10 Ways PR Professionals Should Use AI in PR

TL;DR: In PR, AI is most useful for the work around the work: first drafts, research, summaries, translations, monitoring and idea development. The catch is that every output still needs human judgment. This guide shares 10 practical use cases for using AI in PR, plus guardrails for accuracy, privacy, bias and transparency.

Key insights:

• Use AI as an assistant to speed up repetitive PR work, transform raw interview materials into first drafts and spot patterns across large amounts of text.

• Give your AI tools reliable source material, clear instructions and relevant brand context.

• Always verify facts, protect confidential information, watch for bias and keep a skilled PR professional accountable for the final work.

• Check high-risk outputs carefully. AI-generated translations, research, media contacts and campaign ideas can all contain errors or miss important context.

AI has moved from a novelty to an everyday work tool. For many PR teams, the technology already saves much time on repetitive tasks, giving them more hours for the human relationships, strategy and creativity the job depends on.

Used well, AI can give you a stronger starting point. Used carelessly, it can flatten your brand voice, invent facts or put confidential information somewhere it should never have gone.

Here are 10 practical ways to use AI in PR, along with a few rules to keep shortcuts from hurting your brand.

Why use AI in PR? 

There’s no doubt: AI can be a very useful tool in PR. Today’s generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot and Claude can quickly create PR content, turn raw interview materials into first drafts, spot patterns across large amounts of text and much more. 

But while today’s AI tools for PR teams can handle a myriad of tasks (more about these later), they have drawbacks. These tools are less reliable at deciding what’s true, what’s sensitive or what a particular audience will find persuasive. And those aren’t small details in PR.

The key is to treat AI as an assistant that speeds up parts of the process and not as the person responsible for the final call. 

The biggest gains usually come from giving the AI tools in your stack strong source material, asking for a specific output, checking the result against the sources, and letting a human make the final edit.

How to use AI responsibly in PR

Before we get to how today’s PR pros use AI in PR, it’s worth noting that AI in PR works best when it’s used responsibly. Set up time to discuss AI ethics and put these ground rules in place for your team: 

• Verify facts and sources. Generative AI can produce confident, plausible errors (so-called “AI hallucinations”). Check every name, number, quote, link and factual claim against a reliable source.

• Protect confidential and personal information. Use tools approved by your organization and make sure you understand their retention, training and access settings. Don’t paste embargoed news, customer data, private contact details or sensitive transcripts into an unapproved AI tool.

• Retain human oversight. At least one skilled PR professional should always review assets before publication or distribution. Higher-risk work, such as crisis statements, executive quotes and legal or financial announcements, typically needs scrutiny from several stakeholders.

• Watch for AI bias and missing context. AI reflects patterns in its training data and the material you provide. Ask whose perspective is missing and check the output with people who understand the audience and context.

• Implement AI transparency. Follow your company, client and publisher policies. Responsible AI use includes being open about where you used the tech, if this is required.

10 best ways to use AI in PR

As artificial intelligence evolves, staying ahead of the curve is crucial. Today’s PR superpower is using AI wisely. 

In the next section, we look at 10 ways to make the most of AI in public relations:

1. Translate press releases and other materials

2. Draft social media posts

3. Write a first draft of a press release

4. Do the backlash test 

5. Conduct research for a release or PR campaign

6. Summarize documents and meetings

7. Get the scoop on competitors and industry conversations

8. Build and improve pitch lists

9. Create a lean AI media monitoring workflow

10. Generate and refine campaign concepts

1. Translate press releases and other materials

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude can create a fast first translation of a press release, newsroom update, media pitch or social post. It can also create regional variants and highlight phrases that may not travel well across markets.

But before you send out that post or press release, remember that AI isn’t infallible. To avoid embarrassing faux pas like Asda’s “free alcohol” mishap (the result of an incorrect Welsh translation), have a human translator check the copy for accuracy and cultural sensitivity.

Insider tip: Give the tool your approved glossary, brand guidelines and source materials (e.g., an interview transcript or industry report). Ask it to flag anything it isn’t sure about. 

2. Draft social media posts

Use AI to turn one announcement into platform-specific drafts, explore different hooks or adapt a long press release into shorter posts. It can also compare drafts with your brand guidelines and flag repetition across a content calendar.

Don’t ask your AI tool to produce 30 posts without context and then publish the best ones. Give the tool enough context about the target audience, purpose, platform, length and desired action. Then select and rewrite the strongest ideas in a human voice, making it as original and interesting as possible.

Insider tip: Ask the tool to identify vague claims and clichés, and suggest alternatives. Then decide which suggested changes actually sound like your brand.

3. Write a first draft of a press release

Another good use for AI is co-writing press releases. Best practice is to provide a clear brief with the announcement, target audience, supporting evidence, approved quotes, boilerplate and any wording that must or mustn’t appear.

It’s also useful to tell the tool what belongs in the headline, opening paragraph and supporting sections. Also be clear about what the tool shouldn’t invent. 

Once you have a draft in hand, be sure to do fact-checking, sharpen the angle, and remove the generic language AI tends to produce.

Insider tip: Include one or two strong previous press releases in your AI press release writing prompt and note that they should serve as style references. Just make sure the AI tool doesn’t accidentally pull information from these releases into your new one.

4. Run a backlash test

Nothing erodes audience trust faster than a PR fail. Doing a backlash test first saves you from incredibly stressful and costly crisis management later.

