When it comes to trust in public relations, humans have an edge over AI
While AI tools can bring efficiencies, they can’t compete with the institutional knowledge that’s passed between people nor understand the nuances of nurturing client relationships.
“AI may have an impact on employment in ways that are difficult to predict.”
Now read this statement: “AI is moving so fast that its impact on the workforce and society needs to be recalibrated every three months”.
These statements say the same thing but leave the reader with two very different impressions. The first leaves the reader feeling insecure. Its tone is defeatist because the focus is on uncertainty and lack of clarity. The second statement on the other hand, leaves the reader feeling hopeful because it sets out a clear path towards clarity. Its tone is authoritative and thus reassuring.
Both statements could easily have been generated by the same prompt, but no human reader would regard the outcomes as identical. The difference lies in the unstructured context a human writer would never overlook. This context is composed of more than a selection of company documents and a few prompt directions.
Should PR professionals be worried by AI?
People remember good stories, they remember how a story made them feel. Unless you remember to include the feeling you want to leave your audience within every prompt, your communication won’t hit the mark. Unlike an LLM, your agency doesn’t need reminding to reflect a blend of nuanced messages but instead infuse everything they write for you with intentionality.
While it is true that experienced AI users can extract more fine-tuned results, the reality is that in most businesses, users are putting a request into a model without necessarily providing all the information that is required to receive an accurate output.
For example, I have seen an internal team ask AI to draft a document that required some templated elements to secure speedy approvals. The LLM reworded those elements because it underestimated the need for adherence. The humans involved caught this just in time.
I’ve tested first-hand the time saving and efficiency AI can offer to communications professionals. For example, I can ask it to provide an initial batch of research, I may ask it to give me concrete examples of how a specific tool is used within a sector I don’t know very well, and I will most definitely ask it to proofread this article for grammar once I’m finished. What I would never ask it to do is get involved in my professional relationships with both clients and journalists: those are human-first, and with good reason.
The fact is that PR is about building trust-based relationships: with audiences, through savvy, well balanced content; with clients, by getting to know the personal dynamics and long-term objectives of the business; and with journalists, by talking about what they would like to receive and understanding how we can help them.
This same reliability is what AI agents pick up on when they select reputable third-party references for the generative search responses that are replacing traditional SEO. In fact, research indicates that 82–89% of citations in AI search results come from third-party earned media sources rather than brand-owned content.
Knowing where the bodies are buried
The most valuable intelligence a PR professional holds rarely makes it into any briefing document. Knowing where the bodies are buried (which internal conflicts to navigate around, which stakeholders to avoid quoting in a press release and who to work with instead) is the kind of institutional knowledge passed between people, not fed into systems.
A skilled PR agency builds client relationships that extend far beyond knowing preferred terminology or pet peeves; they know who moves fastest on approvals, who carries the deepest subject matter expertise, and when to shield their client from a decision that might backfire. This is the connective tissue of trust: the willingness to have someone's back even when doing so runs counter to your own interests. Trust of this kind cannot be automated. A highly valuable part of the PR person’s knowledge base is “unstructured data" derived from informal conversations, moods and subtle hints. AI struggles with unstructured data that isn't digitized and won’t be able to pick up on subtle mood shifts that might prove to be critical success factors.
In telephone follow up with journalists, conversations often take unexpectedly positive turns based on the ability of the professional to think up a more suitable angle on the fly, offer another client or another piece of content. The relationship-building benefit of this approach are difficult to quantify and measure, so equally hard to code.
Communicating in a crisis
Empathy is another hurdle I struggle to see AI overcoming. Firstly, true empathy is difficult to simulate even for humans, so how can we expect our audience to believe it when it comes from a machine? Crisis scenarios in particular require empathy, modulation of messages and a human touch. Can you imagine the ethical implications and reputational impact of communicating with the relative of rail crash victims via what is essentially a bot? We all love the sycophantic tones of AI, but when there is a real crisis people still prefer the comfort of people.
AI has an important role to play in the modern PR agency helping to streamline workflows, accelerate output, and remove friction from repeatable tasks. That role, however, is one of augmentation, rather than replacement. AI can help us communicate faster, more accurately and effectively but it is a force that needs to be directed and those directing will be PR professionals for a while yet.
Josephine Ornago is the founder and owner of OutspokenPR.