March 31, 2025
Why It's Time to Advance AI Discussions in PR
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That Solo Life, Episode 293: Why It's Time to Advance AI Discussions in PR
In This Episode
Join Karen Swim, APR and Michelle Kane as they discuss how PR professionals can leverage AI to enhance productivity while maintaining ethical practices. From practical applications for tasks like research and content creation to addressing AI's challenges, this episode offers valuable insights into how professionals can integrate AI tools to work more efficiently.
What We Cover in This Episode:
- MuckRack's "State of AI in PR" report and key takeaways
- Why PR pros need to move beyond basic AI usage (like content and journalist research)
- Practical examples of how to use AI to save time, like creating campaign templates, summarizing research, or simplifying technical content
- The importance of staying ahead with AI to offer strategic counsel to clients
- How to address misconceptions about AI and demonstrate your own value as a professional in a tech-driven world
- Ethical considerations and creating responsible AI use policies
Why You Should Listen:
AI is here to stay, and PR professionals must not only adapt but also lead the conversation in how this technology influences communication. Whether you're already using AI in advanced ways or you're hesitant to try, this episode addresses the need to learn to integrate AI into your workflows effectively and responsibly.
Episode Highlights:
- “What we’re saying is to use AI to simplify repetitive tasks and preserve your expertise for what truly matters.”
- “AI isn’t a vending machine. It’s not magic. It’s only as good as what you input, but it’s a powerful assistant when used well.”
- “Helping clients craft AI use policies not only protects them but also establishes you as a forward-thinking, trusted advisor.”
Key Points:
In this episode, Karen and Michelle discuss the use of AI in public relations and communication practices. The key points are:
- The PR industry has been slow to adopt AI, focusing on limited use cases like content creation and journalist research, rather than exploring more efficient and strategic applications.
- AI can be a valuable tool for PR professionals, helping with repetitive tasks, research analysis, content writing, and developing campaign templates - freeing up time to focus on high-value, human-centric activities.
- There are ethical considerations around AI usage that PR professionals should be aware of and address, such as developing AI use policies and monitoring for potential misuse or negative impacts.
- PR professionals should make an effort to understand AI capabilities and how to leverage the technology responsibly, as it is an increasingly important part of the communication landscape.
Links and Resources Mentioned:
Connect with Us:
- Visit our website: Solo PR Pro
- Share your thoughts and feedback: info@soloprpro.com
- Follow us on Instagram
Listen Now: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Solo PR
Enjoyed the episode?
Please leave a review here - even a sentence helps. Share and tag us (@SoloPRPro, @KarenSwim) on social media so that we can thank you personally!
That Solo Life Episode 293: Why It's Time to Advance AI Discussions in PR
Michelle Kane (00:18):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me. Michelle came with Voice Matters and my wonderful co-host, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hi Karen. How's it going?
Karen Swim, APR (00:32):
Hi, Michelle. It's going, it March the month that they say we're winter and spring are at war.
Michelle Kane (00:40):
It feels that way, right? Yeah,
Karen Swim, APR (00:42):
I think winter is winning.
Michelle Kane (00:44):
I heard there was some flurries early this morning in Pennsylvania. I was up pretty early, but I didn't see flurries, which is just fine with me. I'm done with that part of the year.
Karen Swim, APR (00:54):
I didn't see any today, but I have seen them in the past couple of days and we actually, some covered the ground, they didn't stick. So that's the upside of this winter time of year is that it's still a little warmer even when the “feels like” temperature is 18.
Michelle Kane (01:13):
Yeah. Spring is starting to move in here as the great purple one says. Sometimes it snows in April. It better not this year, over it. But anyway, you're probably thinking, oh, so what's your topic today, ladies? Get to it? Yeah. All right. We will. We're just musing. There was an article in MuckRack recently about the best ways PR people can use AI, and some of it was fine, and some of it was like, really? Are we still doing all this? So we ust wanted to talk about it all today.
Karen Swim, APR (01:47):
Yeah, this was their State of AI MuckRack, State of AI in PR report, and I haven't read the full report yet, but we saw kind of a recap of the takeaways in PR News, which we love, Hey PR news. And I think the thing that was really, none of this was interesting to me personally. It was honestly a little disappointing that in communication, we're still talking about AI and content or AI and journalist research. I feel like we're stuck on something that so many other people have learned to harness this tool in so many different ways. And we don't talk enough about how we can ethically integrate AI into some of our tasks to make us more efficient and to save us time. We keep focusing on one or two things that are client facing activities and why this is bad.
