01 Jan AI can write words, but it still can’t protect your reputation

I’ve lost count of how often I’ve heard that PR is about to be replaced by technology. I heard it when social media first took off, when search started driving the communications agenda, when influencer marketing began poisoning the well, and now, of course, the latest trends are all focused on AI.

Nearly every time in my sector the conversation starts with fear: ‘Will this new development make PR irrelevant? Will marketing simply automate everything? Do relationships even matter anymore?

From my perspective these are the wrong questions. The better one is: ‘How do we use AI without losing the very notions of what makes PR work?’

PR, marketing and technology have been drifting closer together for years, but customers don’t care who owns which channel and CEOs don’t care about in-fighting over internal silos.

They ultimately do care about outputs and impacts – reputation, growth and not ending up on the front page for the wrong reasons.

AI doesn’t change any of this alone, it just serves to speed a number of often essential background tasks up.

Speed cuts both ways

Used well, AI can help teams understand their audiences faster, spot trends earlier and make smarter decisions. Used badly, it creates a mass of noise, short-term thinking, and damages trust.

This is where experience still counts. AI is brilliantly purposeful when analysing data, identifying patterns and showing what’s working and what isn’t, which is highly valuable in supporting PR and marketing teams. It can cut a swathe through the most in-depth data that otherwise used to take weeks in a mere hours.

But insight isn’t the same as judgement, and that’s what protects reputations. AI doesn’t understand context, tone, or why one headline hits home while another quietly causes a brand-deficient problem six months down the line.

This is why the concept of AI simply ‘replacing’ PR has never rung true. There are plenty of ads at the moment for systems that spout automated news releases and then distribute them out to media-packed platforms hungry for content.

These are mostly hyperbole – or just plain lies

Without research, planning, strategic messaging and, most importantly, expert insight, asking the right questions, human interest and unique perspectives – you’re left with a lot of AI slop and not much else.

PR and marketing didn’t merge because it was fashionable, it happened because it made sense.

But even with this integration there were new risks, including automated outreach that feels like spam, content written for algorithms rather than people, and SEO-led tactics designed to chase links and forget reputation.

I see organisations fall into these traps all the time, mostly with the best intentions, but sometimes because of leaders who are chasing the dream of high-level client engagement and low costs.

Yes, AI can help raise your profile, but it can just as easily undermine you it if no one is steering it.

Keep in mind the basics – who are your target audiences; what are you trying to achieve; what’s most newsworthy about your messaging; and what do you want people to do with the information you’re sharing?

Use AI as a tool to highlight opportunities, but don’t let it decide what your brand stands for. Remember, audiences are human, not data points.

If you’re navigating how PR, marketing and AI can coexist in your organisation, we’re always happy to talk it through. Contact Mark Ferguson at More Fire PR Ltd today!