Let’s face it, if you’re not incorporating AI into your day-to-day workflows, you’re behind – whether you like it or not. As a public relations practitioner, I personally felt hesitant for a bit, fearing I’d unintentionally violate any ethics or copyright laws. AI tools are not only fascinating to play around with, but can provide incredible time-saving benefits for day-to-day client work. Some of the benefits I’ve personally found:
- Content / Article Summarization
- Meeting or Video Transcription
- Grammar and Writing Elevation
- Research and Brainstorming
- AI Detection
- And More
But with a profound number of AI tools at our disposal comes a profound amount of responsibility. It’s critical to mention that clients hire their PR, marketing and content agencies for their own strategic expertise and creativity. AI should never – and, in my opinion, can never – replace the ideas and strategies of the human mind. In fact, our agency has an official AI policy to ensure we’re using these tools ethically and responsibly. While these tools can help us unlock our greatest creative potential, they should never be used to replace our own creativity. If you’re wondering how much is too much, or are looking for guidelines to instill within your own organization around employee AI use, our team would be happy to share what we’ve found works best. Reach out to us for more details!
That said, here are some of the W2 Communications team’s favorite AI tools, and how we like to use them:
Tool #1: ChatGPT
An “OG” in my book, ChatGPT excels at brainstorming and media research. It’s been a game changer for strengthening relationships with reporters, helping ensure my pitch offering aligns with their coverage focus areas. Similar tools for this are Claude and Gemini. While I’d recommend having a paid or premium account for these models, it won’t ensure client data and the queries entered are secure. We redact or omit any proprietary client information.
Tool #2: Otter.AI
This has been a game changer for creating transcriptions from calls and videos. Though Otter isn’t perfect, and still requires human oversight to adjust the copy and speaker attribution, it takes minutes to generate within the platform. The quick turnaround has saved me tremendous time analyzing rushed notes or half-finished ideas I jot down during calls.
Tool #3: Perplexity
Perplexity is a popular research tool among our team! This AI-powered search engine helps users develop specific queries that can help inform brainstorming and ideation sessions, as well as detailed research. At face value, this seems similar to ChatGPT’s capabilities. But Perplexity provides responses based on resources across the internet in real time, whereas ChatGPT’s knowledge and accuracy is based on the data it was trained on, oftentimes significantly limited and outdated. This is a great tool if you’re looking for real-time sources to embed within content or media planning.
Tool #4: Grammarly’s AI Detector
Grammarly’s AI Checker is trained to detect AI-generated text, highlighting areas the model believes is written with AI. Sometimes, you have to take the results with a grain of salt, as certain words/phrasing used by individuals can sometimes mimic similar phrasing as AI models. An alternate tool we recommend is QuillBot.
Last month, my colleague Tuka Chalabi shared how to effectively and safely integrate AI into SEO strategies. While we encourage AI use in the early stages of all projects across public relations and digital marketing (i.e. brainstorming), it’s tempting to take the “easy route” by leveraging these tools to replace your own thoughts, your own critical thinking and your own ideation. The best public relations practitioners are the ones who evolve alongside industry trends and best practices – without sacrificing their own creative voice.