Opinion: How To Orchestrate The AI Evolution Of Your PR Agency

(MENAFN- PRovoke) While well-resourced agencies in the west are investing heavily in AI, even smaller firms in developing markets need to have an AI strategy. In this article, Kateryna Doroshevska, CEO and founder of Ukraine's Become PR, shares the solution she and her team created to help other PR agencies achieve success with AI. The framework is designed to help agency leaders see where they currently stand with AI, identify potential challenges, and provide clear steps to move forward.

Are you an AI optimist or afraid it will take your job? Regardless of your perspective, one thing is certain: AI is here to stay. As an AI optimist myself, I believe you have the major power to shape it to work for you. And in this article, I will show you how.

In January, Muck Rack conducted research on AI adoption in PR agencies, and the results were striking. It is transforming productivity, content quality, client expectations, and even business strategy. According to the survey, 95% PR professionals report significantly faster workflows thanks to AI, and 78% are also seeing improvements in content quality.

At Become Agency, we have developed a solution to help other PR agencies achieve similar success with AI: a comprehensive framework designed to guide your AI transition . This framework will help you see where you currently stand with AI, identify potential challenges, and provide clear steps to move forward. If you are unsure about AI, it will uncover opportunities to expand. In addition, if you are already using AI, it will show you how to accelerate progress.

Let's walk through this step-by-step and see how you can transform your agency into a fully AI-powered operation, and why it's not just a good idea, but a game changer.

Step 1. Optimization

This is where everything starts - the point where you and AI are just getting to know each other. At the stage of Optimization, PR professionals typically use AI for personal tasks, making small tweaks rather than major transformations. It's common to get AI to fine-tune the tone of voice, translate a few sentences, or make text sound more natural.

Just last month at Become Agency, we conducted research on Ukrainian PR agencies and found out that most businesses are currently at this step or have already moved past it. For example, 75% of agencies use AI to improve content, and 65% use it to organize or shorten data. Those were the most common answers to the question,“What do you use AI for?”

While this is a great start, using AI individually comes with risks. Since the AI isn't trained for agency-wide use, different team members may get extremely different results. It may lead to inconsistencies in messaging, word choice, and overall content quality. At this stage, AI remains highly dependent on each person's input, which makes it impossible to delegate more complex or strategic tasks.

If you are at this stage and want to move forward, the key is to establish simple, clear internal guidelines to ensure AI is used consistently across your team; for instance, define approved requests and goals or standardize the prompts.

Step 2. Collaboration

At this stage, PR agencies' relationship with AI gets deeper. AI transitions from being just a tool to becoming a collaborative partner, almost like a“robot buddy.” It is no longer just about handing off tasks; it's someone you can brainstorm with, build drafts, and seek ideas from. However, strategic work, like planning campaigns or developing positioning, is still limited at this point, since this stage still requires close AI oversight.

In our survey of Ukrainian PR managers, we found that PR professionals struggle with the shift from Optimization to Collaboration. Prompt engineering was the most mentioned skill in response to the question“What skills do you need to use AI more effectively”? A common issue was that AI's responses often felt too broad and basic, leaving them unsure of how to make it serve their needs in a more relevant way.

If you are facing the same challenge and feel stuck at the Optimization stage, consider training your team to use AI more effectively. This means not just setting rules to follow, but helping them learn how to create better prompts and train the AI on their own. By doing this, they will be able to get results that require less editing and are more aligned with the business and clients' needs.

Step 3. Customization

After your team has learned to collaborate with AI on an individual level, the next step is to scale that collaboration to the agency level. This means building your own AI solutions and AI agents based on your internal processes: your methods, writing styles, client needs, and anything else unique to your agency.

Building AI solutions takes time and investment, but this isn't about developing complex technology from scratch. You don't need to create your own version of ChatGPT. Instead, you can use existing tools and train them with your unique knowledge to deliver more personalized and effective results.

This is where true transformation begins. Instead of relying on generic AI tools, you start developing solutions. That's why we call this stage Customization Become Agency, we are at this stage right now. We have built a Become Strategist, an AI-powered agent that creates personal brand strategies based on our in-house methodology. From what we have seen so far, a Strategist is already performing at the level of junior and even mid-level PR managers. But this is just the beginning. Our goal is to build an entire AI-driven ecosystem, including tools like a Pitch Writer, Headline Creator, and Trend Researcher, and plenty more.

Of course, this stage comes with its own challenges: rising costs, client expectations, and competitive pressure. But agencies that invest early in customized AI solutions will gain a significant market advantage. It's worth being one of them. We're happy to share our experience with European PR agencies and discuss how AI can play a role in their work.

Stage 4. Integration

AI integration is the final step in the full evolution of AI within an agency. At this stage, AI is no longer just a tool you train, control, or feed with patterns. Instead, it becomes an organic part of the workflow.

Now, AI can make decisions on its own. It doesn't just assist; it acts autonomously within set parameters. For example, it can automatically send emails, generate reports on time, and handle routine tasks with minimal human intervention. All you need to do is set deadlines, and the system will take care of the rest.

Many professionals are still hesitant to integrate AI into their daily workflows at such a deep level, and in some ways, it's not even possible yet. My prognosis is that the full AI integration across the industry will likely take 3 to 5 years, including for our agency. However, the biggest challenge here is not time, finance or tech. It's the mindset. The real obstacle isn't whether AI can be implemented, but whether people are ready to embrace it.

This transition isn't just about technology; it's about mindset, culture, and leadership. Over the next few years, agencies will need to create an environment where AI isn't seen as a disruption but as a natural extension of human expertise.

So, how do humans fit into this evolution?

One of the biggest concerns people have about AI is the fear that it will replace them. That's why so many resist its adoption. But from what I have seen, that's simply not possible.

Yes, AI will automate structured, routine tasks and make workflows faster. But rather than taking away our value, it actually pushes us to focus on what makes us uniquely human, our ability to think strategically, create meaning, and build genuine connections. At our agency, we have identified two key principles that define what can't be automated, the 4 C's – the skills that AI can't fully replicate:

1. Creativity - finding new, relevant angles and ideas.
2. Connectivity - building real trust and strong relationships.
3. Critical Thinking - asking better questions and challenging the obvious.
4. Crafting - developing systems, frameworks, and long-term strategies.

And then there's something even deeper, something that goes beyond skills: the 3 E's – the human traits that set us apart:

1. Empathy – understanding people's needs, emotions, and perspectives.
2. Ethics – making responsible and value-driven decisions.
3. Emotional Intelligence – understanding complex social and business dynamics.

So no, AI won't take your job, if you develop these skills and traits, it will only make you stronger. The possibilities AI brings can help you implement new business models, create new revenue streams, offer new services, and tap into new markets.

For example, if you are aiming to scale globally, you will no longer be limited by team size or geographical nuances. AI can help bridge the gap, automating tasks and providing insights that allow your team to work more efficiently across borders. Not to mention, AI will also make PR more affordable to more people, opening up new customer segments.

Yes, AI does get a slice of the pie, but it's not shrinking the pie. It's making the whole cake bigger. The future isn't humans versus AI - it's humans with AI, each doing what they do best.

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