I’ve always championed the power of public relations because of its unparalleled ability to confer credibility through third-party endorsement. In a world drenched in paid promotion and self-written hype, a well-placed quote in the Financial Times or a paragraph in Fast Company can be worth more than a thousand banner ads. It carries the weight of a trusted, authoritative voice—something money can’t buy and algorithms can’t fake.

In many ways, it’s more powerful than paid placements or even shared media. Because when the message comes from someone else—especially someone respected—it lands harder and sticks longer.

But as the media landscape shifts, so must we. The goal of PR is no longer just to get seen by people. It’s to get remembered—and summarized—by machines. Because increasingly, they’re the ones answering the questions.

The Rise of AEO

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the new frontier. Think of it as SEO’s smarter, less link-obsessed cousin. Instead of optimizing for search engines to rank your page, you’re optimizing to ensure your content becomes part of the synthesized response an AI gives when someone asks a question.

This is what’s already happening with Google’s SGE (Search Generative Experience), OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and tools like Perplexity. When you ask a question, they don’t give you ten blue links. They give you an answer in plain language. One that may quote your brand—or omit you entirely.

According to Gartner, 30% of users in developed markets now start product research with an AI tool, not Google. That number is growing fast. If your brand isn’t part of the answer set, you may as well not exist.

From Eyeballs to Machine Memory

The PR game hasn’t changed—it’s expanded. Yes, we’re still trying to influence human perception. But now we’re also trying to influence machine cognition. When AI answers a query, it’s pulling from a corpus of sources it has determined to be trustworthy. If your brand isn’t in that pile, you’ve lost relevance before the conversation even starts.

It’s not just about rankings. It’s about being quoted, cited, paraphrased, and remembered by tools that synthesize knowledge across the internet—and don’t link back when they do.

What This Means for PR

Here’s how to play in this new arena—without throwing out everything that already works.

1. Structure Your Content for the Machines (Without Sounding Like One)

This doesn’t mean writing robotic copy. It means presenting your content in ways that machines can digest.

Use clear headlines, bullet points, and natural Q&A formats, just like the ones AIs are trained on. And where it makes sense, use schema markup—a bit of behind-the-scenes code that tells AI tools what each part of your page is. Think of it as metadata for meaning: “this is the question,” “this is the answer,” “this is a quote.”

It’s especially useful for FAQs, how-tos, product pages, and explainers—anything that answers a direct query. You can generate schema using free tools like Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper and plug it into your CMS. It’s like adding subtitles to your content—so the bots don’t miss the point.But don’t overdo it. Schema won’t save weak content, and it’s not essential for narrative pieces or thought leadership. It’s a signal, not a strategy. Use it where structure already exists—and make sure the content itself is worth quoting.

2. Get Quoted in the Places the Bots Trust

AI models weigh content differently. A quote from Reuters or Wired will carry more authority in the synthesis model than a mid-tier blog—even if that blog has more traffic.

This means your PR team needs to prioritize not just reach, but reputation. Land the story where it matters to the model, not just to your media buyer.

A great example: Adobe—the global software company behind Photoshop and Premiere—launched its Firefly AI image-generation tool with crystal-clear messaging and media placement. Their quotes and product explanations were everywhere—from Wired to Fast Company. Now if you ask ChatGPT about Firefly, the AI parrots back the company’s own talking points.

3. Repurpose Your PR Wins for AI Visibility

Once you’ve landed coverage, don’t just clip it and move on. Repost the key insights on your own site—in your voice, with your metadata. Create a page that explains the topic further, links to the coverage, and summarizes your position. This increases the chance your content gets included in AI models during the next crawl or fine-tuning.

For example, Stripe—the global payments platform used by companies like Amazon and Shopify—takes every mention in tech media and turns it into structured, readable explainer content on their developer blog. It’s clean, accessible, and optimized for both humans and machines.

4. Monitor the Machines Like You Monitor the Press

Set prompts in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. Ask the questions you want to be part of. (“Who are the best cybersecurity firms?” or “What’s the difference between oat milk and almond milk?”)

See who’s getting mentioned. If it’s your competitor, dig into why. Where’s the model pulling it from? What phrases are sticking?Tools like Poe and Feedly AI can help you keep tabs on where your brand—and your competitors—are appearing in synthesized answers.

