Adgully’s IMAGEXX Summit and Awards 2024, the premier PR industry event, took place on July 18, 2024, at the Holiday Inn, Aerocity, Gurgaon. This prestigious event brought together industry leaders, professionals, and innovators to celebrate excellence in public relations and communication.The event saw an interesting panel discussion on ‘The Future of Public Relations in the Age of AI’, chaired by Bhaskar Majumdar, Co-Originator, CommsAdda. The esteemed panelists included:Dr Navneet Anand, Founder & Director, GreyMatters Communications & ConsultingDr Samir Kapur, Director, AdfactorsManu Kumar, Head of Marketing & Corporate Communications, Hero Electric VehiclesSanjeev Handa, SVP & Head of PR & Communications, Maruti SuzukiVandana Sandhir, Chief Client Strategy Officer, BursonIndiaBhaskar Majumdar started the session by asking a pertinent question, “Do I lose my job because of AI?” Replying to this question, Vandana Sandhir said, “I don’t think any of us will lose our jobs if we are smart about how we leverage AI. I think AI has been around for the longest, and we are all bored of talking about AI as a nebulous concept. It is well underway and there are some fantastic case studies of applications, where we are drawing huge value as communications professionals, and public relations professionals. For me, the most telling things are the stories that we see around us. I think it is hands down very clear that AI is very much an integral part, and we at Burson have pivoted ourselves to be a purpose-built agency to create value for our clients through reputation management. We are using a suite of services to be able to identify and listen better through AI to be able to understand the impact of messages, the risks they carry, the amplifications, again very smartly done to have micro experiences, to be able to understand our audiences better, and to have a real measurable impact in what we do as a professional, so that there are no grey areas which historically has been the bane for us as public relations professionals. Thanks to AI and technology our creativity knows no bounds, we are no longer limited by traditional content writing, so I think there are exciting times ahead.”Majumdar added here, “I completely agree with the creativity part, especially for someone like me who comes from the Orkut age, technology is a big challenge for me, but I’m trying to understand podcasts, Twitter chat, and everything. Just a few days back, I created a PowerPoint presentation through AI.”Replying to a question on what AI exactly means for communication & marketing, Sanjeev Handa said, “What we need to understand as communicators is that the ‘I’ in AI is the intelligence which is nothing but what makes us human. I think that’s the quality that humans have, and if that is the ability, then AI is just an extension of that quality, which means we use the quality to make extensions in how we work, and what we do better. Similarly in communications, AI will always be the harbinger of getting into newer ways of doing things, newer ways of measuring things, and newer ways of creating things. I think taking the mundane out of regular work so that people focus on what we are strong at – relationships, creativity, and doing the new. I think that is the way forward.”Majumdar noted, “So, the first draft of the press release can be AI and then it has to be checked out by a professional to make it more suitable.”Sanjeev Handa added here, “I would say the first brief to AI has to be human-led; it’s like value in, value out and GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out). So, the first thing has to be the human touch, anything you want them to do is subservient. If you want them to do something, you have to coach them to do it.”Speaking on how Hero Electric Vehicles is utilizing AI for multiple campaigns, Manu Kumar said, “You can automate the processes, but you cannot automate authenticity. So, the relationship between AI and humans has to be symbiotic. I think there is a debate on whether we will have our jobs or not. I don’t think that is going to happen, what will happen is that if someone does not want to take up new technology that has come up, then obviously they are out, that happened when computers came in many years ago. At that time, the debate was similar. AI and technology can help and it is already doing a lot of things – not only mundane stuff, but very important data that it can pull out.”Kumar added, “One of the issues in communication is how to measure, how to report, and what are the sentiments that are going around. These are the mundane stuff, some platforms were doing it, but with AI what is happening is that it has become a norm. You cannot say that I can’t do that or it is very expensive, etc. Ultimately, the person who is managing the relationship and others needs to understand how to read the data. What is also happening is that the role of a PR person or communicator is changing, and you have to upskill yourself. You have to start reading the data because it can give you great insights. And AI can hunt that data which is across platforms. Marketers and communicators can take great help from AI or any other technology and analyze it – analyze the sentiments, analyze if there is a crisis growing, and what the competition is doing, etc.”On whether AI can substitute the media relations skills that PR professionals have, Navneet Anand replied, “As communications professionals, it is something to raise concerns all across the spectrum. There was a study done by Oxford University which ranked the jobs that are likely to be affected by AI, where out of the 702 jobs listed, PR was listed at 634, quite down the order. We are safe for now. We have grown up doing human relations, which I think, is something that AI can never replace. And there are many other facets of public relations – we do a lot of public policy campaigns at Grey Matters Communications. Now there is nuanced, specific research that needs to be done. I have attempted a couple of times to get ChatGPT to respond to my queries about what the textile policy is going to be or what the policy is like from the 1990s and 2000 and so forth. It has failed me miserably, and that is where human intervention is necessary. I think you would always want to go back to the human side, the research side, and Google will remain relevant.”Dr Samir Kapur said, “There will be certain jobs that will be eroded by AI. IT jobs are getting eroded due to the advent of AI. If it’s happening in IT, it’s just a matter of time before it will come in PR. What we do not realize is that AI has been there, the only part is its version 3 and version 4 that has disrupted the entire market. It’s a matter of time before you look at videos and other images that AI can listen to, read, and all of that. The routine work can, of course, be pre-empted, and the entire aspect can be put onto AI. But the human part is something that has to be worked on, which will have human intervention. For instance, you are a journalist, through AI I will get to know what kind of stories you have been writing, and what your stance is on certain issues. And unlike the current way of doing media relations, which is just issue a press release and that’s it, people will understand that this journalist is covering a particular sector, AI will tell who is the journalist who is doing that and it will equip you better. It is not going to take your job, but people who know AI will take your job.”These are edited excerpts. For the complete panel discussion, please watch below:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbdDQAcX6wk