It’s no secret that artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly changing the PR profession. Whether you’re just starting your career or have been in the industry for decades, there’s a growing expectation that you are leveraging various AI tools to help you with your every day work.
But with all the excitement around AI comes some uncertainty. Will it make our work less creative? Can we trust the information it gives us? How will it continue to evolve? And what does it mean for an industry built on relationships, creativity, and trust?
Below are a couple of things that we know right now about AI in PR. While no tool is 100% perfect, AI has the potential to make us better at what we do best.
More time for the work that matters
PR pros wear a lot of hats. On any given day, we’re monitoring news, writing content, researching reporters, brainstorming campaigns, preparing spokespeople, and managing client communications (sometimes that’s all before lunch).
AI can help take some of the more time-consuming tasks off our plates like summarizing a call, organizing information, or sharing research. These AI-generated summaries can allow more time for using AI as a brainstorming partner and for higher level thinking.
DARE: I dare you to ask AI to challenge your thinking, explore a different perspective, or come up with something you haven’t considered. Will it give you the perfect idea? Probably not. But it might spark the thinking that gets you there.
Making sense of information overload
Keeping up with the news is literally a full-time job in PR. Just when you think you’re caught up, another breaking news story hits. Between articles, industry reports, research, and everything else competing for our attention, there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to read it all.
That’s where AI can help bring together information from multiple sources, summarize lengthy reports, and make it easier to get up to speed on unfamiliar topics. Instead of spending hours sorting through information, we can spend more time thinking about what it means and how to use it.
TRUTH: Getting information faster doesn’t automatically mean understanding it better. We still need to dig into the details, question what we’re reading, and apply our own expertise to make sense of it all.
The way people find stories is changing
AI is changing how we work behind the scenes and how audiences discover the stories we work so hard to tell.
Rather than scrolling through pages of search engine results, more people are asking AI a question and getting an answer that may pull from news coverage, websites, and other published sources.
TRUTH: This has changed the power of earned coverage for clients and the speed at which we gather information internally.
Did you know that earned coverage now drives 84% of AI citations? There’s no guarantee an article will appear in an AI response, but it adds another layer to how we think about visibility and reinforces the importance of credible coverage, clear messaging, and getting our clients into the conversations that matter.
And guess what! 82% of journalists use at least one AI tool in their workflow. Think about what that means for the next pitch you send: A reporter can use AI to quickly get up to speed on a topic, explore what’s already been covered, and see how your angle fits into the bigger picture. If your pitch is telling them something they can find in a matter of seconds, why would they be interested?
DARE: Before you send your next pitch, run the angle through an AI tool. See what information is already out there, what’s missing, and where you can bring something new to the conversation. The goal is to pitch the gap and give reporters something they don’t already have.
Use your brain
One of the most valuable things we bring to the table as PR professionals is our knowledge of our clients and the industries they operate in. That kind of knowledge takes time to build. It comes from reading, asking questions, following industry conversations, and building relationships. AI can help us get up to speed faster and bring together information we might not have found on our own, but the real value comes from knowing what to do with it.
TRUTH: AI doesn’t know the conversations happening behind the scenes with your clients, the nuances of their industries, or the relationships you’ve spent years building with reporters. That’s where our experience and critical thinking come in. Recognizing what’s missing, connecting ideas, challenging an answer, and developing our own point of view are what make us better communicators.
And (this goes without saying but I’m going to say it anyway) using AI responsibly is just as important. Fact-check information, verify sources, protect confidential client details, and follow your organization’s AI policies.
Stay curious, keep learning
If there’s one thing I’ve learned working in PR, it’s that our industry never stands still.
Think about how much has changed over the past decade. Social media transformed how brands communicate. Influencers opened up entirely new ways to reach audiences. And the media landscape today looks different than it did even a few years ago. AI is another big shift, and it’s happening fast.
That doesn’t mean you need to become an AI expert overnight or try every new tool that launches. Start small. Find something that takes up too much of your day and see if AI can help.
DARE: Start a conversation! Talk to your colleagues about what’s working, share what you’ve learned, and don’t be afraid to experiment. Some things will work better than others, and that’s part of figuring it out.
The important thing is to stay curious and be willing to adapt. After all, that’s something we’ve always had to do in PR.
PR is still about people
For all the ways AI is changing our industry, the qualities that make someone great at PR haven’t changed. The best communicators are curious, creative, and thoughtful. They know how to build relationships, ask the right questions, find a compelling story, and understand what makes people care.
AI gives us another way to sharpen those skills and create more room for the work that makes PR exciting in the first place.
So, use it and experiment with it. As our industry evolves, the people who embrace change and bring their own creativity to the table will be the ones who help shape what comes next.
This blog was written by Kathryn O’Neil, Vice President / President-Elect, PR Club