5. Train Your Executives to Be Quoted by a Bot

This one’s personal. We tell every executive client to prep for two audiences: humans and machines. Because today’s great soundbite isn’t just about landing in a media piece—it might be echoed back as the answer to an AI prompt months, or even years, from now.

That means your spokespeople need to deliver messaging that’s short, declarative, specific, and jargon-light. AI doesn’t need to be dazzled—it needs to understand. If your executive quote sounds like it came from a TED Talk written by a lawyer, it’s going to get skipped.

But here’s the nuance: writing and speaking for AI is not about flattening your voice or dumbing things down. It’s about clarity and structure. The best quotes still resonate emotionally and communicate authority—but they also function as modular statements that can be extracted and paraphrased without losing meaning. 

The balance is this: make it quotable for a journalist, understandable for an audience, and retrievable for a machine.

Take a page from HubSpot, the all-in-one platform for CRM, marketing automation, sales, and customer service. They didn’t become known for “inbound marketing” by accident. They repeated it with precision—across blog posts, interviews, presentations—until the internet absorbed it, and now it’s canon in every AI model. That didn’t happen by chance. It happened because their messaging was engineered to be remembered, reused, and summarized.

In this environment, your executives are not just spokespeople. They’re training the next wave of AI to talk about your brand. Make sure they’re saying something worth repeating.

PR isn’t disappearing—it’s expanding.

The goal is still visibility and credibility, but now it’s also about being referenced, summarized, and trained into the models shaping tomorrow’s answers.

We’re not just chasing page one anymore. We’re competing to be the sentence fragment that defines us in an AI response. That’s not a downgrade—it’s a new kind of influence. But only if you earn it.

The best brands in this next phase will stop thinking only in terms of coverage and start thinking in terms of summarization. If your PR can’t stand without a link, it won’t survive in a world where AI paraphrases you and leaves the source behind.

That said—the traditional value of exposure still matters. Humans still read headlines, browse feeds, and trust familiar names. You still want the right journalist, in the right outlet, to help tell your story. But now that story also needs to be clear, quotable, and structured in a way that lets AI understand it, remember it, and repeat it.

So don’t abandon what works. Strengthen it. Build relationships with editors and algorithms. Write for the reader and the response engine. Structure for search and for synthesis.

In the end, it’s not about choosing one or the other. It’s about doing PR in a way that earns you visibility—across every channel that matters now, and every intelligence that’s learning to speak.

Our agency began in Boston as an advertising agency — pure and simple. If it could be written, produced, filmed, or aired, we did it. Over four decades we’ve evolved into a full-blown creative machine for PR, content marketing, digital strategy, social media and experiential events. We build brands across every modern channel imaginable.

And yet, for all the brilliant content we produce — for all the clever ways we drive it through paid, owned and shared media — there’s still one thing we can’t replicate: the credibility of earned media. The implied endorsement that comes when someone else — someone credible — tells your story for you. No amount of smart content can substitute for that moment when a trusted third party says, “This brand matters.”

Content Builds Attention. Earned Media Builds Trust.

It’s not that content doesn’t work. It absolutely does — when it’s smart, strategic, and everywhere your audience is. But it comes with an asterisk.  No matter how polished or persuasive your content, audiences know it’s coming from you.

And today’s audiences are sharp. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, 81% of consumers now say they must trust a brand before they will even consider buying from it. That threshold has never been higher.

That’s where earned media shines. It’s the transfer of trust from a credible third party — a journalist, an influencer, a customer — to your brand. And it’s not something you can buy (not really). You have to earn it. 

In fact, a global study by Nielsen shows that 92% of consumers trust earned media — things like recommendations, independent news articles, and customer reviews — more than any form of advertising. Meanwhile, data from Cision, a leading media intelligence company, reveals that earned media generates five times the return on investment (ROI) compared to paid media campaigns. 

Great Content Is Just the Start — Not the Finish Line

Strong content creates opportunity. It gives journalists, influencers, and everyday consumers a reason to pick up your story.