Michelle Kane (03:00):
Yeah, I feel like we're still stuck in a lot of ways in the same place we were about a year ago or even longer when we first started about talking about AI And not to say anything, it's not entirely good, but it's also not entirely bad. And I've come across fellow practitioners who run the gamut from, oh yeah, I use it in these interesting ways to, oh, I dabble in it here. And then there are some who are like, oh, I'm not touching that. And I'm thinking, oh, but you really need to, it's a tool we need to know, and like you say, to help us in practical ways, much like many other tools have over the years, it's there. And if you use it well with the right prompts, and there are so many resources out there to learn how to use it well to your advantage. And even for ideas, I mean, let's just say even in proposals, it's like, okay, well, I've thought of these ideas. What else is out there? Oh, okay. I mean, you wouldn't question doing a Google search, right?
Karen Swim, APR (04:16):
Yeah, we would not. And as a matter of fact, I think that we have to use it. We have to really explore different avenues and how others are using it as well so that we can understand what's important to our clients. So for example, if you have used AI rather than just a straight Google search to suss out information, you've used it to find statistics, you've used it to narrow down the top 10 journalists that are covering a very specific topic, then you know that the AI summaries that Google is moving to and that are appearing at the top are important for your clients because what's in those summaries? What's really getting picked up? What's leading them to be at the top of that content? And how does that inform your job? But you won't know that if you're not using it, touching it, paying attention and exploring for yourself, because we not only have to get up to speed, we have to be ahead of the game so that we can offer strategic counsel to our clients.
Michelle Kane (05:24):
Yeah, I mean that what you said is just so important, right? Because what do a lot of our clients want when we want to be found online? Well, this is going to be increasingly, is increasingly part of that result. So we have to know about it. We have to know how to do it. At the same time, it can also help us demonstrate our value and our worth because it can be all too easy for some businesses, even some clients out there to say, oh, we'll just AI it. We don't need you to do X, Y, Z. You think, Hey, it's not just something that you, it's not a vending machine, guys. It's not, and you're not going to be pleased in the long run, but you have to understand that and understand how to use it to, I hate to say defend yourself, but to best explain and present the truth of it so that they understand it. Not that you're trying to pull one over on anyone, but just like, well, yeah, it may seem that way, but here's the real deal.
Karen Swim, APR (06:24):
And here's the beauty of AI and how the things that I think, and I do believe that many people in the solo audience, because we often are a little bit different than our peers that are in corporate America. I believe that we are using it in really advanced ways. But think about repetitive task. Maybe you are the person that has to write the emails for the client sequencing. So think about how AI can take those repetitive tasks and save you time. I think we have to get away from this. AI is not as good as humans. No, it is not. And AI is definitely not as good as humans because it's only as good as what you input, but then you still require human interaction. What we're saying is that use AI and then preserve what you do as a human being for the things that really require your input, your insight, your expertise, and you now have saved the time to be able to focus on what really matters.
(07:33):
And so that's one small way, and I think that that's really basic, but other beautiful things that I've seen AI used for, for example, maybe you have a lot of research to cull through. Did you know that you can feed that into AI and ask it to pull out key points for you? You can ask it. Maybe you're writing a piece of content for something super technical and your client does not know how to speak like a human being. You can take those texts and ask it to give you three key things in human language and it'll save you. And when you get that information back, what it does is you're like, ah, aha, I understand it now. And then you can take it and distill it further. We don't talk about those kinds of things. Putting together campaign templates sometimes. I know we all do this, whether it's a report, a competitive analysis in our brains, we always wonder, am I doing the same template that I've always been doing? Does somebody else have something better? Is that the question we always ask is, Hey, does somebody do something better? Am I missing something? Are my skills up to date? AI can help you with that. There's so many things that are out there that exist that can help you. So think about your own work and how you approach it in ways that you can integrate this to help you because it's not going away.
Michelle Kane (09:02):
Exactly. And with any new technology, think back, you can't really equate it with social media, but any new thing that's come along in the last decade or so, it's so much better to not fear it, not reject it. You don't need to fully embrace it, but get to know it. Get to know it, because it's important, because it's here and it is affecting your business whether or not you're getting involved. And I think that's probably one of the most important takeaways we can give you. It's here. It's not getting anywhere. And if anything else, we've said this many times before, we in our profession should be leading the way with how this technology affects how we communicate for good and bad, how we use it. We should be the experts in helping guide people of how this can make things better. What to look out for all of that.
