Like a cannonball splash, generative AI’s bold public arrival in 2023 has made one thing very clear for the communications industry: The future, once again, is right now.
The smartest PR professionals, communications leaders and brands are already jumping in, immersing themselves in artificial intelligence technology, which — like other innovations that have transformed our lives — is on its way to touching every part of our world. And those who hesitate risk being left behind by clients, consumers and employees.
That’s what my colleagues at WE Communications and I have learned through two key surveys — one in collaboration with the USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations. The surveys were conducted after the release in late 2022 of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and a rush of other similar applications that can produce text and images within seconds of a user’s prompt. AI is on everyone’s mind, from communications leaders figuring out how to use it responsibly to a general public anxious about how it will affect their jobs.
Why is AI important for communicators?
It’s important to remember that artificial intelligence already has been working alongside us for some time. From helping us plot driving routes and unlocking our phones through facial recognition to offering spelling and grammar help, AI has been a smart assistant in our daily lives for years.
With generative AI, though, we’re in a new, exciting stage. Our future with AI depends on how we, as communicators, talk about AI and embrace it as a partner in our own industry. In fact, when WE surveyed 15,000 people across seven global markets for our Brands in Motion study, “It’s Personal: The New Rules of Corporate Reputation,” 64% said the responsible use of technology — including AI and customer data — will become a more crucial factor in corporate reputation over the next two to three years. Our approach will play a defining role in how AI fits into our lives and influences society.
I like to stay focused on how technology fits into the human experience. Think back to that sense of wonder and creativity we had as children. Paradoxically, as we grow up and gain life and career experience, we box in our creativity and stop taking big chances. By the time we’re adults, most of us fall into a creative status quo — often focusing on getting it done over being creative.
And the data backs that up.
In our survey of communications leaders with USC Annenberg, “Fascinated and Frightened: How Are Communications Professionals Viewing the AI Opportunity Ahead?,” 88% said AI will have a positive impact on the speed and efficiency of certain work tasks, and 72% said it will help reduce workloads. Much further down the list was creativity, with only 55% of comms professionals saying AI will positively impact PR and comms creativity.
This reveals the opportunity I don't want us to miss. If we spend all our time thinking about how AI can make us more efficient, we will miss out on this once-in-a-generation chance to unlock new forms of creativity with AI at our side.
So how do we usher in AI as a collaborative partner?
I see generative AI reconnecting us with the freedom to play and let our imaginations run wild. In our study with USC, we advised communications professionals to “bring AI into your next brainstorm.”
Ask it to storyboard a new project. Prompt it to write a company's mission statement in the style of different movie genres. Have it rewrite your latest blog post as a Taylor Swift song. See how it opens your own mind. The goal isn’t to generate perfect, ready-to-use results but to unleash and spark our own creative thinking — and then apply that thinking to new ideas and business strategies.
Our research found that while many of the nearly 400 communications leaders in the U.S. we surveyed had played around with generative AI, much of it was one-off experimentation. And although 80% of the respondents agreed that AI will be “extremely or very important” to the future of our industry, only 16% said they felt extremely knowledgeable about the applications of AI in our work.
The technology around AI is advancing rapidly, and we can only begin to predict the thousands of applications it will have in our lives and our businesses. But as communicators, we can do something more powerful than make predictions — we can take action. We can start now developing ethical and responsible AI policies that keep humans at the center of our partnership with technology. We can encourage our employees and colleagues to keep experimenting. And we can open our minds to all the possibilities AI offers.
By embracing generative AI as a new partner, we can reignite a new imaginative spirit that, together with our human touch, will define the future of communications.
Melissa Waggener Zorkin is global CEO and founder of WE Communications, one of the largest independent communications and PR agencies in the world. She is an inductee of the PRWeek Hall of Fame, the PRWeek Hall of Femme, and the ICCO Hall of Fame and is a member of the USC Annenberg Center for PR Board of Advisors.