The future of public relations in the AI Age

New Delhi: When I started working in Public Relations 15 years ago, most of our work was about getting media coverage and maintaining good relationships with journalists. Things were slower and mostly handled manually. But over the years, PR has changed completely. Today, technology and Artificial Intelligence are simplifying the complicated structure and working process we were following for years.

According to the reports by PRCAI, the Indian Public Relations industry has achieved Rs 2,500 crore of revenue in the financial year of 2023. With a CAGR of 12.8%, it is expected to reach Rs 4,570 crores by FY 2030. What’s even more interesting is that it expects to increase the number of employees to 22,700 by 2030, with a CAGR of 8%.

These figures not only tell the economic story but also represent a transformation from the traditional to the modern form of communication approaches. Contrary to the early fears that AI might replace humans, these roles in PR, data, and real-world experience are telling us a different story: AI is not taking jobs away, but it’s becoming our most valuable friend that is leading us to creativity, giving ideas following the humanistic approaches as well.

Human instincts to data-driven precision

Early days of PR, we had to live a lot by human instincts, which explained moods, projected media behaviour, and created messages out of experience. And to be just, instinct does have its role to play, though now it is fueled by something much sharper: data. In a few seconds, AI tools analyze millions of data points, such as trending hashtags and so on. Indicatively, predictive analytics systems can estimate the reaction of the masses to a campaign before it ever comes into existence.

It is not ChatGPT or Gemini replacing creativity when it assists us in making a pitch to a journalist sound more natural or generalizing consumer responses in multiple languages. And as I frequently say, AI can never feel what we as humans can feel, but it provides a more favorable platform to explore what more we can add to the present and communicate in more impactful ways.

The era of hyper-personalisation

The days of “one thing fits all” are gone as people want differences. In the new age of communication, it is not about the presence, but precision. The AI solutions are now used to divide the audience, map the preferences of journalists, and see how a specific story will go down.

For instance, instead of sending one release to 500 journalists, what we used to do before, we now create personalized versions for every journalist when we pitch them, each aligned to their beat, tone, and editorial interests. And what are the results now? It gives us better placement, more authentic coverage, and helps in maintaining stronger media relationships.

AI: Backbone of intelligent storytelling

Artificial Intelligence is not taking the place of creativity; it is enhancing it. Imagine having an assistant who reads your millions of conversations on the internet, picks out the emotional undercurrents, and proposes an ideal narrative angle, all in a matter of seconds. This is already done with the help of such tools as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Grok..

It helps in identifying audience priorities to launch a campaign, anticipates the way some messages will work, and even knows when a report should be published. It is a data scientist or psychologist in one, directly next to your PR team. AI does not seize the soul of storytelling; it makes us listen to it better. This change implies that communication has ceased to be reactive. AI provides PR professionals with the foresight they could not have previously, as it seeks to prevent crises and tailor the brand to the needs of the present moment.

Rewriting the rules of engagement

The era of AI has resulted in the blurring of PR, marketing, and digital communication. It is not only about headlines that the modern campaigns seek, but they also aim for headspaces. It doesn't matter whether it is a social cause, product launch, or reputation management; the strategy has been converted to deep data insights and real-time adaptability.  Consider how brand intelligence platforms are now able to monitor thousands of online mentions per minute. A brand’s response time to a trending issue, whether it’s a product review or a political statement, can shape its entire reputation.

The days of “let’s wait for tomorrow’s newspaper” are gone. Take the example of how fast the PR teams of Zomato and Swiggy respond to the consumers; that's how AI and advanced technology help brands to be more engaging. In such a case, AI is both an overseer and a roadmap. They assist a brand to know when to speak, how to sound, and most importantly, when to remain silent.

The human touch in a machine-led world

Despite how much technology is being used today, I’ve learned one fact that still stands strong: relationships drive reputation. Despite the level of sophistication of AI, connectedness, trust, and intuition will remain irreplaceable. Persuasion art, culture, and emotional appeal, especially in a diverse country like India, still depend on our tendencies. The key is to let AI handle the analytics while we handle the emotions.

The road ahead

Based on the future projections, the PR environment in India will be characterised by predictive communications, hyper-personalised stories, and real-time control of reputations. AI will assist the agencies to develop messages that are made dynamically, changing the tone and timing of the message according to the sentiment of the audience in real time. When I consider the future of PR in the AI era, I do not envision the rise of machines in our profession. I envisage them making us good communicators, keener, quicker, and infinitely more conscious. In the constantly changing communication environment of India, technology will keep transforming the way that stories are being told, but the reason behind the story will always be as deeply human.