AI in PR: Automating Repetitive Tasks Without Losing the Human Touch

In the ever-evolving landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is critical that Public Relations (PR) professionals leverage the transformative technology to automate repetitive tasks and create robust strategies that resonate with clients and their target audiences.

 Sounds familiar right?

While AI can truly be a transformative tool for PR professionals, without the human touch, it can create content that feels repetitive and inauthentic – something a professional communicator should always seek to avoid.

According to Muck Rack’s latest State of AI in PR report, the amount of PR pros who reported using GenAI tools has doubled compared to March 2023. Almost two years into the widespread use of GenAI tools, it’s becoming undeniable that PR professionals will need to learn how to use these tools effectively or get left behind.

AI Can Help PR Pros Automate Repetitive Tasks

 Muck Rack’s survey revealed that 64% of respondents use AI to write social copy, 58% use AI for research as well as writing press releases, 54% use AI to craft pitches, and 43% of PR pros use AI for strategy and planning. While AI can automate many tasks, some still require more of the human touch than others.

For instance, GenAI can identify media targets for specific niches and outlets with a simple prompt such as, “Identify five journalists in the United States that report on [beat] and have written within the last three months.”

Additionally, GenAI can help make pitches more concise and tailored to specific journalists. By training the model on a reporter’s recent articles and beat, it can help you craft a more personalized and relevant pitch. It can also tighten up content to ensure pitches quickly get to the point in a busy reporter’s inbox. 

GenAI also speeds up more writing-intensive tasks like drafting commentary or bylines. Training a model on a spokesperson’s voice using pre-approved content ensures consistency with their writing style.

Where AI Falls Short

 Slightly past the two-year anniversary of ChatGPT and the rise of GenAI tools, certain phrases such as “robust,” “delve into,” “navigate the landscape,” “ever-evolving,” and “transformative” have become more common in written content. According to the undetectable AI blog, this is because AI uses an algorithmic approach that leads AI to favor words that appear most frequently in training data, authoritative and neutral phrases, and clear but not necessarily creative vocabulary. The repetitiveness of these phrases can make content feel machine-generated.

Another challenge with GenAI is hallucinations. IBM describes AI hallucinations as a “phenomenon wherein a large language model (LLM)—often a generative AI chatbot or computer vision tool—perceives patterns or objects that are nonexistent or imperceptible to human observers, creating outputs that are nonsensical or altogether inaccurate.” This is why the human touch is necessary to fact-check AI-generated content and ensure accuracy when using these tools to automate tasks.

How To Retain the Human Touch

AI still has many limitations and cannot yet handle entire tasks independently. Here are a few tips for using GenAI to streamline repetitive tasks while retaining the human touch: 

1. Have a Starting Point: Due to GenAI’s tendency to hallucinate, always refer back to previous blogs, client messaging, or call notes. Never trust the content exclusively drafted by the model without verification. It’s better to brain-dump your ideas first and then use AI to refine them. 
2. Identify Common AI Words: GenAI often uses specific words and phrases, making its use obvious. After receiving an output, check for these common words and edit as needed to ensure the content reads more naturally.
3. Fact Check: Since AI can hallucinate, always fact-check any information it provides. This is crucial especially when using the tool to find specific stats or facts. Verify the source links provided before using them as proof points.

 While AI offers immense potential for automating repetitive tasks in PR, it is essential to maintain the human touch so that content remains authentic and engaging. By leveraging AI tools effectively and combining them with human creativity and oversight, PR professionals can enhance their strategies and deliver impactful results.

If you’re looking to collaborate with an award-winning PR agency that stays ahead of the curve in leveraging AI, please contact Touchdown PR here. Let’s work together to create PR strategies that reflect the true essence of communication: human connection and authenticity.