Key insights from a recent A.I. and media relations webinar

At Finch Media and Finch Health Communications, we continuously seek out ways to stay informed on the latest public relations and communications trends to best serve our clients. The new age of artificial intelligence (A.I.) and communications can be hard to navigate, which is why it’s important to invest in continuous learning.

We recently attended an incredible webinar on A.I., public relations (PR), and pitching the media that was full of useful tips and insights around incorporating A.I. into media relations. The webinar, Reputation in Real Time: How to Ace PR and Build Trust in the Digital Age, was hosted by SocialNext Alliance.

Here were the key takeaways from the webinar on how media relations and public relations is adapting in the age of A.I.:

• Many public relations practitioners are using A.I. to create more pitches, faster, which is leading to journalists’ inboxes being increasingly inundated and making it harder for organizations to stand out. Poorly written and untargeted pitches can damage the reputation of the public relations practitioners and organizations sending them to the media.
• While PR practitioners can use A.I. effectively to support pitch development, they shouldn’t use it to replace human created pitches. The human touch and relationships are still important in media relations. This is also true for PR statements and apologies during a crisis. People can tell when organizations sound inauthentic.
• To be successful, it’s more important than ever to bring your creativity and insights into your media relations efforts.
• Public relations can support a Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and/or Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) strategy as A.I. generates its data from public articles, press releases and blogs.
• A.I. can support the creation of media lists and in conducting journalist and trend research to make pitches more impactful and hyper-targeted. A.I. should help facilitate better pitches – not more of them.

By using A.I. as a tool to support your research, media list creation, and an AEO/GEO strategy, you can make your public relations efforts more effective and impactful. However, it should never be used as a substitute for the decades of experience, human insights or creativity that PR practitioners bring to the table.