AI and AR are the way forward: Aman Gupta, SPAG

As we step into 2022, e4m PR and Corp Comm presents the 'Year-ender story of 2021' series with the theme - 'The possibilities that the new year holds for PR agencies and the way ahead'. The series will encompass the views, opinions and thoughts of some of the leading names and veterans of PR and Corp Comm fraternity on how they perceive the New Year, the transitions they expect to see, and their vision for the future.

In this interview, Aman Gupta, Managing Partner, SPAG, talks about how the industry will make innovative use of technology, the advantages of the hybrid working system and ways in which organisations must prepare themselves for unprecedented emergencies like the pandemic.

Excerpts from the interview:

How important has the trend of personalised pitches become for the PR industry?

Every client wants to know if the agency understands them well or not. This is nothing new. It has, however, become a necessity now in the virtual world we live in. Personalised pitches help them gauge exactly how deep this understanding is. Moreover, with the change in formats of communication, there is a need to present personalised campaign ideas in order to reflect the communications thought.

Artificial Intelligence is the future - irrespective of industries. What are the ways AI can come to the aid of PR and Corp Communication professionals in 2022?

Tech is leading the way in all industries and for the communications industry, it is an enabler. It is important to use AI in every format we can. However, in PR, AI particularly helps with automating tasks as well as activating multiple channels of communication. It also helps simplify and process data, which can prove to be a big time-saver and productivity booster for the PR industry. AI and AR are the way ahead and it is something communications professionals must work around.

What are the trends the Indian PR and Corporate Communications industry can expect in 2022?

Technology-enabled communications – that is the way ahead and everything else is a subsidiary of that. COVID is here to stay and the world is navigating around the to and fro of restrictions. Thus, communications will largely remain online. This means that there will be a big opportunity for the innovative use of tech. One of these formats will be digital experiences. This will become a big part of the PR ecosystem. Moreover, content will be treated differently. Social media will continue to gain relevance but so will other digital forms of engagement. PR has already moved beyond only media, and this trend will escalate further with more communications professionals thinking out of the media box.

According to industry experts, environmental, social, and corporate governance would continue to grow. In what ways will socially-conscious initiatives continue to drive campaigns and outreach programmes in 2022?

Corporate sustainability is increasingly becoming crucial to the identity of organisations all across the world. The PR industry has to be cognizant of this shift and associate with clients that match this value system. More and more brands today want to be socially-conscious in every way. The pillars of corporate sustainability will be a defining factor in building campaigns in the future, though in this moment I feel the change has only just begun. This will take time.

How did you cope with the second wave of the pandemic? What were the challenges you had to overcome?

The second wave was unprecedented in many ways. It came at a time when everyone was looking at bouncing back to some form of normalcy. However, our approach to it was focussed on our employees. The second wave impacted almost everyone. We realised that in terms of work; there needed to be a sort of synchronised effort in the industry that supported people without affecting business continuity. To that effect, we brought our clients on board and helped ease the pressure on our employees dramatically. Moreover, a lot of resource generation was led by us and industry leaders to facilitate help to those in need at the time.

How have the young generation / new recruits adapted to the system of working remotely? What are your views on how successful the hybrid working model will be in the coming year?

A lot of Gen Zs have only seen work life from a remote location. The pandemic heavily disrupted the conventional flow of work life. However, it also led to a deep understanding of the resilient and flexible nature of us as humans. It is probably the older generations that might have taken a little while to adapt to remote working but for most late millennials and Gen Zs, remote working came naturally because they are a digitally-savvy generation, which is, in fact, leading this change. Nonetheless, the actual physical absence of meetings and chance encounters robs employees of experiences that are quite crucial to their professional life. The hybrid working system fixes that. It allows people the bandwidth to resume the conventional work life while also taking their time to adjust back.

The pandemic has been a trying time for all of us, especially on the psychological level. How should organisations prepare themselves for the next year?

Mental health has been prioritised more than ever by organisations over the last two years. That is here to stay. The mental health of employees directly impacts the output of the organisation. Moreover, with the current unpredictability we live in, it has become even more important for organisations to have contingency plans in place to ensure that their teams aren’t frequently disrupted from routine. That is the way to move forward at least in the near future.