Insights from the gathering in New York City.
PR is on the precipice of something new.
AI is offering a huge boost to the profession, elevating the role of their media relations and content prowess skills like never before. At the same time, they must fight to learn these new skills and work with a media ecosystem that is reinventing itself in real time.
Communicators gathered in Brooklyn, New York, last week to learn from dozens of speakers wrestling with the unique challenges of this moment. From journalists to agency professionals to in-house practitioners, a few themes emerged across their panels and presentations.
- AI is changing the information ecosystem, not the purpose of communications
GEO dominated the conversation as communicators wrestled with how to influence these powerful new tools that are replacing traditional search. But even as AI becomes a new gatekeeper, the fundamentals of the profession provide a strong throughline: Focusing on telling stories for human audiences that now simply happen to be interpreted through machine learning.
- Human expertise is becoming more valuable as technology becomes more powerful
But even as technology evolves, humans are crying out for something real to believe in. Journalists from both Business Insider and Time, Inc. stressed their desire to tell stories about business and the world not through facts and figures, but through people-driven storytellers. Just as influencers have upended the world of social media by building trust in individuals, in a world that feels increasingly synthetic, people want to learn from and interpret the world through a deeply human lens. These can often be the strongest pitches.
- Control is disappearing. Preparedness is key.
AI is also making it easier for bad actors to take a role in your story, whether that’s through a cybersecurity breach or a deepfake. You’ll never be able to control it all — but you can be prepared to combat it.
Throw out that old-school playbook and swap it for intensive training before a crisis and a flexible framework that can help you move forward with confidence.
Tim Gilman, senior PR & branding executive at the Oshkosh Corporation, stressed that you can’t be in control, but you can be adaptable.
- Direct relationships are the ultimate competitive advantage
Journalists at the conference stressed a strong preference for forging relationships directly with their audiences rather than relying on an algorithmic intermediary. They’re doing that through social media, newsletters, podcasts and live events. But the same principle holds true for PR professionals, too: the direct relationships forged with each other, with journalists and through their constituent publics are only increasing in importance even as technology skyrockets.
And most importantly, continue to hold true to your own core principles. As Sona Iliffe-Moon, CCO at Yahoo said, “the secret to reinvention is being really authentic to who you are.”
Allison Carter is editorial director of PR Daily and Ragan.com. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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