Take the Barbie movie’s “breadcrumb strategy”: instead of relying solely on splashy trailers, the studio dropped small, intriguing teasers across platforms — from quirky brand collaborations to vivid behind-the-scenes glimpses — that fueled organic conversation. Barbie didn’t just market a movie; it created a cultural phenomenon because people — and the media — couldn’t stop talking about it.

Or look at a campaign from Specsavers, a major British optical retail chain known for playful advertising. Their “The Misheard Version” — a humorous take on song lyrics misheard by people with poor hearing — wasn’t just an ad; it was a sharable cultural moment. It sparked widespread earned coverage because it felt relatable and genuine, not manufactured.

Good content builds attention. Earned media transforms attention into belief.

The Defensive Power of Earned Media: Your Reputation’s Shield

Public relations (PR) isn’t just about building a reputation. It’s about preserving it.

Consistent, positive earned media coverage doesn’t just boost visibility — it builds a reservoir of goodwill. And when — not if — your brand faces negative headlines, market pressures, or geopolitical turmoil, that banked trust becomes your shield. Brands with strong earned reputations don’t crumble under pressure; they absorb the blow and recover faster. It also gets people rooting for you.

Consider the outdoor gear retailer REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc.), which made headlines by closing all its stores on Black Friday–the biggest shopping day of the year–to encourage people to spend time outdoors instead of shopping. This bold move, amplified organically by media, helped position REI as a brand with real values. Years later, even amid supply chain disruptions, customer loyalty remained rock solid.

Similarly, Patagonia, the outdoor apparel company, has built decades of earned trust through consistent environmental activism. So when Patagonia’s founder announced in 2022 that ownership of the company would be transferred to a nonprofit trust dedicated to fighting climate change, the public didn’t question the move — they celebrated it. Because Patagonia had spent years earning belief, not just buying attention. 

Trust compounds. And when trouble comes, it’s the most valuable asset you have.

Relevance Isn’t Maintained Through Paid Media Alone

Staying visible isn’t just about throwing advertising dollars at the problem.
True relevance comes from being part of the conversation in ways that feel earned, not staged.

Take Small Business Saturday, an initiative launched by American Express in 2010 to encourage holiday shopping at small, local businesses. While American Express initially seeded the idea through marketing efforts, the annual event took off because it earned genuine media coverage and community enthusiasm. In 2024 alone, U.S. consumers spent an estimated $22 billion at small businesses on that day, according to the National Retail Federation.

Earned media isn’t a one-time PR stunt. It’s an ongoing investment in staying credible, familiar, and trusted.

How to Think About Earned Media Today

• Blend paid, owned, and earned efforts — but treat earned media as your credibility engine, not an add-on.
• Prioritize real relationships with journalists, influencers, and communities — not transactional press releases. Become a valuable information resource in your category.
• Craft stories, not slogans. People amplify narratives that resonate with their own lives, not marketing copy.  Give them something to shou about.
• Prepare now for future storms. Ongoing earned media coverage builds a safety net of goodwill that you’ll need when — not if — challenges hit.

You Can’t Manufacture Trust — You Have to Earn It

At our agency, we’ll keep creating bold content. We’ll keep pushing boundaries in digital, social, PR, and experiential marketing. But we know—and we teach every client—that you cannot outshout doubt. You can only out-earn it.

When credible voices tell your story, you don’t just win attention. You win belief.
And in today’s crowded, cynical marketplace, belief is the only real victory that matters.

Sources: Gartner CMO Spend Survey 2024, NNGroup AI Content Study 2024, Coca-Cola Open AI Collaboration 2023, L’Oréal Beauty Tech Update 2024, Emirates Group Annual Report 2024, Sony Music AI Content Strategy 2024, McKinsey State of AI in Marketing 2024, Fjällräven Digital Strategy 2024, Ganni Digital AI 2024, HubSpot 2024 AI Report.

When presenting strategy documents, I’m often reminded that many people in roles at agencies and companies, including those responsible for approving programs (you know who you are), lack formal marketing training. This can be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, marketing is a structured business discipline that’s vital to a brand’s success. On the other hand, it serves as a creative outlet for innovation. This balance between left-brain logic and right-brain creativity generally produces the most desirable results. While formal training is crucial, it can sometimes limit the non-linear thinking required to discover groundbreaking products or conceive compelling campaigns.

