AI in Communications: Understanding The Tools Reshaping An Industry
Officially the buzzword of today’s day and age, artificial intelligence (AI) is seemingly everywhere. Communicators practicing in the digital landscape are not strangers to change, as new platforms and technologies are consistently altering the way we approach our work. With AI still growing, however, we continue to grapple with how to harness its abilities and understand its eventual impact on life as we know it. Despite all of AI’s unknowns, we shouldn’t run from it – AI can be more valuable to communicators than one might think.
In a program put on by the West Michigan Public Relations Society of America (WMPRSA), TechSmith Chief Technology Officer Tony Lambert discussed the power AI holds for communications. He walked through important definitions, specifically noting that while AI refers to a computer performing human-like tasks, generative AI goes a step further as a computer that creates new, human-like work. Generative AI is what is being leveraged in today’s platforms, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Bing’s Dall-e, to create everything from unique images to original song lyrics. Lambert demonstrated these programs, highlighting their capabilities and explaining just how they can help PR pros.
As communicators determine how to move forward in this industry increasingly driven by AI, the following takeaways from Lambert’s discussion are valuable to keep in mind.
AI is Your Assistant, Not Your Replacement
To more easily conceptualize how AI can fit into your daily life, try to think of it as an incredibly smart executive assistant. It knows the answers to a lot of questions and can help brainstorm solutions to problems, but it works in tandem with you. While an assistant may offer helpful notes about sentence structure or questions to ask a client, they’d be unlikely to answer all of your emails and write every word of an article you’re responsible for. Keep this in mind when using AI technology for various tasks – it’s a supplement to the work you’re already doing, not a complete replacement for your existing abilities.
The More Detailed The Request, The Better The Result
Leveraging AI can certainly automate aspects of the work you’re doing, but achieving your desired response from AI takes some intentionality. AI is quite literal, so it struggles to infer the specifics of what you may be looking for. If you ask AI to simply “write a social media post about dogs,” the result could be anything – from pet appreciation to why choose one breed over another. Rather than going back and forth with AI, feeding it details until the response feels right, try to be as clear as possible in your initial ask. Consider the request of “write a caption under 180 characters for an Instagram post about why golden retrievers are great dogs for families” to get a much more relevant first response. It can be easy for AI to get things wrong when it doesn’t know what you’re looking for, so try to help it out along the way.
Be The Human & Stay Skeptical of AI Outputs
AI comes off as pretty smart – it can spit out a detailed outline for the press release you’ve spent hours writing in under 10 seconds! – but its responses should never be taken at face value. Platforms like ChatGPT are LLMs (large language models), which means they are trained on high amounts of data in order to gain conceptual knowledge and respond to queries accordingly. However, LLMs don’t know what they don’t know, and can tend to fill in the blanks with inaccuracies when attempting to provide an answer. LLMs are also trained on potentially outdated datasets, so avoid asking AI for specific current event information that can be fact-checked elsewhere. Always cross reference concrete facts across multiple platforms before proceeding with an answer solely obtained from AI outputs.
AI is Only Getting Better: It’s Time to Start Learning
Over time, we can only expect AI to continue improving its abilities to put out relevant, trustworthy human-like content. While it’s very unlikely AI will completely replace our jobs as communicators, it may replace the people who are unable to use AI well. Rather than pushing AI to the side, Lambert suggests inviting it to the table. Learn the platforms, experiment with questions to ask AI, and build off the results it can provide. We know that AI isn’t going anywhere, so we might as well explore how it can help make us better at the work we do.
About The Author:
Rebekah Banasik is a WMPRSA board member, as well as Vice Chair of the Communications Committee and a member of the DEIA Committee. She is a recipient of WMPRSA’s Outstanding Emerging Pro Award (2024) and GVPRSSA’s Kelly Rossman McKinney Leadership Award (2022). She currently works as a Content & SEO Specialist at BlackTruck Media + Marketing.
