By Ilia Papadimitriou

Could you really lose your job to a Robot?

Even though the term "Artificial Intelligence" (AI) dates from 1956, almost no one could imagine at that point that after some decades, AI would growth so much to undertake public relations activities. The establishment of AI in public relations field may automatically challenge the profession.

Some argue that AI must be seen as a tool that will make practitioners' life easier and allow them to focus on certain activities that only humans can do. Others believe that AI could give rise to ethical issues and still question the efficiency of a machine interacting with humans at the level that public relations need in order to be successful. Robots can lead to unemployment and in the future, humans could be controlled by machines smarter than them.

Galloway & Swiatek examined in their article the relationship between Artificial Intelligence and public relations and the extent of AI's potential applications in public relations, and they highlighted the importance of a greater critical attention. 

What is Artificial Intelligence? 

Some of the definitions used to describe the term “Artificial Intelligence” are:

“The ability of machines to perform tasks that typically require human-like understanding”.

and

“A sophisticated application of technology whereby a machine demonstrates human cognitive functions such as learning, analysis and problem solving”.

In other words, a machine that acts like a human! This does not mean that this machine or this application of technology has to be a robot. For instance, it could also be an application in a public relations agency that uses AI in order to undertake clients’ work. Thus, artificial intelligence is an umbrella term for all machines that act in ways that mimic human intelligence.

Artificial Intelligence in Public Relations

Organizations already use AI-based technologies in order to eliminate employees’ workload. Although it is certain that automatization will affect employability, only a minority of public relations tasks are fit for automation. To be specific, 59% of public relations skills are “predominately not candidates for AI”.

There are still some tasks that machines can do, such as:

• Help PR data processing.
• Social media management. 
• Contribute in building a company’s reputation.
• Support public relations managers.
• Assist in media conferences.
• Manage crises.
• Public relations teaching.

Positive or Negative?

Assume that AI machines become a part of public relations. A rather sophisticated assistant like Siri or Google Assistant could prove an asset for public relations practitioners assisting them in their day-to-day operational tasks. But what will happen when Siri starts talking with clients, dealing with crises and managing social media? Siri may appear to be as human as possible, but it is still a machine, just a smarter one! Humans still build trust with humans and trust is a fundamental aspect of a company’s reputation. Personable interaction with the public plays a key role to a company’s transparency and authenticity. Thus, substituting human interaction for AI tools might have adverse effects on the public’s perception of a company’s reputation.

Nonetheless, AI machines could be efficiently used in social media monitoring until faced with unforeseen situations. In such cases, the crises would have to be handled by a human. For instance, a disrespectful negative review on a company’s social media could prove too challenging for an AI tool to process and handle effectively.

Another popular belief is that machines are not creative. However, machines have been created that compose music and write poetry.

We are unable to predict if the use of AI machines would harm or help the practitioners. Further research is required in order to be prepared for future developments.

What should practitioners do? 

The answer to this question is that only further education will help us in such a demanding and fast paced work. Technological literacy, in the sense of sufficient familiarity with using the advantages of AI tools, is necessary for practitioners to be able to advise their clientele and survive in a new multi-tech work environment. This does not mean that practitioners should become experts in AI engineering.

Main reference:  Galloway, C., & Swiatek, L. (2018). Public relations and artificial intelligence: It’s not (just) about robots. Public Relations Review, 44(5), 734-740. doi: 10.1016/j.pubrev.2018.10.008 

About the author: 

Ilia Papadimitriou is a Research Master student in Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam. She was born and raised in Thessaloniki, Greece, where she completed her Bachelor studies in International and European Studies. She is mainly interested in Corporate Communication.