Study: PR Profession Is Not Keeping Pace With Speed Of AI

(MENAFN- PRovoke) LONDON - PR professionals recognise AI as the industry's greatest challenge but not enough is being done to face this challenge, according to the new research.

The second Global CommTech Report from consultancy Purposeful Relations, in partnership with PRovoke Media, found 82% of respondents think AI skills are essential or important, but just 43% have received AI training.

The report, which aims to understand attitudes towards and use of AI and technology in public relations, communications and corporate affairs, found a similar picture of inaction when it comes to mitigating the risks of AI.

Despite half saying risk issues such as legal and copyright concerns (54%), and privacy and security concerns (52%) are the biggest challenges of AI six 10 (60%) don't have AI policies. An alarming finding was the use of shadow AI where 66% of employees use personal AI tools for work, often without permission or oversight.

The report found that most public relations and communications practitioners lack a good understanding of the potential of AI and see AI as a low-level tool for content creation (83%) rather than appreciating the role AI can play in strategy (18%) and research, insight and planning (60%). The main benefit of AI is seen as to save time (80%) or improve productivity (59%). Just 16% identified improving quality or 29% boosting creativity.

There is also limited understanding of AI and technology across different disciplines. The majority (60%) identified consumer marketing communications as the practice that AI will impact the most, while 25% identified crisis communications and 13% public affairs.

Purposeful Relations co-founder Stuart Bruce said:“The report aims to help the industry to understand that AI doesn't replace human endeavour but is a superpower to help make every public relations professional into a superhero. Sadly, the report shows an industry that recognises the importance of AI skills but isn't moving fast enough to do anything about improving them. It's also exposing itself to unnecessary risk with the huge use of shadow AI without any policies or oversight to safeguard privacy, confidentiality or copyright.”

The 2024 Global CommTech Report reveals little progress in the adoption of technology tools to aid communications. Respondents are still dependent on spreadsheets and email instead of using professional collaboration, planning and contact relationship management software. Four in 10 (43%) use spreadsheets for project and task management, while more than half (53%) are still dependent on spreadsheets for contact relationship management.

The top uses of communication technology (CommTech) are media monitoring and social listening (90%), media database (85%) and content creation and production (85%).

As in the 2023 report , respondents from PR agencies and consultancies overrate their AI and technology competency. Overall, 59% rate themselves completely competent or very competent at using AI and technology. For agencies it is 64% (the same as last year), while in-house is 56%.

However, the data for what respondents are actually doing is the opposite: 82% of agencies say AI skills are essential or important, compared to 74% of in-house respondents. But just 52% of agencies have received AI training compared to 61% of in-house teams. It is the same for AI policies, where 67% of agencies don't have one compared to just 58% of in-house teams that don't.

The report makes three main recommendations: develop AI policies that consider how companies and organisations use AI ethically and effectively, not just look at how communications teams use it; embrace AI skills, literacy and training; and address AI challenges including the broader impact of AI on an organisation's stakeholders and relationships.

Additional recommendations are that AI and technology are used to improve every aspect of public relations and communications including public affairs, crisis communication and media relations. It says AI shouldn't just be thought of as just a tool for simple tasks like content creation and data analysis.

The Global CommTech Report 2024 was published by communication transformation consultancy Purposeful Relations in partnership with PRovoke Media. It was supported by ICCO, AMEC, CIPR and the WCFA in Davos and communication technology companies MediaHQ, Notified, Onclusive and PRophet.

The full report can be downloaded here , including an audio overview created using Google NotebookLM.

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