Mastering the Future: How to Effectively Use AI in PR Campaigns

July 26, 2023
5 months ago

Are you overwhelmed by the rapid tech advancements in AI? Have questions about using AI in PR? You’re not alone!

The PR world is rapidly changing… and AI is pushing the boundaries.

Mastering these new tools can be tricky, but don’t worry, we’ve got your back. In this article, we’ll demystify how to pr pros and pr agencies are effectively harnessing Artificial Intelligence for campaigns.

We’ll cover the benefits of using AI in PR and how it can streamline your work process – saving you both time and resources. By the end of this read, you’ll have a clear understanding of what AI can bring to your PR strategy. So why wait? Let’s dive into the world of artificial intelligence and explore how it is revolutionizing Public Relations!

Understanding AI: The Basics

AI has been around in various components for many years. You use it when you do a Google search. When you play a playlist on Spotify. When you ask Siri or Cortana for insights. It’s making things easier, faster, and more personalized for your experience.

The idea is to use a lot of data to create machines that mimic human intelligence. We’re breaking down AI for beginners here, so think of it as a way for computers to learn, reason, and make decisions. 

It’s not just about following a set of instructions. It’s about learning from experiences, adapting to new inputs, and performing tasks that usually require human intelligence or thinking to fully understand. 

This is the goal and direction of artificial intelligence to date. 

Artificial intelligence broken down into natural language processing

AI works in two main ways – Machine Learning and Deep Learning.

Machine Learning is when computers learn from data without being explicitly programmed. A computer program for example, like a song list on a streaming app, will learn when you give it a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down”. It will automatically adjust the next song for you, and learn your patterns – without having a human program it. 

Deep Learning, on the other hand, is a subset of Machine Learning. It uses neural networks to learn from vast amounts of data. Sounds complex, but in essence, it’s used as a way to help predict what will happen next (based on a LOT of previous data, and the previous input you give it. 

If you give it the data “Hi” – based on a lot of information, emails, letters, articles, and sales copy, it will predict that the next word in that sentence would be your name, or “there”. The AI would output “Hi there” or “Hi YourName”. 

It’s a tool that learns from data and uses it to make predictions or decisions. It’s about patterns and algorithms, not intuition or gut feelings.

These are very simplified examples, but it helps frame the picture of how AI works.

AI implementation in various industries

As you can imagine, it isn’t just for tech companies. It’s used across various industries, from healthcare to finance, and even in the world of PR – as you’ll see with tools like Press Jockey. It helps business leaders like yourself make better decisions, improve customer experiences, and increase efficiency.

Think about how Netflix suggests shows you might like. That’s AI. Or how your email filters out spam? Again, AI. It’s also used in complex tasks like detecting fraud in banking, diagnosing diseases in healthcare, and predicting customer behavior in marketing.

But how does it all work in PR? And what are the potential applications?

The intersection of AI tools and public relations

We’re seeing a revolution, with AI-driven PR solutions becoming more common. But what does that look like in practice?

We’ve got to remember that it’s a predictive model. AI takes large amounts of information (think articles written across dozens of industries, millions of emails, millions of books) – and looks at patterns. These patterns can be applied to many different aspects of PR, giving you insights and ideas that you might not have thought of before.

Here are a few examples of applications. 

Ways AI is impacting writing tools and PR content creation

  1. Content creation: AI can help you create engaging content that resonates with your audience. It can also optimize your content for SEO, helping you reach a wider audience.
  2. Content ideation: Successful PR pros use it to help them create ideas for campaigns, ask it questions around campaigns, or more
  3. Content outlines: Want to create an outline for a press release? Blog post or article? AI and tools like Chatgpt can help you build your outlines for PR content and more.
  4. Press release outlines: Looking to create a specific outline about a press release? You can do that with ai-generated content based on your communication with AI.
  5. Press release writing: Why not take it a step further? Feed a tool like Chatgpt with your audience details, information, and your outline – and it will write the entire thing for you. You’ll have to put a bit of human polish on it, but the results can save you a ton of time.

But you can also use AI technology for corporate communications, assessing public sentiment, and ensuring you keep a pulse on the media mentions that your brand is receiving. AI can monitor online conversations in real time, helping you identify and respond to potential crises before they escalate.

It’s really a powerful tool that will help PR professionals in the public relations industry.

