Generative AI is being given ever increasing amounts of space in PR and marketing trade media and social channels. Personally, in terms of the comms world, I find it exciting, overwhelming and a bit scary, but it can also be fun!
What is clear is that we all need to immerse ourselves in it – every organisation is going to be impacted if not disrupted over the next five years to a greater or lesser extent. While some jobs, mainly junior and more repetitive ones, in our world, will be replaced, AI will also create new roles and will accelerate progress in a number of areas, not least evaluation.
According to a recent piece by Stephen Waddington, who has been at the forefront of championing AI in PR, less than one fifth of PR practitioners have upskilled appropriately to date.
Some stats and facts
A recent survey in the Press Gazette reported that half of newsrooms are working with generative AI – which is not surprising given its capacity for research. While this is to be expected, there is concern that commodity, low-cost news sources could churn out vast volumes of drivel!
The Drum ran a very interesting piece on the AI burger battle between McDonald’s and Burger King last month, which was then gate-crashed by Subway. All very amusing for those in marketing and comms but the ads didn’t actually perform particularly well with consumers.
The McDonald’s/Burger King ad
A recent survey in PRWeek suggests that 57 per cent of agencies are already using this advanced technology in some capacity – mainly for assistive purposes, rather than a comprehensive solution for creativity. Of the 28 top-level PR agency creatives who took part, 79 per cent say they think AI tools are useful for their job. The majority (68 per cent) see the technology as only slightly useful for now, but a few (11 per cent) think it’s very useful.
Going back to my thoughts on AI as exciting, scary and overwhelming, here’s my take as a non-techy comms ‘veteran’ who can remember using Tippex and Telex machines.
Exciting things about AI
- AI’s ability to access and distil research is amazing – and incredibly useful. It still needs interrogation in the same way that you might question the results of a single focus group, but the time-saving potential to ‘get a flavour’ for a particular topic, in seconds, is exciting.
- The potential to create generic images, video and mood boards.
- Text editing and summarising.
- Proof reading.
- Transcripts and meeting notes.
- Creating a basic text – for human editing and enhancing.
- Translation – and experimenting with different languages. For outputs, we are probably always going to rely on native speakers for a final sense-check, but for some purposes, AI is enough.
Scary things about AI
- AI’s lack of references could lead to extreme cases of disinformation being taken as the truth. Let alone the scope for bias, breach of copyright and privacy.
- Many commentators like Dame Wendy Hall talk about the naïve assumption that AI will be used for good. In an interview on Sky News with Beth Rigby last month she talked about AI as a threat to our democracy.
- The current lack of regulation and scope for ‘bad AI’ is certainly scary but there is reassurance, hopefully, on its way…with the UK Government and EU planning for legislation. There are also initiatives like the AI Accountability Act from WPP-owned agency Ogilvy, calling for policy change that asks PR agencies, the advertising sector and social media platforms to mandate disclosure about the use of AI-generated influencers, using the hashtag #poweredbyAI, for example. Thanks to Wadds Inc for recently sharing the PR Council’s progress in this area which covers issues related to accuracy, bias, diversity, and Read more.
- While generative AI’s limitations around content creation are currently obvious, it’s a frightening prospect that one day AI could mimic human emotions, intuition and thought processes.
Overwhelming things about AI
- It is somewhat addictive.
- The speed.
- The scale of it – and that’s in 2023.
In conclusion, just like the world wide web transformed the ways in which we communicated, researched and accessed information, AI provides a useful tool for pulling together information into one place, saving an enormous amount of time and resource. We should embrace it, but don’t become over reliant on its seductive powers. The human touch is still very much required to provide personality and authenticity. Going down the AI rabbit hole, could result in comms being bland, boring and unauthentic, turning audiences off.
Good PR and effective comms is so much more than generative AI content. Why not get in touch at twist@limegreencommunications.com and find out more?