Before a campaign goes live, ask your AI tool to challenge the idea from several perspectives. It can flag ambiguous wording, unintended associations, accessibility issues or questions your team may face from journalists and customers.

Be warned, however, that AI may miss cultural nuance or manufacture objections that no real audience would raise. For sensitive work, combine the backlash test with internal reviews from relevant stakeholders.

Insider tip: Try this prompt: “Review this campaign as a skeptical journalist, an employee and a customer. List credible concerns, explain the context behind each one and identify anything that requires expert review.” 

5. Conduct research for a release or PR campaign

AI can also be invaluable for research tasks. Generative AI tools can help you frame research questions, build search terms, summarize supplied reports and compare information across sources. Tools with live web access can also surface recent material, but access varies by product and configuration. 

Note, however, that a link in an answer isn’t necessarily a reliable source. Ask for primary sources, publication dates and direct links. Open those sources yourself and check that they support the claim. 

Insider tip: Give the tool a source hierarchy, for example: official data first, peer-reviewed research second and reputable trade reporting third. Ask it to flag anything it can’t verify. 

6. Summarize documents and meetings

AI can turn a long report, interview transcript or meeting record into a short summary, decisions and next steps. You can also ask targeted questions instead of reading the same 80-page document three times to find one paragraph.

At PR.co, we use AI to help summarize meetings and define next steps. We combine the transcript with human notes, then review the result before sharing it. The notes matter because transcripts can mishear names, confuse speakers or miss the point everyone in the room understood.

Just make sure you get consent before recording. 

Insider tip: Specify the audience and output format: “Summarize the decisions, open questions, owners and deadlines from this transcript. Use the attached notes to resolve obvious transcription errors. Flag anything uncertain.” 

7. Get the scoop on competitors and industry conversations

AI can help you compare competitors’ press releases, newsroom content, messaging, coverage and customer feedback. It’s particularly useful for organizing material you have already collected and finding recurring themes or gaps.

You can, for example:

• Compare how competitors describe the same issue or product category.

• Group recent coverage by topic, spokesperson or market.

• Summarize changes in messaging over time.

• Identify questions competitors answer well and topics they ignore.

Insider tip: Ask the tool to separate observations from interpretations and cite the source material behind every observation. 

8. Build and improve pitch lists

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: expensive media databases are overrated.

AI can help with one of the most tedious tasks on your to-do list: AI can suggest relevant publication categories, beats and search terms. It can also help segment a media list you already trust by geography, audience or topic.

Note, however, that it shouldn’t be your source of truth for journalist names, email addresses or current beats. People change roles, media outlets close, and AI can invent contacts. Verify every journalist against recent work and an authoritative LinkedIn or publication profile before you pitch.

Insider tip: Start with the story. Ask: “Which types of outlets and journalist beats regularly cover this issue?” Then research the people currently writing those stories. 

9. Create a lean AI media monitoring workflow

If you’re a small team and don’t have dedicated media monitoring software, you can use alerts, RSS feeds and other sources to collect brand, competitor and industry mentions. AI can then summarize the coverage, group recurring topics and help surface items that deserve a closer look.

Treat AI sentiment analysis with care. AI can misread sarcasm, quotes, humor and industry-specific language. Review any high-impact coverage yourself and define what positive, neutral and negative mean for your organization.

Insider tip: If the DIY setup no longer works for you, it’s time to compare PR tools that combine media monitoring, analysis and reporting. The right choice will depend on your workflow, requirements and budget.

10. Generate and refine campaign concepts

AI makes a patient brainstorming partner. Use it to produce alternative angles, challenge an idea’s logic, adapt a concept for different audiences, or identify the proof you still need before presenting a report to your C-suite.

The first suggestions will often be predictable because they reflect familiar patterns. Push further. Add real audience insights, current context, brand constraints and examples of work you want to avoid. 

Insider tip: Ask for fewer, better options. Have the tool score each concept against your brief, explain the weakness and suggest one way to make it more distinctive. 

Build AI into your PR workflow

The safest and most useful AI tools live inside the work and not as separate apps or browser windows.

This is exactly what PR.co offers. Our software gives PR and communications teams one PR platform for everything from online newsroom publishing to media outreach and PR analytics. And it includes AI where it matters most: right inside the workflow. 

Our PR Agent uses your brand context to help draft pitch emails, headlines, summaries and social posts, translate campaigns and analyze coverage. Your team can then simply review and refine the work before it gets distributed.

Our AI-powered solutions help brands such as JBL, Dolby, Domino's, and Wise execute more efficient PR campaigns and accelerate brand growth — including PR software for financial services companies navigating similar pressures.

Want to see how that fits into your PR workflow? Book a short demo.

FAQs

1. How is AI used in PR?

PR teams use AI for research, first drafts, translations, meeting summaries, media monitoring, sentiment analysis and campaign development. It works best as an assistant, with a human who reviews the final output.

2. What are the risks of using AI in PR?

AI can invent facts, reproduce bias, misread context and expose sensitive information if used carelessly. PR teams should verify outputs, use approved tools and keep humans responsible for published work.

3. Can AI replace PR professionals?

No. While you can certainly use AI in PR, it’s best to only use the technology for repetitive tasks and to speed up production. It shouldn’t replace human judgment, relationships, creativity, taste or accountability.