A white paper on ‘AI Adoption Among PR Professionals In Asia 2025’, published by the One Asia Communications network, provides some interesting insights into how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the communications profession across Asia, besides highlighting ground realities of AI adoption and key challenges.
The survey covered 12 markets in Asia: Cambodia, China/ Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam, representing a diverse mix of economies and digital maturity levels.
According to the AI Adoption in Asian Communications 2025 survey, communicators across Asia are optimistic, curious, and increasingly adaptive in how they use artificial intelligence. 58% of the respondents view AI positively, enhancing efficiency, creativity, and analytical capability, challenging job displacement fears.
AI has moved from theory to practice, becoming a valuable tool for automating workflows, enhancing creativity, and supporting decision-making. Yet, the journey toward full integration remains uneven, limited by differences in readiness, training, and strategic alignment.
The results show that while awareness is nearly universal, confidence in execution is still developing. Many professionals rely on self-learning and experimentation, while structured frameworks for training, governance, and ethical application are still emerging. For AI to deliver its full value, communications leaders must move beyond technical adoption toward strategic integration — embedding AI into planning, measurement, and stakeholder engagement.
However, AI adoption remains uneven. While over half the respondents are “proficient” in AI tools, integration varies based on organisational readiness, resources, and leadership.
The survey highlights that adopting new technologies (60%), measuring communication success (42%), and managing misinformation (41%) are top concerns. As AI increasingly shapes how audiences consume information, communicators must ensure that reliable and structured content is accessible to these systems. Traditional metrics must evolve to capture influence and visibility in an AI-driven information environment.
Moreover, transparency, data privacy, and human oversight are crucial as AI integrates into communications. Ethics and human oversight will define the next phase of AI adoption. Communicators agree that technology must operate within boundaries of transparency, accountability, and trust. AI can enhance output, but only human judgment can preserve credibility.
How PR Professionals View AI
While headlines often emphasise AI’s potential to replace humans, the survey’s findings show that PR professionals in the region largely embrace AI as a complement, and do not view it as a competitor.
Optimism is particularly strong in markets like Indonesia and Vietnam, where respondents are highly likely to see AI as a driver of productivity and innovation. Conversely, professionals in Japan and South Korea exhibit more caution. While still positive overall, these mature markets show higher neutral sentiment, indicating a focus on governance, risk, and long-term stability over rapid experimentation.
Across Asia, AI tools are mainly used for:
PR Role Transformation
Marketing Communications teams lead in active experimentation, using AI for campaign ideation, content personalisation, and audience insights. Corporate Communications departments take a more strategic approach — applying AI for sentiment tracking, message consistency, and stakeholder engagement.
In Thailand, marketing teams use AI to refine social media content and measure engagement, helping them adjust messaging to changing audience behaviours. In Taiwan, corporate communicators integrate AI into reputation monitoring and stakeholder mapping to support faster and more informed decisions. Meanwhile, in the Philippines, PR teams are beginning to leverage AI-driven analytics to guide outreach strategies and detect emerging media trends, though many still call for clearer frameworks to evaluate its impact.
Key Challenges - Barriers to Adoption
When asked about the biggest challenges they anticipate in the next two years, a clear majority of respondents (60%) cited adopting AI and new technology as their top concern.
The second and third most common concerns are deeply interconnected. As more audiences consume information filtered through AI-powered platforms, from search engines to generative assistants, PR professionals must ensure that the data feeding those systems is reliable, structured, and current. The report emphasises that communicators must now treat search optimisation, structured content, and data transparency as part of their storytelling responsibilities.
Ethics and Accountability in AI Use
As AI becomes an integral part of communications work, ethical and accountability considerations are emerging as top priorities. The survey findings show that most professionals agree on three key ethical priorities:
Ultimately, the future of communications in Asia will depend not on how quickly AI is adopted, but on how responsibly it is applied. The communicators who combine technological fluency with ethical clarity and strategic vision will lead the profession forward — proving that in an age of automation, human expertise remains the foundation of trust.
