AI is Not Coming for Your PR

November 28, 2024

Call me a contrarian, but I’m not worried about AI taking away my business as a publicist. I’d like to give a few real life examples in my business that give me confidence in my irreplaceability (I know I’m jinxing myself just by saying that):

  1. AI is flooding writers/journalists inbox with “spray and pray” auto-generated pitches. They’re garbage and they are going to ruin it for everybody. Now is the time for real people writing and pitching to real people. While I subscribe to Muck Rack for its PR research tools, I am shocked that they give you the option of having an AI-written release generated that goes out to an AI-generated list. Pink Slime websites and AI-generated pitches represent robots writing for robots. My media contacts reach out to me and/or respond to me because I give them targeted pitches and news they can use. Take that robots.
  2. I add value. I call ChatGPT my entry-level assistant or talented intern. I ask it to create outlines or reduce word count or tweak tone. It can’t reach into my brain and know who to call in the local community or replicate my working relationships which I tap every day on behalf of my clients.
  3. I’m accurate. AI can only “write” about what it has been trained on. There is nothing new under the sun. Here’s an example – a local restaurant just closed. But they’ve been in business 12 years. I’ve seen this in other cases. The 12 years of content out there about that restaurant will override that one last Facebook post that said “we’re closing – bye!” Boots on the ground beat a robot scrubbing Wikipedia. And if I do use AI, you know I’m fact checking EVERYTHING.
  4. I’ve got a voice. OK, OK, I admit it. Sometimes when I’m in a jam for time, I’ll use ChatGPT to get started. And I can give you several instances where a client stated “this just doesn’t sound like you.” Can I “train” my Chatbot to sound like me? Probably, but personally, I like to write, and oftentimes things pop into my head, new thoughts that I bring to the table. My clients are buying my sense of humor, my know-how and my writing style.
  5. I use intuition. When it comes to public relations, I absolutely have a nose for news and what is catchy and will take off. I was at a client business last summer and an employee used a phrase I had never heard before about a service they had. I wrote it down. It was amazing! The client had never actively pitched this particular offering. But I made it the centerpiece of a winter campaign that has taken off. I don’t know if it was the alliteration of the name, the compelling photo, the timing of the pitch or the media relations I’ve nurtured over 30 years. All I know is – robot ain’t got that.

By all means, keep ChatGPT, or Microsoft CoPilot, or whatever robot you want on your desktop. It may help you fill out a form, get started on a project or meet a deadline. But leave public relations to the experts. It is an art and a science that is hard to replicate.