Karen Swim, APR (10:03):
I completely agree. And helping our clients to craft AI use policies and crafting into ourselves as well, and
(10:09):
Inserting those into client contracts. I mean, these are all I am passionate about, ethical use of AI, and we all know that with technology comes responsibility and they're ways is a dark side to it. We're seeing this even with email, which has been around forever. We're seeing so much fraud. We're seeing people, scammers getting smarter using AI to do damage. It does not mean that we throw out the tool itself because it has a downside to it and has some cons and can be used by bad actors. It just means we really have to be understanding. We have to stay on top of where the threats are, how people are using this in the wrong way, and be able, again, to watch out for our clients, to monitor fakes, to be able to spot them and to be able to guide them in how they can use this in a responsible and ethical way.
Michelle Kane (11:12):
So very true. And it doesn't mean you have to become the ultimate AI expert. Absolutely not. None of us knows everything about everything, but it will definitely serve both you and your business well if you haven't been delving into the area of AI to get to know it and just find a way to make it work for you and your business. And I think you'll find that there is a lot there that can help us all, both in move the profession forward, help your business maybe even help you personally. Who knows, right? There's all sorts of things. Well, we hope you found value in this time together. We always find value in just kicking these things around amongst ourselves too. How about that? But if you do, please do share this around and let us know it@solopro.com, what you think, if you have any questions. And then until next time, thanks for listening to That Solo Life.
Michelle Kane (00:18):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me. Michelle came with Voice Matters and my wonderful co-host, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hi Karen. How's it going?
Karen Swim, APR (00:32):
Hi, Michelle. It's going, it March the month that they say we're winter and spring are at war.
Michelle Kane (00:40):
It feels that way, right? Yeah,
Karen Swim, APR (00:42):
I think winter is winning.
Michelle Kane (00:44):
I heard there was some flurries early this morning in Pennsylvania. I was up pretty early, but I didn't see flurries, which is just fine with me. I'm done with that part of the year.
Karen Swim, APR (00:54):
I didn't see any today, but I have seen them in the past couple of days and we actually, some covered the ground, they didn't stick. So that's the upside of this winter time of year is that it's still a little warmer even when the “feels like” temperature is 18.
Michelle Kane (01:13):
Yeah. Spring is starting to move in here as the great purple one says. Sometimes it snows in April. It better not this year, over it. But anyway, you're probably thinking, oh, so what's your topic today, ladies? Get to it? Yeah. All right. We will. We're just musing. There was an article in MuckRack recently about the best ways PR people can use AI, and some of it was fine, and some of it was like, really? Are we still doing all this? So we ust wanted to talk about it all today.
Karen Swim, APR (01:47):
Yeah, this was their State of AI MuckRack, State of AI in PR report, and I haven't read the full report yet, but we saw kind of a recap of the takeaways in PR News, which we love, Hey PR news. And I think the thing that was really, none of this was interesting to me personally. It was honestly a little disappointing that in communication, we're still talking about AI and content or AI and journalist research. I feel like we're stuck on something that so many other people have learned to harness this tool in so many different ways. And we don't talk enough about how we can ethically integrate AI into some of our tasks to make us more efficient and to save us time. We keep focusing on one or two things that are client facing activities and why this is bad.
Michelle Kane (03:00):
Yeah, I feel like we're still stuck in a lot of ways in the same place we were about a year ago or even longer when we first started about talking about AI And not to say anything, it's not entirely good, but it's also not entirely bad. And I've come across fellow practitioners who run the gamut from, oh yeah, I use it in these interesting ways to, oh, I dabble in it here. And then there are some who are like, oh, I'm not touching that. And I'm thinking, oh, but you really need to, it's a tool we need to know, and like you say, to help us in practical ways, much like many other tools have over the years, it's there. And if you use it well with the right prompts, and there are so many resources out there to learn how to use it well to your advantage. And even for ideas, I mean, let's just say even in proposals, it's like, okay, well, I've thought of these ideas. What else is out there? Oh, okay. I mean, you wouldn't question doing a Google search, right?
Karen Swim, APR (04:16):
Yeah, we would not. And as a matter of fact, I think that we have to use it. We have to really explore different avenues and how others are using it as well so that we can understand what's important to our clients. So for example, if you have used AI rather than just a straight Google search to suss out information, you've used it to find statistics, you've used it to narrow down the top 10 journalists that are covering a very specific topic, then you know that the AI summaries that Google is moving to and that are appearing at the top are important for your clients because what's in those summaries? What's really getting picked up? What's leading them to be at the top of that content? And how does that inform your job? But you won't know that if you're not using it, touching it, paying attention and exploring for yourself, because we not only have to get up to speed, we have to be ahead of the game so that we can offer strategic counsel to our clients.
