Ivy+Partners is a culture-focused public relations (PR) consulting firm that helps brands create a positive influence on the community. With local understanding through a global lens, Ivy+Partners provides tailor-made PR and communications services, events, personal branding and business matching.

On 14th July 2023, Ivy+Partners held an internal workshop to explore the integration of AI in the workplace. Our strategic planner, Bommy Tran, was responsible for summarizing insights from tech clients we have worked closely with and shared her research with everyone.

This article will highlight some findings with a focus on: (1) Exploiting the usefulness of AI-powered tools to enhance our capabilities and contributions in various operational aspects of PR; (2) Learning how to effectively utilize AI-powered tools to create compelling content.

The Usefulness of AI Tools in Public Relations

Artificial intelligence (AI) can significantly boost staff productivity in almost every field. The biggest challenge is incorporating AI into work rather than fearing that AI will replace us. In fact, AI can be an efficient supporter for people working as a PR consultant, communication specialist, or media relations staff. We can take advantage of AI to ensure high performance in content creativity, presentation creation, account management, and transcription for meetings or media interviews.

AI for content generation

When it comes to public relations, staff usually create a variety of content, aiming to convey messages to different audiences. AI-powered tools can help create a comprehensive content strategy, starting with the idea generation phase until the execution phase. Using ChatGPT, for example, is an effective way to help save time and effort in all stages of content implementation.

• Ideation: PR staff sometimes face a lack of ideas to create a strategic communication plan as they must manage multiple responsibilities. Therefore, they can ask the chatbot for output suggestions, enabling them to think outside the box and improve their PR plan.
• Drafting for press releases: To prepare for press release, a PR executive spends hours thinking about the key message and content flow, attempting to write the best one. An AI assistant can give PR staff beneficial advice, freeing up some time in the drafting phase.
• Email replying: Besides generating content in the press and media, PR professionals need to write emails nearly every day to stay connected with their clients. The staff can focus on other tasks while ChatGPT creates  readable emails, helping us to save time.

AI for visualization

Creating an outstanding presentation is a big challenge for those who specialize in PR strategic planning implementation. With the rapid development of AI, we have a variety of all-in-one tools to help in various areas, from designing slides to generating content. Here are some resources offering services you can use to make a better presentation:

• Tome AI: this tool allows us to utilize slide templates accompanied by supportive features including generating images and creating content thanks to the powers of AI.
  Beautiful.ai: beautiful.ai can transform boring data into more intuitive, vivid and outstanding slides through available templates. PR executives can recycle ideas to make presentations more eye-catching whenever describing data.
  Picsart: this tool helps us to generate images from text and we can utilize it as an online graphic design tool.
• However, these AI tools below need to pay a fee for using upgrading features. We need to consider necessary attributes before deciding to invest in these tools according to our daily tasks.

AI for translation

Sometimes, we struggle with translating content from English into Vietnamese when listening to media interviews or meeting with foreign clients. An AI tool that automatically generates transcripts will save you from this time-consuming task, significantly increasing your efficiency in writing press releases or editorials.

• Transkriptor: This website will help you convert audio into text, enabling you to comprehend video content more effectively. However, please note that it offers a free service for up to 5-minute audio files. If you require additional features, you will need to upgrade and pay for the premium version.
• Otter.ai: It is an AI meeting assistant designed to record and transcribe conversations in real-time. While some basic features are available for free, access to more effective features requires a paid subscription.

AI for account management

Powerful AI can make a big difference in account management by automatically handling repetitive tasks, such as analyzing current customer data, generating reports, capturing insights, and contributing to a personalized customer experience. For PR consultants, AI tools can play an essential role in maintaining a strong and healthy relationship with current partners as well as potential clients.

• ChatGPT:  we leverage ChatGPT in resolving some problems such as clients’ persona, conversation sentiment, response drafting, and key findings for upsell opportunities.
• People.ai: this tool provides a comprehensive solution for creating account performance dashboard, account analysis and customers retention, aiming at converting customers’ data into revenue. It will be charged based on the service package.

How to Create a Good Prompt for AI Tools

In addition, mastering the art of writing effective prompts is crucial to maximize the outcomes of any AI application. We can apply the following prompt structure:

Writing a straightforward requirement at first: You need to state your request in the first sentence so that the AI tool understands your priorities.
Showing detailed information: You must identify, collect and summarize the necessary information to help AI tools understand project background including products/ services, business philosophy, unique selling points, target customers/ audiences, etc.

While some individuals may fear that AI will replace their jobs, those who embrace AI tools experience a positive transformation of the workplace. As PR staff, we can harness AI as a valuable assistant, enhancing communication effectiveness and efficiency. However, over-reliance on AI-driven solutions may lead to a shortage of experienced PR specialists, potentially causing a deficit in specialized knowledge and skills within the industry. Therefore, it is essential to use AI tools mindfully and ensure continuous improvement of our knowledge and skills in the field.