The impact of AI in public relations

AI is not just about data analysis or content creation. It’s also about automation. AI tools are now being used to automate tedious tasks, such as media monitoring and press release distribution. This frees up time for PR professionals to focus on more strategic tasks.

At Press Jockey for example, you can use our AI powered tool to monitor the inbound expert and PR requests that you get. If you’ve got an account on the major platforms that help reporters out with expert requests, Qwoted, or Source Bottle for example, you’ve probably found that monitoring and filtering through the 1,000s of expert requests each week is tedious. 

Press Jockey will automate that work for you. Helping you get matches with only the best results. 

You can then take it a step further, using AI powered responses to manually respond to great matches, or using AI-generated responses with the AI PR Pro tool to streamline your workflow completely – sending pitches automatically on your behalf. 

Use of AI in the PR Industry

The impact of AI on the PR industry is clear. AI is here to stay. Adopting ai in to help augment your human expertise in PR, or utilizing ai tools can help you harness this technology and streamline your work.

In the next section, we’ll delve deeper into the benefits of using AI in PR. We’ll explore how AI can help you boost efficiency, improve targeting, and even save costs. So, stay tuned!

Potential Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

AI is like a new frontier, full of promise but also fraught with challenges. Let’s dive into some of the common pitfalls and how to steer clear of them for a smooth AI integration in your PR strategy.

AI Risks in PR

We’ve got to remember that generative AI and current AI tools create based on predictions. This doesn’t mean they’re right. This means that based on the data they’ve been fed (and you might not know what data that is) they’ll predict what it thinks is the most likely next output. 

AI can get it wrong. 

Sometimes, the outcomes can be very wrong. 

It’s important to keep in mind that you will often need a human element to what you’re doing. You’ll need to review and adjust what the AI tools create. 

Another pitfall is the misuse of PR tools. It’s easy to get carried away with all the fancy features. But remember, AI is a tool, not a magic wand. Use it wisely to enhance, not replace, your PR process.

AI implementation hurdles are common, especially when you’re new to it. But don’t let these challenges deter you. With patience and the right resources, you can overcome these hurdles and optimize your PR process.

Optimize your prompts with prompt engineering

Another potential risk to using AI in your PR process is not investing enough time in the prompts you give it. Here at Press Jockey we spend hundreds of hours optimizing prompts, making adjustments weekly, and constantly improving our AI – so you’ll constantly see great updates. 

But if you’re using it on your own, you’ll want to make sure you spend a bit of time learning how to prompt it to create great output. 

Tools like ChatGPT require great prompts (also called prompt engineering) so do spend some time learning this.

Looking Ahead: The Future of AI in PR

As we move forward, the role of AI in PR is set to become more profound, with emerging trends and potential developments promising to revolutionize the sector. Staying ahead of the curve, therefore, becomes increasingly crucial.

AI technology is evolving at a rapid pace, with new applications being discovered regularly. In the PR sector, AI is expected to enhance productivity, accuracy, and efficiency across the industry. We’re likely going to see:

  • Advanced data analysis: AI can sift through vast amounts of data to identify patterns and trends, providing valuable insights for PR strategies.
  • Personalized content: AI algorithms can tailor content to individual preferences, improving engagement and response rates.
  • Real-time tracking: AI can monitor media platforms in real-time, allowing PR professionals to respond swiftly to developments.

And we’re already seeing huge productivity gains in terms of managing the PR process with tools like Press Jockey.

Staying Ahead of the Curve with Press Jockey

In this evolving landscape, it’s essential to leverage the right tools to stay competitive.

One such tool is Press Jockey, an AI-powered platform designed to automate and streamline your inbound PR processes. By connecting to your email, Press Jockey monitors multiple platforms and filters expert requests, saving you the stress and time of manual sorting.

Beyond sorting, the AI assistant from Press Jockey helps you craft compelling pitches that get results. This not only enhances productivity but also increases your chances of seizing more press opportunities.

And you can take it even further.

With semi-automated, or fully-automated pitching, you can have your own AI PR Pro reply to expert requests on your behalf.

The future of AI in PR is here, and it’s time to embrace it.

By leveraging platforms like Press Jockey, PR professionals can stay ahead of the curve, maximizing efficiency and results. So why not give Press Jockey a try and experience the future of PR today?