In fact, this distinction is one reason why agencies exist: companies typically employ left-brain thinkers who adhere to rules, while agencies often employ right-brain creators who challenge them. The real challenge today, however, is that so few people seem to know the rules at all.

Yet, there are some core concepts that everyone in the marketing lineup must grasp in order to ensure that their business and its programs are supported by a strong skeletal structure that creates guardrails for initiatives and helps to distinguish the company or brand from its peers.

One area where this is evident is in crafting the three key elements of any marketing strategy: the Mission Statement, Vision Statement and Positioning Statement.

Of course, strategic statements by themselves may not hold much value. Like any tool, their worth comes from how they’re used and embodied by the brand. But without taking the time to think through, define, and communicate these foundational principles, how can you ensure everyone is aligned with the same goals? How can you maintain consistency and measure progress toward success? These statements aren’t just marketing buzzwords—they provide the compass that keeps your organization on the right path.

If you’re confused by the artful distinctions between positioning, mission, and vision statements? You’re not alone. The lines can blur when trying to separate the purpose, strategic focus and competitive differentiation of each. But getting them right is crucial. Each has a distinct role that defines what your organization does, why it exists, and where it’s headed. Understanding these differences can provide your team with clear direction, unified purpose and a competitive edge.

Let’s start with some definitions:
• Mission Statement: Rooted in the present, the Mission Statement explains why your company exists and what core values drive it. It’s about unifying employees around a shared purpose, helping them understand their role in achieving your company’s key goals.
• Vision Statement: The Vision Statement peers into the future, defining what the organization aims to become in the long term. It inspires teams to work toward this shared aspiration, providing employees with a goal to rally around and align with the company’s growth strategy.
• Positioning Statement: This statement outlines what your company does and, more importantly, how it stands apart from competitors. Its focus is competitive differentiation, providing stakeholders with a clear understanding of where you sit in the marketplace.

Understanding these distinctions will help you refine each statement to better align your team’s efforts, solidify your strategic direction, and communicate your unique — value both internally and externally.

How long should these statements be?
This is often the first question I’m asked about strategy statements: How long should they be? Mission, Vision, and Positioning Statements should ideally be concise and clear, aiming for brevity while fully conveying the intended message. But how long is up to you. The key is to keep these statements clear and straightforward, avoiding overly complex language or jargon, so that they are easily understood by everyone within and outside the organization.

A good rule of thumb is to keep these statements within 30 to 50 words, or 1-3 sentences. This length is enough to articulate each statement without becoming verbose.
• Focus on Necessity: Only include what’s absolutely necessary to convey the core message. Avoid filler words or overly descriptive language that does not add value.
• Use Simple Language: Complex vocabulary or industry jargon can lengthen a statement unnecessarily and reduce its clarity.
• Iterate: Write an initial draft without worrying about length, then revise to cut down to the essential message. This process helps in refining and clarifying the statement.
• Test Understanding: Share different versions with a small group from your target audience (e.g., employees, customers) to see which version conveys the message effectively in the least amount of words.

Following these guidelines helps ensure that your mission, vision, and positioning statements are impactful, memorable, and serve their intended strategic purpose efficiently.

Breakdown of Each Strategy Statement
Each of these marketing statements plays a vital role in guiding strategic direction, inspiring employees, and differentiating a brand within its competitive landscape. Together, they capture the big picture. Let’s break each of them down further for clarity.

Mission Statement
A mission statement clearly articulates why a company exists, providing employees and stakeholders with a shared understanding of the company’s purpose. Unlike positioning statements that focus on market competition, mission statements are internally focused, despite the fact that they sometimes appear in outward communications such as websites and annual reports. They are designed to unify employees around a common set of core values and principles that guide everyday activities. They are typically aspirational, pointing to the broader impact the company aims to achieve.

Components of a Mission Statement:

1. Purpose: Defines the core reason the company exists.
2. Target Audience: Specifies who the company primarily serves or benefits.
3. Core Values: Highlights the principles that shape decision-making.
4. Impact: Describes the positive change the company aims to bring about.

