AI has the potential to be particularly disruptive in PR. Why? Because PR has remained largely unchanged for the past twenty years. PR has gamely resisted every attempt at innovation. Most PR professionals still do their jobs the same way: by collecting journalists’ emails that matter in databases and sending them emails. Steve Marcinuk, co-founder and head of operations at Intelligent Relations, looks at how AI and text generation can change the PR game.
People have been optimistically pasting the word “disruptive” on every technology since 1995 when Clayton Christensen and Joseph Bower wrote their seminal paper on the subject in the Harvard Business Review. But not every technology is actually disruptive. Take cars, for example. When they came on the scene in the late 1800s, they didn’t disrupt the horse-drawn carriage market because they were too expensive and fiddly. They didn’t catch on. Revolutionary, yes. Disruptive, no.
Then, in 1905, Henry Ford’s affordable Ford Model T successfully disrupted the industry. Suddenly, everyone could afford a car.
A lot of technology falls into the non-disruptive camp. New tech does cool stuff – it can help you do things better, faster, and more efficiently. But is it actually disrupting any industries? Many new advancements haven’t actually affected any real industry change.
AI text generation is one of those technologies that might actually prove to be disruptive, especially in the PR industry. Right now, innovation in the AI field is happening fast. AI is creating gorgeous works of art – it’s even winning art competitions! More to the point, AI is generating more meaningful, readable copy. AI is holding semi-decent conversations and even persuading some people that AI might someday become sentient.
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Oh, sure, we’ve become more efficient. We use tracking pixels and social media, and automated email sequences. But nothing in the PR industry has been truly disrupted. AI, and specifically AI-powered text generation, could change that.
What Does Disruption Really Mean in PR?
You could argue that any new technology is disruptive – and indeed, many marketers do, albeit hyperbolically. But in my view, the coming disruption in PR is going to make PR more accessible, removing barriers to entry. After all, that’s what tech did for our sister industries, marketing and sales. Anyone can …….