‘PR professionals’ discretion and judgment doesn't go away with AI’

Held on Saturday, September 23, the exchange4media PR and Corp Comm 30 under 30 Awards were preceded by a summit on ‘How AI is Changing Communications & PR’ starting with a panel discussion around the topic ‘AI and future of work’ which examined the advent of AI and its disruption in workplace culture as well as its effects on PR and Communication. The session featured Jagruti Kirloskar Saxena, ANAROCK; Shubhreet Kaur, Hill and Knowlton; Deepti Karthik, Decision Pinnacle; and Rahul Kashyap, COO, PR Professionals, and was moderated by Tarunjeet Rattan, Nucleus PR.

Rattan began the discussion by acknowledging the increasingly pervasive nature of AI across multiple professions, geographies, and industries and asking the panel for their views on how AI was shaping the future of PR and Communication.

Saxena replied with a small story, saying, “Copying is an art and not everyone can do it well.” 

Taking off from the same point, Kaur noted, “AI's a tool and I do think it's a fast-evolving technology and it really has the potential to make teams more productive and aligned. But the discretion and the judgment of the PR professionals doesn't go away. So I think there's a huge potential for AI and public relations to go hand in hand because it can create a faster turnaround time if there's a crisis situation happening, you need some information very fast. What we would do on a Google search for two hours, AI can bring that probably in two minutes. But then how do we utilize that for personalization of communication? How do we use it to understand user behaviour?”

“At H&K, we use Brandwatch to understand data insights that are happening in the industry to understand consumers, but that personalization still comes from the PR professionals. And I think we can really efficiently use AI to maybe enhance the level of strategic thinking, creative content, brainstorming and spend more time on those aspects by automating some tasks by using AI,” added Kaur, to which Rattan riposted that this at least meant PR people’s jobs were secure.

On the other hand, Kartik said that her views were more from the other side of the table, in terms of having been on brand side and having interacted with PR professionals. “Some of the requests that go from us marketers to PR professionals are for authored articles, industry articles, and all of this at the end of the day requires a lot of research from the PR team to put this together. It also requires a lot of research on what is happening in global markets, and any thought leadership article that you're going to write is going to be more future looking than just finding out what is going to be on Google.”

“While you can build a straw man or a skeleton for an article, essentially what makes it worth the time of the reader is the practical experience, the fact that this is what I am going through here and now and these are the nuggets of my experiential wisdom ­­-- that is going help the reader and that is what makes it enjoyable and rich in terms of knowledge. So, I think there are a lot of AI tools for my friends in PR to use, but I definitely do think then an article will come to me. I will know if this is just done by AI or by my friend in PR because I know the signature,” said Kartik.

Rattan recounted speaking at a global platform earlier where a lot of agencies weren't overly concerned about transparency, confidentiality, and plagiarism. “Now, these have been a challenge in the current framework itself without AI, but with the free use of AI, how do you keep your sensitive business information and data breaches from happening? Like you mentioned, this is a gut feel that you had been going by, but that gut feel might not be developed by just about everybody.”

The panel went on to discuss the skills as well as the sensibilities that PR professionals needed to have as well as develop in a world being transformed by endless information flow, generated content and shifting norms.

Kashyap, while noting and appreciating e4m’s decision to have a women-led panel, just a day or two after the women's reservation bill was passed, said, “Whenever new technology comes into the picture, there are certain parameters and certain questions that we must ask. Is AI similar to the invention of the wheel? Is it that big a deal? Is it as good as the invention of the internet? Is it going to revolutionize or be an agent of transformation? And if it is an agent of transformation, will it be like the invention of fire or electricity? How will it change our lives? That is the fundamental question I think that we need to ask. Because we have been doing PR, we have been doing communication even when there was no technology.”

“Whatever the thing is, one that it is going to be transformative, but we also have to be the custodians of two things. One is ethics, which is a challenge that the leadership faces. Secondly, what is the kind of work culture that we are promoting? We know the right workers from the wrong ones. Ultimately AI is a tool for good work, for better governance, for better productivity, but it is a tool, it is an assistant. It cannot overwhelm the work culture that we wish to develop. Work culture is a leadership domain, it is a challenge before the leadership and the leadership must come into play. And that is to say it may be a big revolution. But that revolution, that direction of the river, needs to be guided by the leadership,” Kashyap, as PR leaders came together to agree that AI is a useful tool, which needs proper guidance to be used to the full.