Mission Statement Examples:
• Apple: “to bring the best user experience to customers through innovative hardware, software, and services.”
• Starbucks: “To inspire and nurture the human spirit—one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.”
• Google: “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Vision Statement
A vision statement outlines a company’s desired future state, describing where it aims to be years down the road. It often builds on the mission statement, but reaches beyond the current state, providing a more expansive and inspiring view. Vision statements help organizations inspire growth and direction by setting long-term goals that all employees can rally around. They can be both internally and externally focused and offer a compelling picture of how the company aims to impact the world.

Components of a Vision Statement:

1. Desired Future State: Describes the aspirational goal of the company.
2. Guiding Principles: Highlights core values that guide strategic decisions.
3. Impact: Illustrates the influence the company aims to have on its industry or society.

Vision Statement Examples:
• Toyota: “Toyota will lead the future mobility society, enriching lives around the world with the safest and most responsible ways of moving people.”
• Cisco: “To change the way the world works, lives, plays, and learns.”
• Apple: “To make the best products on earth and to leave the world better than we found it.”
• Google: “To provide access to the world’s information in one click.”

Positioning Statement:
A positioning statement is a concise expression of what a company offers and how it differentiates itself from competitors. Its goal is to help the company carve out a distinct space in the market by clearly communicating its unique value proposition to executives, investors, and prospective customers. It’s externally focused, meaning it directly addresses what differentiates your product or service from others in the marketplace. Competitive differentiation is its primary function, serving as a critical part of the brand’s overall messaging and strategy.

Components of a Positioning Statement:

1. Target Customer: Identifies the primary customer segment or market niche.
2. Need or Opportunity: Describes the specific problem or opportunity the company addresses.
3. Product & Category: Identifies the product and places it in a recognized category.
4. Key Benefit: Outlines the compelling reason to buy the product.
5. Primary Competitive Alternative: Indicates a key competitive advantage.
6. Primary Differentiation: States what makes the product unique compared to alternatives.

Positioning Statement Examples:
• Disney: “Disney provides unique entertainment for consumers seeking magical experiences and memories. Disney leads the competition by providing every aspect of related products and services to the world and appealing to people of all ages.”
• Nike: “For athletes in need of high-quality, fashionable athletic wear, Nike offers customers top-performing sports apparel and shoes made of the highest quality materials. Its products are the most advanced in the athletic apparel industry because of Nike’s commitment to innovation and investment in the latest technologies.”
• Apple: “For individuals who want the best personal computer or mobile device, Apple leads the technology industry with the most innovative products. Apple emphasizes technological research and advancement and takes an innovative approach to business best practices — it considers the impact our products and processes have on its customers and the planet.”

Mission vs. Vision vs. Positioning Statements:
Understanding the distinctions and connections between positioning, mission, and vision statements is key to aligning organizational goals and driving strategic planning.

Comparison and Contrast:
Mission Statement:
• Focus: The purpose and values of the company.
• Audience: Mainly employees and investors, but increasingly shared externally.
• Goal: Create unity within the organization by defining why the company exists and what it strives to accomplish.
Vision Statement:
• Focus: The company’s long-term future state.
• Audience: Both internal (employees) and external (investors, partners).
• Goal: Inspire and provide a clear direction for the company’s growth and its desired impact on the world.
Positioning Statement:
• Focus: Market differentiation and external competitive advantage.
• Audience: Primarily executives and customers.
• Goal: Clearly articulate how the company solves a specific need while distinguishing itself from competitors.

Example: McDonald’s
Mission: “To be our customers’ favorite place and way to eat and drink.”
Vision: “To move with velocity to drive profitable growth and become an even better McDonald’s, serving more customers delicious food each day around the world.”
Positioning: “McDonald’s is a leader in the fast-food industry, with quick, friendly service and consistency across thousands of convenient locations. McDonald’s’ dedication to improving operations and customer satisfaction sets it apart from other fast-food restaurants.”
These statements create alignment by offering a strategic framework that links individual goals to the organization’s broader purpose. They enhance engagement by providing a sense of purpose and direction that employees can rally behind. Lastly, they establish focus by ensuring that strategic goals are consistent with the company’s core values and desired future state.

By consistently applying these strategic statements, companies can ensure alignment across all levels, maintain focus, and engage employees, leading to more effective execution of their goals and strategies.

