Will AI add to creativity and productivity, or will it unleash destructive forces that will decimate jobs and industries as we know it? Amid the polarising debates, there is no question that AI technology already has and will alter how we work across sectors – including the Public Relations profession.

Industries need to get proactive about AI guidelines

With regulatory responses lagging behind technological advances, it falls on individual sectors to determine how to use AI. At Milk & Honey, we have spent time understanding the specific uses of AI technology within the PR industry. We have also studied important topics of compliance and strategies for agency self-regulation. These have been documented in our newly launched AI Ethical Playbook.

Yes, AI can solve pain points for the PR industry

A hybrid human/AI approach can bring about substantial time-saving solutions for creatives in the public relations industry. For example,

Generate initial ideas for design: this type of AI solution can create a starting point, encompassing colour and brand language to create a range of visual identities. This would not replace a designer; instead, it would support them in delivering early mock-ups. We see this as speeding and reducing the cost of the design process — with benefits for the agency, its designers and clients.
Content summary: this type of AI solution allows an agency to rapidly summarise large text sections without employing significant human resources. This capability can help teams quickly get to grips with an issue and identify salient points – again reducing agency resources and cost to the client without compromising quality.
AI transcription tools: an agency pain point is often deploying many team resources in, for example, a client meeting or story mining session. The ability to cut down on the number of human attendees will reduce costs to the client – removing the need for a dedicated human note-taker brings benefits to both parties. An added benefit of an AI transcription tool is that it doesn’t miss anything being discussed – which humans often understandably do.
Writing support tools: The most obvious example of these is ChatGPT, but we would only use this technology in very specific circumstances – where it adds and does not detract. These circumstances could include providing initial ideas to a human writer (e.g., suggesting story angles), assisting in research or the early stages of brainstorming.

Also Read: Sapna Chadha: Navigating Southeast Asia’s tech landscape and AI trends

The human differentiator in PR remains critical

The fundamentals of good PR are rooted in human context, understanding and empathy. At the moment, AI-generated content is only “virtually indistinguishable” from human outputs and, even then, only at “first glance”. Very soon, the hype will die down, and people will be able to differentiate between the human and AI.

If brand storytelling, a thought leadership article, or a social post is left to a machine, imagine how our clients would feel if they realised an algorithm led the thinking. Would they think their agency is taking them for granted and doesn’t care about thoughtful output? If clients feel that all PR is now sounding the same — relying on the same algorithms that scrape the same content from the same sources — why would a client retain a PR partner?

They could easily cut out the middleman and access technologies directly. For the public relations profession to provide true value to clients, we at Milk & Honey believe that human-led PR is the differentiator — a symbol of excellence, engagement and respect.

Businesses are excited yet cautious and challenged about AI adoption

Based on a survey conducted with Milk & Honey’s global clients, we found that 9 in 10 companies said it is extremely or fairly important that their PR agency stays up to date with and adopts AI tools. At the same time, 83 per cent expressed concerns about data security, over 65 per cent were worried about potential errors, and over 40 per cent were concerned about the lack of regulation in this space.

Research suggests that Asia Pacific will see significant adoption of generative AI to enhance productivity in 2024. However, due to risk-averse corporate cultures and insufficient data management capabilities, only 30 per cent of companies will be able to leverage AI’s advantages. Challenges exist for APAC firms needing help to operationalise customer trust via their marketing and sales functions.

Trust by design

As regulation races to catch up, PR agencies need to set up safeguards to lessen the risk of misuse — both intentional and unintentional. Milk & Honey sees the Warsaw Principles as comprehensive and indicative — and they inform our ongoing work in AI:

Transparency, disclosure, and authenticity: mandating clear disclosure when generative AI is employed, especially when crafting reality-like content.
Accuracy, fact-checking and combating disinformation: highlighting the need for rigorous fact-checking, given AI’s potential for disseminating misinformation and producing disinformation.
Privacy, data protection, and responsible sharing: prioritising data protection, compliance and dissemination.
Bias detection, mitigation, and inclusivity: advocating for the detection and correction of biases in AI-driven content and the promotion of inclusivity.
Intellectual property, copyright compliance, and media literacy: stressing the respect for intellectual property and copyright laws.
Human oversight, intervention and collaboration: reinforcing the necessity of human oversight in AI-powered processes.
Contextual understanding, adaptation, and personalisation: encouraging tailored content approaches for different audience channels.

Also Read: ‘AI is a race for innovation; regulation will only develop effectively once winners are announced’

Responsible use of AI needs to be the norm

As an agency, we believe in embracing AI responsibly. The Milk & Honey AI Ethical Playbook serves as a guide towards human-centric use of AI in the realm of Public Relations. The Asia Pacific region has unique cultural, social and economic contexts. As brand communicators serving local and global clients in Asia, a human-led AI approach is essential in ensuring authentic, trusted and culturally nuanced messaging.

The AI Ethical Playbook, with a foreword from Dr. Christian Stiegler, an award-winning researcher and internationally renowned expert on emerging technologies, including XR, AI, technology ethics and the metaverse, is available here.

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