This month in PR (December 2024)

Public Relations in the Age of Intelligence

Two research reports published this month, one from the US and the other from the UK, provide plenty of insights into the application of artificial intelligence for public relations, corporate communication and reputation management. Here are some highlights.

AI Activated

The Relevance Report from USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations

There is overwhelming agreement that AI is important to PR work, so where is it being used?

Content creation is the most common application ahead of data analysis and background research. It is being used least for measuring PR’s impact.

This leads to a key question: what is the core value provided by the PR practitioner in this age of artificial intelligence?

According to Microsoft chief communications officer Frank Shaw, ‘Our value is embedded in our humanity, our understanding of emotion and story and relationships, the interplay among all these things.’

Experian is using Custom GPTs to support enhanced and faster stakeholder communication.

‘In an era of heightened misinformation and disinformation, the ability to act quickly to provide accurate and timely information to stakeholders is paramount. Our Stakeholder Communications Management GPT equips our team with the tools to develop first drafts of thoughtful, timely responses in less time than ever before. This engine works off our approved positions and company information to allow quick access and development of messages.’

IBM’s Jonathan Adashek makes the distinction between consumer and enterprise applications of AI:

‘Consumer AI refers to the AI technologies that are designed to serve individual consumers. By now, we all know them well — virtual assistants like Siri, personalized shopping recommendations when you are scrolling, and countless others. I see these applications as the “face” of AI for the average consumer. However, they represent only a small fraction of the total AI landscape.

‘Enterprise AI, on the other hand, refers to the AI technologies that are designed to support business operations and decision making — think supply chain optimization, customer service chatbots, digital assistants, and beyond. Enterprise AI is often invisible to the end-user, yet it has a profound impact on the efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness of organizations. It is the “engine” that powers the majority of AI applications, and is what enables businesses to make data-driven decisions and stay dahead of the curve.’

You can download the latest Relevance Report here.

A Hard Numbers report into Reputation and AI investigates what is driving reputation in the Age of AI and how this is impacting brands and businesses.

‘Editorial media still dominates reputation’

A key finding of the study is the continuing importance of the major media, since media reports inform AI’s responses. Therefore, those with strong media relations and strong SEO through optimised on-site content will achieve good results in AI which is encouraging for those with traditional and digital PR skills. ‘What we are seeing is a reaffirmation that traditional media remains at the core of shaping how consumers see brands, regardless of the platform.’

It’s not just a reaffirmation of the importance of earned media. Owned media is also important in informing AI. ‘LLMs seem to take brand-generated content at face value. Is the lack of strong opinions or critique provided by AI allowing brands to escape the kind of scrutiny they are used to facing from human journalists?’ ask the report’s authors.

Here’s one implication of this.

Indeed, Lenovo’s Charlotte West is quoted saying: “We now treat LLMs as stakeholders, like journalists or political audiences.”

You can download the Hard Numbers report here.

Here are some further editor’s picks from this month’s content.

Profession

Consulting, teams and skills

• Paul Holmes: Edelman Lays Off 330 As It “Simplifies” Structure For Greater Integration (4 December)
  ‘Edelman is laying off 330 people—a little more than 5% of its global workforce, in a restructuring that CEO Richard Edelman is presenting as a “simplification” of the firm’s business model.’

Planning, research and evaluation

• Gini Dietrich: Taking Measurement a Step Further In 2025 (12 December)
  ‘This isn’t just about tracking numbers—it’s about survival and growth in an increasingly data-driven business world. One, by the way, that marketing and advertising have figured out, leaving us in the dust. When 61% of us struggle to link PR metrics to business goals, we’re not just failing to prove our worth; we’re missing opportunities to improve our strategies and grow our effectiveness.’

Reputation, risk and crisis

• Amanda Coleman: Eight lessons PRs can learn from the crises of 2024 (13 December)
  ‘Where the truth lies is going to become significant in 2025 with the new Duty of Candour legislation for the public sector anticipated to be in place by April.’
• Mark Borkowski: As a PR man, I look at Gregg Wallace and see an ego gone rogue – and a strategy only Trump would endorse (2 December)
  ‘From a PR standpoint Wallace has served up a textbook example of what not to do: a misjudged mess of ego, tone deafness and a remarkable failure to adapt to the world after #MeToo.’

Internal communication

• Jenni Field: How to get employee engagement and recognition right (12 December)
  ‘Don’t be tone-deaf and launch schemes to try to cover over times of difficulty and change. Nobody likes mandatory fun.’
• Rachel Miller: Why relevancy matters in 2025 and beyond (12 December)
  ‘Relevancy means diving deeper than “what’s in it for me?” Done well, it requires a mindset shift.’

Media, digital and AI

• Tom Flynn: Australia goes to war with Silicon Valley (again) (5 December)
  ‘This is not just a story about Australia – it has the potential to impact access to social media in the UK, the EU, North America and across the world. All eyes on Canberra as this plays out over the next 12 months.’
• Neville Hobson: How to Edit Wikipedia the Right Way: Insights for Communicators (4 December)
  ‘These factors — policy complexity, lingering mistrust, and the unique dynamics of Wikipedia’s volunteer ecosystem — create a steep learning curve for communicators. However, understanding and respecting these elements is essential for building trust and achieving success on the platform.’

Academic, education and training

This year in numbers

Inclusion in This month in PR is based on one person’s subjective opinion. It’s qualitative data.

Yet from January to the end of July 2024 this was a regular weekly feature, generating a mass of quantitative data.

So here’s a league table ranking of who appeared most frequently in the first half of the year. The list is dominated by trade journalists (eg Ben Smith of PR Moment, Maja Pawinska Sims of PRovoke Media) and professional associations (CIPR, PRCA) so it’s an impressive achievements for individuals – led by Dan Slee – to make it into this list.