In the early days of AI, the theory was that the new technology would take over many of the mundane, repetitive tasks in PR, freeing up more of our time to focus on higher value activity for which clients are willing to pay a premium.
This is pretty much what has happened.
AI has indeed stepped quietly into PR agencies and delivered things like media lists, meeting notes, interview transcripts, coverage reports and lots of other administrative tasks in a fraction of the time it once took.
AI, on the whole, boosts productivity
AI may also have curtailed the number of entry-level jobs available in PR – as it has done in pretty much every other industry on the planet – but it has definitely taken some of the pain out of our daily to-do lists.
Inevitably, however, the technology has gone much further and is now routinely used for tasks including copywriting. Here again, people are saving time by prompting AI to help them punch up an email, draft a pitch to journalists, suggest a snappy heading for a blog. This is understandable because we all know that when it comes to AI, we can’t afford to get ‘left behind’.
Typically, the way AI is used to write goes like this. We get a brief and use that as a basis to prompt the AI platform. We take the words that are suggested, maybe remove the tell-tale signs of AI (em dashes, Oxford commas and so on) and re-package the text into our own words.
@cheeezzzieee me, but with Gemini 😆🫶 (📹 ig: aieducating) #fyp #meme #ai #gemini #chatgpt #haha #foryourpage ♬ QKThr – Aphex Twin
Is this writing, though?
When we rely on AI to choose our words for us, even if we’re only relying on the platform for the first version of that text and then changing or re-writing those words, we’re not really writing. At best, we’re editing. ChatGPT or Copilot is the one doing the writing – and as PR professionals, we should not be OK with that.
Perhaps a more important question is this: when we use AI to help us write, are we thinking? Because make no mistake, writing is thinking. When we write about a subject, we are forced to really think about it; read about it; understand it. Only then can we choose the right words – our words – to articulate what we mean and what our audience needs to know.
Incidentally, the link between writing, thinking and learning is even stronger when we write by hand, with research showing that taking notes using handwriting during a meeting or lecture – instead of typing – can lead to better conceptual understanding of material.
The ability to write is and has always been one of the fundamental benchmarks for a career in this industry. It’s one of the core services we charge clients for. Of course, not everyone who enters the PR industry is a good writer, but that’s where practice comes in. You draft, you edit, you polish, you learn.
While all that editing is going on, your mind is hard at work – not just trying to improve the words on the page but challenging the very thought process that went into those words. You are asking yourself “Does this idea stand up? Am I making myself clear? Will this help my audience to understand?”
Writing and thinking go hand in hand
And of course, the more you write, the more you learn how to write and the better you get at it. But when we delegate that writing to AI platforms, we don’t just sacrifice the thought process – we stop learning how to improve our writing in the first place.
In many sectors, this doesn’t really matter. But in a creative industry like PR, it does matter because one of our biggest selling points as agencies is the ability to stand out from the crowd with a fresh voice, an original tone, a unique way of putting things.
So be wary of outsourcing your copywriting to AI. Choose your own words and you’ll get a better understanding of what you’re writing about and become a better writer in the process. Isn’t that the opposite of getting left behind?
If your brand could benefit from professional copywriting, message development or content editing, we’d love to help. Contact us today for a free PR consultation and let’s get writing!
About the author
David Powell is a copywriter and content specialist with Cullen Communications
