By Laura Emerton, Intern

In today’s fast-paced world, AI (artificial intelligence) stands as a rapidly growing industry, making profound strides in all sectors. Presently, an estimated 432,000 UK organizations have integrated at least one AI technology, a number anticipated to increase to 1.3 million businesses by 2040; and PR is no exception. Currently, about 40% of PR work is either performed by AI or at the very least, supported by it[1]. After delving into the  ‘AI and Property PR’ webinar by Property 4 Media, we’ve gathered the key takeaways.

Will AI replace our jobs?

The main question on a lot of people’s minds is: Will AI take my job?

­To answer this, Henry Hemming, the CEO of Property 4 Media, commented: “AI will not take your job, but a human who knows how to use it will.”

Acquiring proficiency in AI could revolutionize PR practices, significantly amplifying the speed of task completion and the number of tasks achievable in a day – which on many days of the year would be an excellent bonus!

However, AI can write some pretty awful and inaccurate press releases, and its ability to read the room and understand emotion is never the same as a human. Research shows becoming over reliant on AI will reduce the quality and output of your content, as well as diminishing your own skill and judgement.

Harvard researcher, Fabrizio Dell’Acqua described this as “falling asleep at the wheel”, explaining, those that use AI tend to “switch off their brains” and “outsource their judgement to AI.”

Instead, AI should be used as a guide, prompt and a different perspective. The optimal approach involves leveraging technology as a guide and different perspective, harmonizing AI capabilities with human judgment and expertise. At The Oracle Group we are taking a proactive approach to AI by learning as much as possible to best harness AI’s potential, while maintaining our professional judgement and knowledge.

How to get the most out of AI

To harness the maximum potential of AI in PR, crafting effective prompts is crucial. Providing specific and structured briefs to the program reduces misunderstandings and irrelevant responses. Clarity in the task’s context, role, audience, format, and other essential details significantly refine AI-generated responses. By ‘role’, what is meant is, do you want AI to take on the role of an expert press release scribe in the property sector?  If you’re asking the AI to generate content or provide insights, consider the background, recent trends, audience preferences, or any specific parameters that might impact the task’s outcome. Contributing factors such as ethical issues or unique selling points are also useful to include as AI may not be aware of these factors. Mastering the art of prompting is pivotal in integrating AI effectively into PR strategies.

AI and data analysis

AI offers boundless opportunities in data analysis, particularly in predictive capabilities. For PR, these predictive abilities can anticipate topics likely to gain traction and coverage. Moreover, AI serves as a valuable asset in crisis communications by predicting potential reactions, sentiments, and outcomes. So, potentially you can use AI to predict, or even mimic potential reactions before you publish.
In the social media space, you can use AI to generate listening, hashtags, sentiment scanning and trends, and this could help you understand what would be most successful and popular on social media. You can ask AI questions such as: “Will this caption be the most successful?” or “What would drive the most engagement?”. Then, instead of using a social media post direct from AI, it can be used as an informative tool to understand what the best option may be.

Incorporating data analytics tools like the Advanced Data Analysis plugin on the paid version of Chat GPT, can help PR professionals to quickly analyse. For instance, inputting data on house prices. Integrating data analytics tools like the Advanced Data Analysis plugin enables PR professionals to swiftly analyse vast quantities of data, extracting journalist-specific insights and trends for creating compelling stories.

By making the prompt more detailed, by asking about specific journalists AI performs even better. For example, give the AI the last 20 articles a journalist has written, or a brief background on the journalist, and ask the tool if there is anything this specific journalist may find interesting. You will then be provided with a much more targeted response to build a story. Now a process that would typically have taken hours or days has been condensed to just a few minutes.

For those who use Google Sheets, if you have a spreadsheet with media coverage with URLs, you can install free add-on, GPT for Sheets. You can then ask it to read and analyse the coverage for sentiment and circulation figures.

Embracing the future of AI

The future of AI is undeniably transformative, and if your business is not using AI, you are probably missing out on enormous capabilities which could enhance efficiency within your business.

At TheOracle Group we’re ready to ride the AI wave while keeping our unique human touch intact. AI is proving to be a trusty sidekick, not the superhero.

NOTE:

We have a professional and legal obligation to declare that we have used AI, we wanted to let you know, this blog has been edited by AI.