expand the capabilities of automated customer service and interaction. 

There’s far more to be found the report from Ragan and Accesswire, including PR pros’ concerns and fears — notably the “loss of personal touch in communication” — as well as their thoughts on challenges they are currently facing with the technology, factors they believe will lead to success, and their overall outlook on AI.  

One thing is certain: AI is part of the future of PR. “AI is going to be an integral part of the PR/Comms profession going forward,” one respondent said. “Practitioners who don’t adapt will be left behind.” 

Read on in the full report from PR Daily and ACCESSWIRE.