There is a lot of chatter (pun completely intentional) about the role that AI can play in the world of PR. Some are even talking about chatbots like ChatGPT sounding the death knell of the public relations profession. Setting aside the moral question of effectively plagiarising what has gone before, as well as the Terminator-like world-ending scenarios being sounded in some quarters at the mere mention of AI, how worried should a PR practitioner be at their potential to be replaced by M3GAN? (The office would certainly be a more dangerous place if new PR recruits started acting up like the eponymous ‘bot in Amazon Prime’s latest horror offering).
With the proliferation of online media you could be forgiven for thinking that print is on the wane. In reality, what is actually happening is that printed promotional material, particularly when it is used creatively, is increasingly providing the opportunity to cut through the digital information overload that we are all experiencing.
The perceived difficulties in quantifying the results of a PR campaign are many and varied. Often PR firms bury their heads in the sand, avoiding implementing the tools needed to gauge the success of public relations efforts. Whether it is through a lack of time, lack of understanding of the role PR plays, or simply insufficient resources, all too often measuring the results of a campaign is secondary to writing articles and communicating with the media.
