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Artificial intelligence is reshaping industries, influencing policy and transforming the way organisations communicate. But as adoption accelerates, is public trust keeping pace or are organisations simply reinforcing the hype, and how is it impacting the PR sector?

We all have varying thoughts and feelings around AI and its reputation – and I am not afraid to say I tend to err on the side of caution when using it and reading content which is potentially written or influenced by AI.

So this week, I attended CARMA’s second instalment of the perception of AI, from a media and public perspective – taken from the brand’s latest global research combining media intelligence with market research across 19 markets and thousands of media articles, alongside public opinion data.

In the media today, some of the most common phrases associated with AI include:

• “Productivity miracle”
• “Economic enabler”
• “Needs guardrails”
• “Trusted partner”
• “Arms race” (more associated with US & China)

Now, there’s some quite interesting phrases in there – of which, build quite the contrasting picture. My interpretation highlights the growing trust in the tech, though as a partner not in replacement to real people (experts), and that we still need some boundaries and/or guidelines in order to use it effectively and most importantly, ethically. This ideally comes from the top of a business. A detailed AI strategy starts from your business leader, helping colleagues understand where AI adds genuine value and where it doesn’t, aligned with where our experts are most useful, even when it is perhaps less convenient.

Interestingly, the most common phrase – productivity miracle – tells me that we still don’t fully understand what it is or what it does, or indeed it’s full capabilities (will we ever?), but at least on the surface, we are able to make some efficiencies which are having a positive impact, so this is a good thing!

Digging deeper in the data and looking at trends over the last 12 months, it has also identified that the initial emotions around the tech have changed – dropping in positivity by 10% (57%-47%) since last year and the awareness of security issues and deep-fakes. Only last week, OpenAI announced its own technology “went rogue” and launched an “unprecedent” hack on a start-up – one of the first publicly disclosed cyber-attacks. Are we surprised?

What does this mean?

I still very much believe we’re in the (very) early adoption stage, with so much consideration and exploration to come. This week, I was having a conversation in the office about different AI tools and uses, with the unanimous conclusion that we all use AI differently – for different tasks, with different tools and with varying levels experience on the tech versus the task changing what we do and don’t use it for, and to what extent.

And this leads me very succinctly into the data around use cases. Automation and operational efficiency come in first place, unsurprisingly – but there has been a reduction in the percentage in the last 12 months, from 24% to 17% this year. Second place goes to supporting decisions and analysing information, down by 1% (18%-17%), followed by content creation down from 14%-12%.

Does it mean that the hype is ebbing? Or does it mean that we have had some (very initial) time to “play” with the tech and now we know (a little bit) more about its capabilities and what is really helping to move the needle in terms of tasks and processes?

The media landscape

When we look at the media and how journalists are talking about AI and what they are reporting on, again it varies. The emotional signals from recent coverage show:

1. Excitement
2. Trust
3. Fear
4. Anger
5. Indifference

Compared with actual public emotions:

1. Trust
2. Excitement
3. Fear
4. Indifference
5. Anger

Add to that, the final piece in this puzzle – from a media and creative sector specifically, our biggest emotion is… Fear!

Over the years of any career, our relationships with the media and particularly the earned content being secured, is based on a series of valuable, nurtured relationships, on understanding the sector and having an opinion on trends, developments and regulations. So when it comes to the physical written word and those valuable lengthy brand features, what do we value most?

For me, it’s the experience, passion and expertise that comes across in an article. The care and the consideration of the storytelling and the brand essence. The relationships we have with our media are (in most cases) what drives the success of a campaign and keep the client owning their space. When we create an experiential VIP event, the relationship you build is brought through in the piece and you can tell the journalist was really there, relive the moments and home in on the key messages for the client.

Adoption for PR?

How many times have you heard something along the lines of, “Can’t AI just write that for you?” or “Why do I have to pay so much, if AI can just do that?”

What we’re learning here, is that the initial perception of AI is that it can do everything, it has access to so much information and data, so surely it can write (xxx) for me, or make a decision on (xxx). Yet where the professionals sit, is that whilst it may be capable of writing something or giving you an answer on approach, does it really understand your business, your tone of voice, the five year plan, what your competitors are doing in the marketplace and what your team is really feeling about (xxx). And side note here, I absolutely know you can feed (the tool you’re using) your brand guidelines, tone of voice, previously-approved articles, but it doesn’t actually have an opinion.

So, in my opinion? No. (Well, not yet…)

And this is the key element. It takes years of experience, knowledge, qualifications and on-the-job learning to develop skills and expertise for a particular career, especially in the creative sector. But – and it’s a big but – I do believe it has its place to enhance what we’re doing, the processes we’re following and how we are utilising our time and upskilling. And ultimately, we want AI to be completely the boring day to day tasks, not what we love most.

The future?

For the next 12 months, I think AI will continue to evolve (duh!), and thus, we must too – in business, in day-to-day practices and how, and what, we communicate. The rise of the mentions on the safety and misuse of AI continues to be reported, alongside the accuracy and reliability… It is therefore our job to ensure we are ethically using the tool, aligned to our business and our values. Though I appreciate those guidelines and understanding are ever-evolving.

Other interesting data to share – based on today’s data:

The most used AI:

1. OpenAI (ChatGPT)
2. Anthropic (Claude)
3. Google Alphabet (Gemini)

The leading voices on AI:

1. Elon Musk (Grok)
2. Sam Altman (OpenAI)
3. Dario Amodei (Anthropic)

Those most confident with AI use and adoption:

1. CEOs & Senior Executives
2. Regulators
3. Academics

Thanks to CARMA and Jennifer Sanchis for the really interesting session! You can access the full report, here.

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