Will AI empower the PR industry or create endless seas of spam?

Mint

21-05-2025

Public-relations agencies email reporters every day with suggestions to cover their clients, but this pitch from March stood out from the flood with its unusual subject line: 'You care more about Tesla than a cancer killing thousands."
The email went on to scold U.S.-based reporters for giving priority to Tesla earnings news and celebrity gossip over the work of Mainz Biomed, a German firm that develops tests for colorectal cancer.
After rattling off statistics about increasing cancer rates, it stated, 'This isn't a future problem. It's happening right now. But you wouldn't know, because you've been covering crap that doesn't matter. Do better."
This pitch was generated entirely by an artificial intelligence tool called PRAI, which suggested getting reporters' attention by combining the well-known Tesla name with a confrontational tone, according to Valentin Saitarli, who is chief executive of PRAI and managing director of Exclusive PR Solutions, a public relations firm that represents Mainz Biomed.
It succeeded in generating attention—and hostility.
'This was an extremely efficient pitch and made lots of people angry, very angry," Saitarli said. 'We just wanted to showcase the product and invite to interviews, but we were attacked by so much hate." Mainz Biomed didn't respond to requests for comment.
Is this the future of public relations?
The email is an extreme example of AI being applied to PR without proper human oversight, according to communications veterans. But the field is already being changed by AI in other ways.
Nearly every major PR firm has named an AI leader, and they have also developed a range of proprietary tools.
Edelman, the largest global PR firm by revenue, has built a 'generative engine optimization" tool to improve clients' image among large language models as search results become less about driving clicks than maintaining reputations.
When a client is the subject of negative headlines, the PR firm Golin can use AI to track more real-time responses and test potential responses on synthetic focus groups created by large language models, said Jeff Beringer, chief AI officer at the agency, part of Interpublic Group of Cos.
The rise of generative AI has also facilitated a new wave of startups that automatically generate news releases and emails or cater to more niche PR functions.
PodPitch was specifically designed to help communications professionals land their clients on podcasts, said co-founder Neal Shulman. Its product uses AI to match users' topical keywords with transcriptions from thousands of podcast episodes and generate personalized pitch emails based on clients' qualifications and the shows they are targeting, Shulman said.
Big companies are also deploying AI for their own PR, communications and promotional activities.
Microsoft last year developed a generative AI interface that summarizes mentions of Microsoft in news stories, podcasts and social-media posts so its communications team can more quickly develop a response strategy, said Steve Clayton, vice president of communications strategy at Microsoft.
The company also uses its Copilot AI tool to develop social-media posts, conduct research and prepare executives for public speeches, but never releases any sort of AI-influenced content without thorough human review, according to Clayton.
'We're using it more as an input into the process than an output from the process," he said.
When food delivery service Grubhub conducted research for a 2024 promotion that focused on meals for women who had just given birth, survey respondents rated sushi and shellfish as their biggest cravings.
But when Grubhub used AI-powered facial recognition technology to scrutinize participants' expressions, they saw much greater enthusiasm for cold cuts and sandwiches. Grubhub subsequently edited the campaign's main video to include more comfort foods.
'You get a much better, more honest read on how they were feeling about that content versus what they say, because, you know, people are liars sometimes," said Dave Tovar, Grubhub's senior vice president of communications and government relations.
AI has complicated the jobs of PR people as well.
The technology made email outreach less effective by encouraging an ever-larger deluge of spam messages, according to Nick Toso, CEO and co-founder of Rolli, a tool that connects reporters with subject matter experts for their stories.
It has also increased the prevalence of artificial 'experts" designed to trick journalists into quoting their commentary and boosting affiliated businesses' search engine rankings, said Toso, who was previously Washington, D.C., bureau chief and senior producer at CNN's Spanish-language division.
Rolli uses AI tools and a team of human researchers to validate experts' identities and qualifications through extensive reviews of their articles, social-media posts and résumés, said Toso.
'If we're trying to tell people who the reliable sources are, we should also be able to tell them who the unreliable sources are," he said.
PR shops can similarly vet influencers for clients more quickly by using AI to review years' of content, thereby ensuring that no past posts or comments could derail a brand's campaign.
Some communications professionals remain skeptical that AI can encroach upon the discipline as quickly or as thoroughly as it has in the case of advertising.
Communications relies more heavily on the nuances of one-on-one engagement between real humans, according to Wendy Zajack, adjunct faculty at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business.
Automation and AI-generated content risk getting in the way of that, according to Zajack, and bothering journalists to boot.
'I do feel like we might see an allergic reaction to some of this in terms of seeking out really interesting, individualistic content and messaging, because we have just been inundated with a lot of crap," she said.
Write to Patrick Coffee at [e-mail]