As the first event of its kind in the PR industry, we were excited to attend the AI for PR Conference in London on 18 June. Hosted by Communicate Magazine, the conference celebrated the launch of Ben Verinder and Stephen Waddington’s AI for Public Relations book.
Bringing together leading voices, many of which contributed to the book, the sessions set out to unpack answers to the big questions we’re facing, covering topics including AI policies, governance and measurement and what earned media looks like in a world of AI-powered search.
We left with plenty to think about, a few practical challenges to take back to the team and a clearer sense of where the industry is heading next, albeit at a rapidly changing rate.
Here, we share some of our key takeaways from the day.
AI policies as living frameworks
One of the most talked about topics was AI policies. It was unanimous amongst every speaker that these should have people, rather than the tech itself at their core. A helpful way to think about this is to say; ‘a human gave AI this prompt and this is the outcome’ rather than ‘AI did this.’ After all, AI might be the tool, but it still needs human thought to get the right result.
Crucially, an AI policy should also be a document that, once drafted, is regularly reviewed rather than sitting somewhere gathering dust. It needs to be constantly evolving to account for the speed at which things are changing. Amy Mollett, Head of Social Media at Cambridge University and the author of one of, if not the first, publicly available AI policies in the UK, referred to it as a living behavioural framework, which brought this this sentiment to life for us.
Mollett also stressed how important it is that the job of drafting the policy isn’t given solely to the IT department. Its development should involve team members with different roles and responsibilities. This ensures that the guidance outlined in the policy is reflective of how the team wants to use AI, and also helps people understand, trust and follow it.
Team members need to feel involved in the process to be comfortable asking questions, be able to explore how to use AI and be free to have open conversations about it.
Using AI to be more human
Our favourite session was delivered by journalist Chris Stokel-Walker, who explored how AI is changing the relationship between PRs and journalists. Given the proliferation of the term ‘AI slop’, we were perhaps expecting him to share a negative viewpoint.
Instead, he shared that AI is already part of the media landscape, and the question is less about whether we should use it, but more about how well we use it. He also shared some of the ways he’s using AI to work more efficiently and productively.
Stokel-Walker explained that he has an AI agent set up to scan his inbox each morning to prioritise the emails he should read, based on criteria he has set. Admittedly, this initially felt quite deflating to hear – how can we expect to get a journalist’s attention when we’re up against an automated email gatekeeper? However, Chris has taken the time to train it, so rather than feeling disheartened at a computer rather than a human determining whether a story is a hit or not, he was keen to point out that the tool does in fact know him better than he knows himself! Not only does this demonstrate how effective AI can be when it learns from you, it also makes relevance and key words even more important, because a pitch now needs to work for both the journalist and the AI tools helping them manage their inbox.
He also acknowledged that many PRs are already using AI to help draft pitches, build media lists and speed up everyday tasks. As he pointed out, if a tool is available and can make our jobs easier, it makes sense to explore it. Where it becomes problematic is when AI is used to remove human thinking from the process altogether. For example, asking AI to create a media list, and send a pitch out to all the contacts without vetting them first is an absolute no-no. We were pleased to hear this, as building a solid list of media contacts and a compelling pitch that’s going to achieve strong coverage results for our clients is something that takes time to refine and review.
While stating that AI should never be used in isolation without a level of human intervention wouldn’t be classed as groundbreaking, Stokel-Walker shared a simple diagram showing the step-by-step approach to pitching a story which helped bring this this life in a very specific PR-focused way.
This felt like a real light bulb moment and something we were keen to share with the rest of the team:
Credit: Chris Stokel-Walker
Are we now marketing to machines?
This was a question explored by Jonny Brentwood, Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Golin Ketchum, whose resounding answer was ‘yes’. His talk focused on what AI means for how brands are found and understood online, highlighting that one of the biggest changes we’re seeing is how audiences are using AI tools to search for information.
While Google still remains the dominant search engine, more people are turning to AI tools for answers and recommendations. For brands and organisations, this means visibility is no longer just about appearing in traditional search results but being included in the sources that AI tools are likely to draw from. And that’s where earned coverage can come into its own, making PR’s role a crucial one as we see this trend only set to grow.
Admittedly, the idea of ‘marketing to machines’ can feel uncomfortable, and perhaps a little futuristic. However, Brentwood’s point was not that we should stop writing for people, as the end goal is still to reach human audiences, but to consider how AI is increasingly becoming part of the consumer journey.
Whilst lots of research suggests that LinkedIn and Reddit are common sources of AI citation, it’s clear that earned media is increasingly going to feed into AI-generated search. A welcome reminder from Brentwood that earned media still has its place, even in a world where AI is becoming omnipresent.
What’s next?
Overall, the conference helped give us greater focus and more confidence to embrace AI, while balancing it with the human PR skills, knowledge and experience that we have across our team. It’s clear that its role is only going to grow, so we’re looking forward to the opportunities it presents as a supporting tool as well as carefully navigating some of the challenges that come along with it.