Insights into the ‘exploring’ phase of AI maturity.
Roughly 75% of PR pros are using AI tools today, but many are using them without a clear strategy.
This places some teams in the earliest phase of AI maturity, said Samantha Stark, chief strategist and founder at Phyusion and advisor for Ragan’s Center for AI Strategy.
“We’re already seeing a lot of adoption, but it’s very light,” Stark said. “People are testing the tools, but they haven’t connected them to their workflows in a meaningful way yet.”
As a result, AI remains an add-on rather than a tool that reshapes daily work across communications teams.
When she speaks at AI Horizons Conference next month, Stark will break down the four stages of AI maturity: exploring, building, scaling and leading.
Understanding where you fall within these stages can help provide a clearer framework for what steps you need to take to improve your skillset, AI literacy and ultimately, your workflow.
In this article, we’ll delve into the Exploring phase: what it is, what it means and how to work towards the next level.
Defining the exploring stage
Teams at this stage are usually strong communicators with deep expertise in PR and marketing. They’re curious about AI and they may already be experimenting with some tools. But AI probably isn’t yet built into daily workflows, Stark said.
Maybe someone is using ChatGPT to brainstorm ideas, clean up copy or summarize notes. But AI use during this phase tends to be fairly simple, she said.
“You have a team that’s really great at what they do,” Stark said. “They’re curious and experimenting, but they’re not really building yet and don’t necessarily have the skills they’d need to go beyond that.”
If this is where you are, that’s completely fine. This is normal and not something to rush through, she said. One reason teams stall is because they try to do too much too fast. Leaders hear about custom GPTs, AI agents or synthetic audiences and assume that’s the bar, she said.
“That’s where teams actually fail,” Stark said. “They forget to do foundational work. Things like serving the team, measurements and upskilling people.”
Tackling one small task
Instead of trying to apply AI everywhere, Stark said to focus on one workflow your team already knows well.
“What’s one thing you’re consistently doing?” she said. “Break that one thing out and experiment with that one thing only.”
For many PR pros, a great starting point is writing on behalf of an executive.
“If you support a CEO and you’re writing internal articles, contributed pieces or emails, that’s a perfect example,” Stark said.
Instead of asking AI to write something from scratch, she said it’s best to break the process into smaller pieces. In this case, that would mean starting with voice.
“If you attach an example of a previous article the CEO loves and ask the AI to analyze their voice, you start to understand it better,” she said. “Then the next time you write, you’re able to write in their voice.”
That skill can be practiced in many ways like using prompts, transcription, custom GPTs or persona-based instructions, Stark said.
“There are a million ways to do it,” she said. “But that’s the point. Pick one thing and go deep.”
Assessing skills, confidence and growth
When teams focus on one workflow, something important happens, Stark said.
“Confidence builds. You start to have breakthroughs,” Stark said. “And then you can see how your work can change in other areas.”
You’re also learning core AI skills without realizing it. Experimenting with prompts teaches you how to give better instructions. Testing different personas helps you understand tone, audience and context. Over time, you’re building real AI literacy, she said.
“You’re learning prompt engineering by doing,” Stark said. “And that’s why it’s much better in the exploring stage to focus on one thing.”
Those skills transfer quickly from writing to pitching specific publications, messaging for different audiences, content planning and strategy, she said.
“Once you see it work in one place, you start to understand how it can work everywhere else,” Stark said. “One small win changes how people think about the tools. That’s usually what moves teams out of exploring and into the next stage.”
Register here to learn more from Stark and other industry experts during Ragan’s AI Horizons Conference Feb. 2-4 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl.
Courtney Blackann is a communications reporter. Connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at courtneyb@ragan.com.
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