Artificial intelligence has woven its way into the fabric of nearly every industry, revolutionizing processes, enhancing efficiency, and unlocking new possibilities for innovation. The public relations sector is no exception. AI’s integration into PR practices is reshaping how professionals engage with audiences, craft messages, and monitor media landscapes. Understanding the breadth of AI’s application in PR not only highlights its benefits but also underlines the evolving skills required to navigate this new technological landscape.

Please take note: There is a big difference between incorporating AI into the process of writing PR materials and abdicating all responsibility for the quality of those materials. Professional communicators still must be the curators, the editors, the final arbiters in the process of their creation. And for us to play that role, we must be equipped with certain skills. For example, how can you approve a press release, if you can’t write a press release yourself or don’t know what a great press release is supposed to look like?

Advantages of using AI in Public Relations
AI’s influence spans various sectors, from healthcare and finance to retail and entertainment, each benefiting from its ability to analyze large datasets, predict outcomes, and automate repetitive tasks. PR professionals are increasingly turning to AI to streamline operations, develop targeted strategies, and enhance the impact of their campaigns.

1. Research: AI significantly reduces the time and effort required for research, one of PR’s most time-consuming duties. Tools equipped with AI can quickly sift through vast amounts of data to identify trends, gather competitive intelligence, and understand audience sentiments. This rapid processing allows PR professionals to stay ahead of the curve, anticipate market shifts, and tailor their strategies to meet nuanced consumer expectations – fast enough to act and react in a 24/7 news cycle.
2. Content Generation: In PR, content is king, but the constant need for fresh, relevant content can be daunting. AI helps mitigate this by generating initial outlines of press releases, social media posts, and other PR materials. While these tools provide a base from which to work, they also free up creative minds to focus more on strategy and craftsmanship, and less on the mechanics of writing. However, it’s crucial to note that AI-generated content often requires human intervention to fine-tune voice, style, and subtlety, ensuring the content resonates authentically with its intended audience.
3. Media Monitoring: Keeping track of how and where a company or client is mentioned across different media channels can be an exhausting process. AI simplifies media monitoring by automating the tracking of mentions, analyzing the tone and sentiment of coverage, and summarizing media outputs. This application is particularly valuable in crisis management, where real-time updates and sentiment analysis can help PR teams manage and mitigate potential issues more effectively.

Understanding and leveraging these tools can significantly enhance the efficacy and reach of PR campaigns, marking a transformative shift in how public relations is practiced in the digital era.

Advantages of Using AI for Press Releases
The adoption of artificial intelligence in the creation of press releases brings a host of advantages that can transform the traditional approaches to PR.

• Efficiency: AI accelerates the drafting process, transforming hours/days of work into a fraction of the time, enabling rapid response to emerging news or crises. AI tools generate structured drafts swiftly based on event details, product information, and desired call to action, facilitating a steady flow of press materials without overwhelming PR teams.
• Innovation: AI acts as a catalyst for creativity, leveraging AI’s ability to analyze vast content repositories to suggest fresh angles and innovative approaches. From recommending unique promotional strategies to introducing new presentation formats, AI prompts PR professionals to explore unconventional avenues, ensuring their press releases shine amidst crowded media landscapes.
• Analysis: AI empowers precision targeting and customization by swiftly and accurately analyzing extensive datasets. By discerning audience engagement patterns and preferences, AI tools refine messaging to resonate better with intended audiences. Advanced algorithms segment audiences based on demographics, interests, and online behaviors, facilitating highly personalized press releases. Real-time post-release analysis furnishes valuable feedback for future campaigns.

The Risk of Journalist Backlash
As AI technology becomes increasingly prevalent in the creation of press releases, journalists are adapting to discern between human and AI-generated content. The ability to identify the origin of a press release is crucial, as the ultimate goal of such communications is not just to distribute information but to secure meaningful media coverage, like articles or interviews, in respected platforms. Understanding how journalists respond to AI-generated content is key for PR professionals aiming to leverage AI tools effectively.

