‘AI will definitely make us do our things better’

The first panel session at the 13th edition of e4m IPRCCC and IPRCCA was on the topic “New Era of AI in PR: How it is challenging conventional methods and reshaping modern ones”. The speakers deliberated on various talking points, some of them being related to role of AI in making PR strategies, relevance of traditional PR methods in today’s time, challenges and more.

The panelists comprised Suvir Paul, executive vice president, RF Thunder; Bhavna Singh, vice president - corporate communications, Bharat Serums and Vaccines Limited; Ravpreet Ganesh, chief integration officer, The Mavericks; Pradeep Wadhwa, Founder and Principal, Kritical Edge Consulting Pvt. Ltd. and Shailesh Goyal, director, Simulations Public Affairs Management Services Pvt. Ltd. The session was moderated by Ruchika Jha, exchange4media. 

Jha opened the session by requesting the panel to share their views on the role of AI in the public relations industry. To this, Goyal said, “The ChatGPT and likes are helping the communications industry to bring in acceleration. They also bring accuracy and a lot of efficiency probably in the routine and mundane work we do. But what’s missing is the emotions and ethics, which I believe, nobody will be able to duplicate and this is where the major challenge will lie. The human interface and human interaction, until it (AI) is able to read the emotions, won’t be a major challenge.”

“We are strong believers. I think PR can work with three Rs and for me, they are reputation, responsiveness and relationships and that’s what we were taught when we started off in this industry more than two decades back. Relationships are important with your stakeholders. We talk of AI and of course, technology only challenges us to be a better version of ourselves in our jobs as well and I think that’s what it is going to do but AI, after all, artificial intelligence and humans have what’s called emotional intelligence also. When it comes to health, while AI has positively impacted many areas including disease management and understanding more about research, will it replace communication skills that are basic? I don’t think it will replace but it will definitely augment and make us do our things better,” Singh added. 

Paul shared his views on the advent of ChatGPT and how the operations will be evolving for PR professionals. He explained, “Today, AI is no longer a blank sheet of paper. It is going to give you thought starters, points that you probably would not have thought of and structure to large amounts of information again that you perhaps would not think of. So, for people like us who are knowledge economy workers, this is going to be a change. Again, it is about adapting to it early to say how this is going to evolve.”

Moving ahead in the conversation, Wadhwa delved upon the relevance of traditional PR methods in today’s digital-first world where he commented, “We have to evolve with changing times. The relevance comes from the fact that where is my audience and what are they reading, doing and consuming, and therefore, am I actually reaching out to them in the language that the understand at the time tat they need and with the messages that will resonate with them. In a digital-first world, we are getting a much more distributed time. Today, we can reach out to micro-segments, we can gauge what is the intent of our target audience and test those messages much faster. AI will add a new layer of giving us better insights and therefore, it is incumbent upon us to be able to use it for reaching out with better messages and personalisation, and that is where the key lies.”

Concluding the session, Ganesh conveyed, “Fundamentally, the strength of our storytelling is the credibility, facts that we all check before we responsibly put a story out and the ability that the story has to take their organic life. So, as long as we mindfully use it and are mindful of all the challenges that something like this could potentially bring to table, I feel this can only help us to do our jobs better.”