Ready or not, AI is here. 

In a recent episode of That Solo Life: The Solo PR Pro Podcast, hosts Karen Swim and Michelle Kane encourage PR pros to lean into AI tools like ChatGPT instead of fearing them. 

Focus on how AI can help ease your workload

It appears that the underlying fear of AI is that it’s going to take our jobs. 

Karen and Michelle say that’s just not true. 

For example, Michelle uses tools like ChatGPT to give her writing prompts, but deliverables for her clients still need a human touch, so she simply uses AI to help her get started. 

She encourages all PR professionals to consider ways that AI can benefit them as well, which will ultimately help them better serve clients. 

“It’s key as a communications professional in this day and age to always be seeking and open to things that can help us do our jobs best and help us be the best PR pros that we can be,” Michelle says. “I think that should always be the goal, no matter what the tool is.”

Both Karen and Michelle agree that it’s a mistake to try and fight AI and that a lot of the fear surrounding it is solely because it’s still somewhat new to be adopted to the workplace. 

Just take it from Karen. 

“I've been doing a fair bit of trying to keep up on user sentiment and learn from others, and I've read the positive and the negative,” Karen says. “But I had the opportunity to play around with ChatGPT and I honestly loved it.”

She’s found that it streamlines some of the boring tasks of her job and that it’s helpful for things like research and scheduling. She’s heard from one person who uses ChatGPT to create a schedule of tasks for their day, and they say it creates an incredibly efficient list. 

Michelle adds, “From a conceptual point of view, it's new technology, and we need to wrap our heads around it and our arms around the portions of it that benefit us. To me, it's just another way that the PR role is growing and is a new way to even create opportunities for ourselves.”

Embrace, embrace, embrace

Last year on That Solo Life, Michelle and Karen chatted with Axel Ebermann, a guest lecturer with a long career in visual storytelling, who laid out the pros and cons of using AI. 

In that discussion, Michelle and Karen noted the underlying benefits of harnessing the power of AI but did point out some areas of concern.

“As PR professionals, it's really important for us to embrace the technology and learn how to leverage it in our work and counsel clients on how they can create greater efficiencies,” Karen says. “But we also need to understand the negative portion, like how AI gets used to create deep fakes, because it’s part of our job to monitor that. We need to learn how to spot those things.”

She continues that while using tools like ChatGPT can make you more efficient, PR professionals still need to use their skillset to add human elements to their work. 

“I don't think that you should view it like you're in competition with AI for your jobs,” Karen says. “I think that it would be better for us as PR pros to lead the way.” 

Michelle agrees and adds that you don’t want to swing drastically in one direction or the other when it comes to embracing new technology. There is a middle road where you can be perceived as someone who’s forward thinking but will only bring the best aspects of tools like ChatGPT to better serve your clients.

PR hasn’t changed. It’s just the tools that do. 

“If you're still planning to work in this profession for several more years, then you're going to have to find that fire somewhere that keeps you fresh and wants to embrace and learn about new things,” Karen says. 

So, stay curious. Explore AI and see how you can create value from it. And since every task isn’t mission critical, use AI to your advantage and save your brain power for what needs it most. 

Photo Credit: Credit:Nattapon Kongbunmee via iStock Photos

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