Many industry reports and articles have discussed the threat that AI poses to jobs across various sectors. However, artificial intelligence (AI) has proven to be a reliable ally for the public relations and communication industry. According to a Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report, AI can support up to 80% of corporate affairs tasks. Additionally, Muck Rack’s “The State of AI in PR” report states that as of January 2025, three out of four PR professionals use AI for up to five tasks, an increase from three last year.
These figures suggest that PR professionals are increasingly turning to AI as a tool to automate routine tasks and save significant time. PR agencies and departments are also finding ways to leverage AI to maximize value for clients.
PR teams are expanding their understanding of AI to stay ahead. According to PR experts, curiosity and continuous experimentation are crucial for building confidence and developing AI skills, enabling professionals to better guide clients. While AI powers AI-generated content, which has led PR professionals to inundate journalists and influencers with generally AI-generated pitches, we document how to effectively utilize AI in PR to reduce costs, save time, and enhance overall quality and output. Here are some ways to do so:
1. Create personalized content
AI writing tools can assist in drafting press releases, pitches, and thought leadership articles that help a business stand out. As most advice experts suggest, by providing AI with detailed instructions and examples regarding structure, tone, and expectations, teams can improve output quality to save time and scale more efficiently. Personalizing journalist outreach by tailoring angles to their past coverage increases your chances of securing interviews for your client. AI can also generate tailored versions of press releases for a PR campaign targeting 100 journalists, customized by journalist, interest, and platform focus.
2. Improve pitching and researching journalists and influencers
Instead of manually browsing LinkedIn, Twitter, or Google News for meetings with industry journalists or researchers, AI can help you prepare thoroughly. It allows you to review a journalist’s previous work, focus areas, current role, platform coverage, and potential ice-breakers. AI can also identify details about micro-influencers you’ve been targeting, helping you craft personalized pitches with unique angles and proposals. Additionally, AI tools like Perplexity can surface industry data and relevant links to strengthen your pitches. They are also useful for discovering emerging influencers in your niche or geographic area.
3. Monitor audience and understand customers
Using AI tools like Meltwater, Brandwatch, and Cision enables real-time tracking of news, social media, and online conversations. This helps spot potential crises before they escalate. AI chatbots like Claude and Perplexity assist in market research by identifying buyer personas and customer profiles within minutes. These tools analyze audience data to generate updated profiles, which can help refine messaging, business strategies, or models based on insights. This process helps identify gaps, new markets, and validate strategies with offline rigorous customer research.
4. Manage crisis communication
AI tools can help manage crises proactively. Monitoring systems like Google Alerts can provide real-time alerts about negative coverage. Fast response mechanisms, including AI-generated draft responses, can mitigate the effects of crises. The key is feeding the system contextual information, while a human finalizes the tone and voice of the response.
5. Keep up with industry trends and competitors
The business world moves quickly, with AI driving productivity, tech adoption, and new investments. Staying ahead requires awareness of your competitive landscape. AI can surface competitor news, product launches, feature announcements, partnerships, and media coverage that might otherwise be overlooked. This widens your perspective as a business owner and exposes you to new strategies, while also helping you defend against future competition. However, rigorous human fact-checking is critical to ensure accuracy. AI can also help you spot trends worth “newsjacking,” positioning your brand for timely coverage.
6. Automate routine tasks
AI relieves teams of administrative clutter by handling monitoring, scheduling, and reporting. PR assistants powered by AI can record, transcribe, and summarize meetings or client calls, ensuring no detail is lost. They can also condense lengthy whitepapers, reports, or regulatory filings into clear summaries, saving days of manual review. This allows PR professionals to dedicate more energy to storytelling, brand positioning, and relationship building.
Closing notes
AI will not replace human input or the strategic heart of PR. Instead, it makes PR faster, sharper, and more evidence-based. The true value lies in how humans operationalize AI insights by turning reports into action, managing expectations, and making judgment calls that technology cannot. In short, AI is a powerful partner, but people remain the storytellers and strategists who drive successful PR outcomes.