“Do NOT use AI.”
“AI is bad.”
“AI is taking our jobs.”
“AI is taking over the world.”
How often have you been told or thought this as a professional, a student, or simply as a human being? As is often the case with new and powerful forces, you may find yourself confronting an initial apprehension and resistance surrounding AI’s role and impact on your professional role(s). It can feel more like a threat, constantly reinventing itself to outpace, outwork, outthink, and gun for your job. And it might be, and do, all those things…and chances are you’ve heard these warnings. And yes, AI is fast, disruptive, and still imperfect. But the truth is this: AI is here to stay. When used as a strategic collaborator, it can help deliver smarter insights, sharper storytelling, and stronger results. The key is using it responsibly, ethically, and always with a human at the helm.
Here’s how to turn AI from “foe” to “friend” and how that benefits workflows:
Build a Collaborative Workflow
Outpace: Faster Research & Smarter Insights
When time is of the essence, use AI to quickly analyze large amounts of data for market research and trend analysis. Then, use it to identify key media contacts whose content and writing best fit the data and research you’ve got and want to share. Make sure to check the work and then use the time you saved to dive even deeper into the analysis, insights, and heart of what the research shows.
Example prompt:
- “Analyze the attached market research and trend reports on [insert industry] to identify the top 3-5 emerging trends. For each trend, provide key supporting data. Then, cross-reference this with the provided media lists to identify the top 10 most relevant journalists or outlets and explain their relevance. The final output should be a concise summary of key trends and a list of key media contacts.”
Outwork: Content That’s Smarter, Not Just Faster
Dump all your jumbled-up thoughts, ideas, and insights into a word-pile. Then, ask AI to sort through and organize them into comprehensive piles. Create outlines and frameworks for press releases, social media posts, and media emails specifically tailored to your insights and with your guidance. Then go back in and make it human. Refine the tone, add in brand-specific nuance, and ensure the message is authentic, compelling, and personal. This step is essential.
Trust me, when you skip the second part…everyone can tell.
Outthink: Creative Perspectives Beyond Bias
This is where the fun starts. Use AI to think outside of yourself. Ask it to analyze your work from the perspective of a news desk in Louisiana, or a business editor in New York City, or whoever your target audience is, and then use those insights to adjust, adapt, and strategize. Remember, AI insights aren’t always 100 percent accurate and should be used as a tool to take a step back, get some perspective, and spark creativity so that you can then jump back into the work, get more specific, and push it further.
Outmaneuver: Crisis Anticipation & Control
Use AI to identify potential pitfalls, negative responses, and sticking points in your outreach, campaigns, and strategies to avoid crises. Ask it to think critically from different POVs and catch errors or unclear messaging points before someone else does.
Example prompts and POVs:
- The Skeptical Journalist: Where’s the spin? What are the facts they’re not revealing or the hidden messages? Where does this information run thin or lack proof? What’s the sensational headline that could be written about this?
- The Disgruntled Customer: How could this message be misconstrued or misinterpreted to be tone-deaf, unhelpful, or self-serving? What are the potential pain points or frustrations that this could exacerbate?
- The Competitor: How can this be exploited? What is the weakness in this messaging or strategy that can be highlighted to our advantage?
- The Legal/Compliance Officer: Is there any language that is vague, overly promising, or could be a legal liability?
Leave them with no chance and nothing to pick apart.
Check. Mate.
Measuring What Really Matters
Move beyond simple metrics and use AI to provide deeper insights into campaign performance, and audience sentiment (and shifts in sentiment), for a more data-driven approach to strategy. See what resonated, what didn’t, look at when and how it was received and perceived. Now, you have all the information you need to sort out the why for yourself.
Then, use that to make strategic choices and changes to optimize future impact.
Example prompts:
- “Analyze the provided campaign data [insert your specific social media mentions, articles, and feedback forms] to identify key messages and content that resonated most. Chart the sentiment over time, highlighting specific campaign elements that may have caused shifts.”
- “Identify the core reasons behind positive and negative sentiment. Note any unintended audience interpretations of the campaign’s message.”
- “Generate a concise campaign performance report based on the provided data. The report should detail which creative assets and messages seemed most effective, summarize the overall sentiment, and outline key takeaways to inform future strategy.”
Remember Who is Boss: Responsible AI Integration
Mitigating Bias and Misinformation
Remember that you have a professional (and moral) responsibility to vet AI-generated content to ensure that its findings, analysis, and results aren’t creating messages (or using overly broad language) that might indirectly amplify harmful biases or contribute to the spread of misinformation.
At the end of the day, you have control and the final say. Use it.
The Human Factor: Why It Still Matters
Remember that integrating AI is not about replacing or getting rid of humans and their imagination, innovation, and creation, but about supplementing and boosting them. While AI can assist with these things, the heart of public relations remains innately human–it’s about the cultivation of authentic, meaningful, human relationships with real people. Journalists, influencers, and stakeholders don’t build connections with algorithms; they build them with people. Campaigns don’t resonate because of data alone; they resonate because of human storytelling. That’s why AI should be used as a tool, not a crutch. Every insight, every draft, and every recommendation is reviewed, refined, and elevated by our team. Your role as a communications professional is a form and position that AI simply cannot, and will not ever, be able to take or replace.
The most successful PR professionals will be those who master the use of AI as a support tool to outpace, outwork, and outthink their competitors, but who never lose sight of the core humanity required for effective and meaningful communications work.
The Bottom Line
AI isn’t taking over PR. But the agencies that master it will take the lead. At The Pollack Group, we’ve built a model where AI and human expertise work together, helping our clients move faster, think smarter, and tell stories that stick. If you’re ready for a partner who can harness AI without losing the human touch, let’s talk. Together, we’ll turn the so-called “foe” of AI into your brand’s next competitive advantage.
*AI was used in the making of this WellRed.