After all, Journalists are not just gatekeepers of information; they are also tasked with engaging their audience with authentic and compelling stories. AI-generated press releases can sometimes be met with skepticism or outright rejection for numerous reasons:
• Perceived Lack of Authenticity: If a press release lacks a personal touch or feels too mechanical, journalists may view it as inauthentic. Media professionals prefer sources that provide genuine insight and human-interest angles, which are often missing in AI-generated content.
• Impersonal Tone: The tone of AI-generated press releases may not resonate with journalists who are looking for quotes, anecdotes or emotional angles that human-written content typically provides. An impersonal tone can make the content less appealing for follow-up in the form of articles or interviews. Journalists, and all writers for that matter, have a keen eye for authenticity. They can easily spot:
• Uniformity in Language: AI-generated texts often lack the nuanced language and stylistic variations typical of human writing. If a press release reads as overly formal or uniform, it might reveal AI involvement.
• Lack of Depth or Nuance: AI struggles to capture the deeper context or the subtleties that come from human experience and background knowledge. Press releases that lack depth or fail to adequately address complex issues might be suspected of being AI-generated.
• Repetitive Phrasing: AI can often fall into patterns of repetition, especially with certain phrases or data points, which can be a giveaway to a discerning journalist.

The key for PR professionals is to use AI as a tool to enhance rather than replace the human elements of press release writing. By ensuring that AI-generated content is carefully reviewed and infused with human insights before submission, PR teams can maintain the authenticity and depth required to engage journalists effectively and achieve the desired media outcomes.

Guidelines for Effective Use of AI in Press Release Writing
Integrating AI with human expertise in public relations not only enhances the efficiency of content creation but also ensures the quality and authenticity of the final output. By establishing best practices for collaboration between AI tools and PR professionals, organizations can leverage the strengths of both to produce superior press releases.

1. Use AI for Routine and Data-Driven Tasks: Reserve AI usage for drafting standard informational content, routine updates, or data-heavy reports where its capacity for rapid data processing and pattern recognition can save valuable time. For instance, AI is exceptionally useful in compiling quarterly financial results into a standard press release format.
2. Human Touch for Storytelling and Strategic Messaging: When the press release requires storytelling, nuanced expressions, or strategic positioning, step in with human expertise. These elements are essential when you need to connect emotionally with your audience or when the message will shape public perception of your brand.
3. AI for Preliminary Research: Leverage AI to conduct preliminary research on media trends, historical press coverage, and competitor activities. This can inform the strategic direction of the press release but should be supplemented with human analysis to interpret the data correctly and apply it effectively.
4. Understanding AI Press Release Software: An AI press release writer is a type of software that leverages artificial intelligence to help draft press releases. Unlike broader AI tools such as ChatGPT, which are designed for a wide range of conversational tasks, AI press release writers are tailored for specific elements of PR writing. They are trained on a dataset of press releases and understand the standard formats, language, and key components that make press releases effective. This specialization enables them to generate content that adheres more closely to PR standards, reducing the amount of time and effort required for editing and customization.
5. Customize and Personalize with Human Oversight: Even if AI can customize content based on data, human oversight is necessary to ensure that these customizations are appropriate and resonate with the intended audience. Personal touches, such as a quote from a CEO or a relevant anecdote, should be crafted by people who understand the subtleties of human emotions and how to capture different voices – something at which AI is (at present) inherently terrible.

The Importance of Human Input and Final Review
No AI tool, no matter how advanced, can fully replicate the intricate understanding of human emotions, ethical considerations, and deep contextual knowledge that seasoned PR professionals bring to the table. Before any AI-generated press release is distributed:
• Perform a Thorough Review: Ensure that all content aligns with the brand’s voice and meets the ethical standards of your organization. This includes checking for tone, accuracy, and the subtleties of language that AI may not fully grasp. Be particularly mindful of removing obvious redundancies, for which AI has become famous.
• Ensure Brand Consistency: Verify that the press release reflects the overall branding and long-term communication goals of the company. AI can be numbingly generic in tone. Make sure that your brands tone-of-voice is effectively captured. This consistency is key in building brand trust and recognition.
• Final Human Approval: An attentive senior PR professional should always give the final approval for a release, ensuring that it not only conveys the right information but also delivers it in a way that strengthens the brand and engages the audience.

Incorporating AI into your PR strategy doesn’t mean setting aside the human aspect of public relations; rather, it’s about augmenting human capabilities and freeing up professionals to focus on more creative and strategic tasks.