The profession’s future belongs to those who leverage technology for the public without losing sight of the importance of relationships.
By Annie Pace Scranton
When I launched my PR agency 15 years ago, “disruption” over the years meant a new social platform launching or an algorithm change. Today, the real disruptor is artificial intelligence. Not only is it here to stay, but it’s going to change our industry and how we work much more significantly than we can even currently anticipate.
The swing for me was significant: I went from extreme skeptic to full-on daily adopter. The result? My agency is more efficient, client work more effective, and, in my role as an Adjunct Professor in NYU’s School of Professional Studies, my teaching in the PR department is more relevant.
The most immediate impact of my AI use has been time. Recording a client meeting, running the transcript through AI, and generating next steps saves me 30 to 60 minutes a day. Over a week, that’s hours of regained time for strategy, creative thinking and being in-person with clients, media and colleagues.
Proposals, too, have transformed. AI delivers a draft to me that’s a working template, giving me back time to spend on adding in creative anecdotes and ideas that are human-generated. What once consumed hours is now a manageable task, freeing me to focus on client counsel and business development.
These efficiencies don’t just make life easier—they also allow us to deliver more elevated results, faster.
That’s the public part. For the “relations” part – it’s all about the human to human connection. For founders and CEOs, brand storytelling is deeply personal. They want trust, understanding, and counsel—not just words on a page.
This is why the so-called “soft skills” in our industry matter more than ever. Building relationships, thinking on your feet, presenting confidently, and generating creative ideas are irreplaceable. AI can handle tasks, but only humans can inspire. You build trust through real relationships – not a computer.
Spending time with my students just underscores these points. They are digitally fluent, but often uncomfortable with face-to-face communication. Each semester, I assign a 30-second elevator pitch, and the nerves are palpable. They are so anxious to present in front of a room—even if it’s just ten of their peers.
But this skill is essential. To land a job in PR, students must connect IRL with an interviewer – even if it is over Zoom. While AI can enhance our image on Zoom, it can’t modify our personality, enthusiasm and ability to critically think.
For Gen Z entering the profession, the opportunity to add value to the industry, via AI, is enormous. Unlike those of us who had to overcome skepticism, they can build their careers with AI from the start. Those who master it strategically will leap ahead.
Emerging fields like generative AI optimization (GEO) will become standard tools for campaign design and measurement. Tomorrow’s communicators who are fluent in both AI and the human element of PR are the ones who will succeed.
In my own practice, AI has moved from novelty to necessity. It helps us to work smarter and deliver more value. But it has not changed the heart of public relations. Our field has always been about trust, credibility, and relationships—and that will not change.
The future of PR belongs to AI in the sense that it will become a part of nearly everything we do. But it does not belong to AI alone. It belongs to those who can harness its power while never losing sight of the core tenets of PR; honesty, acting ethically, the ability to connect and to understand what will resonate with key stakeholders.