Michelle Kane (05:24):
Yeah, I mean that what you said is just so important, right? Because what do a lot of our clients want when we want to be found online? Well, this is going to be increasingly, is increasingly part of that result. So we have to know about it. We have to know how to do it. At the same time, it can also help us demonstrate our value and our worth because it can be all too easy for some businesses, even some clients out there to say, oh, we'll just AI it. We don't need you to do X, Y, Z. You think, Hey, it's not just something that you, it's not a vending machine, guys. It's not, and you're not going to be pleased in the long run, but you have to understand that and understand how to use it to, I hate to say defend yourself, but to best explain and present the truth of it so that they understand it. Not that you're trying to pull one over on anyone, but just like, well, yeah, it may seem that way, but here's the real deal.
Karen Swim, APR (06:24):
And here's the beauty of AI and how the things that I think, and I do believe that many people in the solo audience, because we often are a little bit different than our peers that are in corporate America. I believe that we are using it in really advanced ways. But think about repetitive task. Maybe you are the person that has to write the emails for the client sequencing. So think about how AI can take those repetitive tasks and save you time. I think we have to get away from this. AI is not as good as humans. No, it is not. And AI is definitely not as good as humans because it's only as good as what you input, but then you still require human interaction. What we're saying is that use AI and then preserve what you do as a human being for the things that really require your input, your insight, your expertise, and you now have saved the time to be able to focus on what really matters.
(07:33):
And so that's one small way, and I think that that's really basic, but other beautiful things that I've seen AI used for, for example, maybe you have a lot of research to cull through. Did you know that you can feed that into AI and ask it to pull out key points for you? You can ask it. Maybe you're writing a piece of content for something super technical and your client does not know how to speak like a human being. You can take those texts and ask it to give you three key things in human language and it'll save you. And when you get that information back, what it does is you're like, ah, aha, I understand it now. And then you can take it and distill it further. We don't talk about those kinds of things. Putting together campaign templates sometimes. I know we all do this, whether it's a report, a competitive analysis in our brains, we always wonder, am I doing the same template that I've always been doing? Does somebody else have something better? Is that the question we always ask is, Hey, does somebody do something better? Am I missing something? Are my skills up to date? AI can help you with that. There's so many things that are out there that exist that can help you. So think about your own work and how you approach it in ways that you can integrate this to help you because it's not going away.
Michelle Kane (09:02):
Exactly. And with any new technology, think back, you can't really equate it with social media, but any new thing that's come along in the last decade or so, it's so much better to not fear it, not reject it. You don't need to fully embrace it, but get to know it. Get to know it, because it's important, because it's here and it is affecting your business whether or not you're getting involved. And I think that's probably one of the most important takeaways we can give you. It's here. It's not getting anywhere. And if anything else, we've said this many times before, we in our profession should be leading the way with how this technology affects how we communicate for good and bad, how we use it. We should be the experts in helping guide people of how this can make things better. What to look out for all of that.
Karen Swim, APR (10:03):
I completely agree. And helping our clients to craft AI use policies and crafting into ourselves as well, and
(10:09):
Inserting those into client contracts. I mean, these are all I am passionate about, ethical use of AI, and we all know that with technology comes responsibility and they're ways is a dark side to it. We're seeing this even with email, which has been around forever. We're seeing so much fraud. We're seeing people, scammers getting smarter using AI to do damage. It does not mean that we throw out the tool itself because it has a downside to it and has some cons and can be used by bad actors. It just means we really have to be understanding. We have to stay on top of where the threats are, how people are using this in the wrong way, and be able, again, to watch out for our clients, to monitor fakes, to be able to spot them and to be able to guide them in how they can use this in a responsible and ethical way.
Michelle Kane (11:12):
So very true. And it doesn't mean you have to become the ultimate AI expert. Absolutely not. None of us knows everything about everything, but it will definitely serve both you and your business well if you haven't been delving into the area of AI to get to know it and just find a way to make it work for you and your business. And I think you'll find that there is a lot there that can help us all, both in move the profession forward, help your business maybe even help you personally. Who knows, right? There's all sorts of things. Well, we hope you found value in this time together. We always find value in just kicking these things around amongst ourselves too. How about that? But if you do, please do share this around and let us know it@solopro.com, what you think, if you have any questions. And then until next time, thanks for listening to That Solo Life.