The AI Content Explosion

We’re see­ing an AI con­tent explosion.

We’re facing an AI con­tent explo­sion of epic pro­por­tions. To suc­ceed with PR, organ­isa­tions must focus on deep­er and more long-last­ing rela­tion­ships through bet­ter con­tent — not more of the same.

Organisations must cre­ate high-qual­ity, unique con­tent that res­on­ates with their audi­ence to suc­ceed in this crowded landscape.

Here we go:

Content Creation with AI Tools

As we ven­ture fur­ther into the era of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, the growth of cor­por­ate con­tent is inev­it­able. One sig­ni­fic­ant example of AI’s impact on con­tent cre­ation is the increas­ing use of nat­ur­al lan­guage pro­cessing (NLP) algorithms. These algorithms enable busi­nesses to gen­er­ate large volumes of writ­ten con­tent in a frac­tion of the time it would take a human writer. 

From product descrip­tions and mar­ket­ing mater­i­als to news art­icles and social media posts, AI-powered con­tent gen­er­a­tion tools rap­idly stream con­tent pro­duc­tion and allow com­pan­ies to main­tain a con­sist­ent pres­ence across mul­tiple platforms.

We can also expect a rise in chat­bots and vir­tu­al assist­ants. By util­iz­ing chat­bots on web­sites, social media plat­forms, and mes­saging apps, com­pan­ies can engage with their audi­ence around the clock, answer­ing quer­ies and offer­ing tailored recom­mend­a­tions. This wealth of inter­ac­tion data is then used to cre­ate tar­geted con­tent that res­on­ates with cus­tom­ers, fur­ther enhan­cing the user exper­i­ence and fos­ter­ing brand loyalty.

By pre­dict­ing the most effect­ive top­ics, formats, and chan­nels for con­tent dis­tri­bu­tion, AI empowers com­pan­ies to cre­ate a more enga­ging and impact­ful pres­ence in the digit­al space. As a res­ult, the rise of AI is fuel­ing an arti­fi­cial con­tent explo­sion that is increas­ingly soph­ist­ic­ated, per­son­al­ised, and data-driven.

The AI Revolution: Transforming PR

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The AI Revolution: Transforming Public Relations

There are sev­er­al ways in which arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) is likely to impact the pub­lic rela­tions (PR) industry. Some poten­tial examples include:

• More decision-level tasks, few­er pro­duc­tion-level tasks. AI-powered tools are used to auto­mate tasks such as media mon­it­or­ing, con­tent cre­ation, and social media man­age­ment. This could free up PR pro­fes­sion­als to focus on their work’s more stra­tegic and cre­at­ive aspects.
• Improved ana­lys­is and bet­ter strategies. The devel­op­ment of AI-powered sys­tems that can ana­lyse large amounts of data to identi­fy trends and insights that can inform PR strategy and decision-making.
• Using PR pro­fes­sion­als as AI train­ers. Using AI-powered chat­bots and vir­tu­al assist­ants to handle cus­tom­er inquir­ies and provide inform­a­tion to the pub­lic allows PR pro­fes­sion­als to scale PR training.
• Better pub­li­city through inter­con­nectiv­ity. The cre­ation of AI-powered plat­forms and net­works that can facil­it­ate con­nec­tions and col­lab­or­a­tions between PR pro­fes­sion­als, journ­al­ists, pub­lics, influ­en­cers, and oth­er crit­ic­al stake­hold­ers in the industry.
• Earlier detec­tions of poten­tial PR issues. AI-powered tools can help PR pro­fes­sion­als identi­fy and mit­ig­ate poten­tial crises by ana­lys­ing data and provid­ing early warn­ing sig­nals of poten­tial problems.
• Increased edit­or­i­al out­put. In organ­isa­tions where the com­mu­nic­a­tions depart­ment is driv­ing the con­tent strategy, PR pro­fes­sion­als will have plenty of tools for increas­ing both the qual­ity and the quant­ity of the out­put. ¹Silfwer, J. (2023, March 20). The AI Content Explosion. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​a​i​-​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​-​e​x​p​l​o​s​i​on/

Overall, AI’s impact on the PR industry is likely to be sig­ni­fic­ant, with the poten­tial to revolu­tion­ise many aspects of how PR pro­fes­sion­als work and inter­act with stake­hold­ers, influ­en­cers, and pub­lics.

Read also: PR Beyond AI: A New Profession Emerging From the Rubble

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The AI Content Explosion for PR

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The AI Content Explosion for PR

Artificial intel­li­gence will impact every industry — and pub­lic rela­tions is no excep­tion. People are using AI tools to churn out con­tent at an explos­ive rate.

Many PR pro­fes­sion­als are explor­ing new and excit­ing AI tools to increase their out­put of cor­por­ate con­tent. ²Silfwer, J. (2022, December 10). The Reykjavik Press Release. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​r​e​y​k​j​a​v​i​k​-​p​r​e​s​s​-​r​e​l​e​a​se/

However, fol­low­ing suit with the AI con­tent explo­sion might not be the best idea.

• If your organ­isa­tion has a habit of pro­du­cing mediocre cor­por­ate con­tent, util­ising AI tools to pro­duce expo­nen­tially more mediocre con­tent won’t improve your pub­lic relations.

It’s reas­on­able to assume that emer­ging AI tools will enable lazy storytellers to churn out more con­tent en masse. Should your organ­isa­tion join this group?

The sheer volume of AI-gen­er­ated con­tent being pro­duced and pub­lished means that it will become increas­ingly dif­fi­cult for com­pan­ies to dif­fer­en­ti­ate them­selves and cap­ture the atten­tion of their tar­get audi­ence. This is espe­cially true in indus­tries where many organ­isa­tions are vying for atten­tion. ³Højris Bæk, D. (2023, January 11). Google is not against AI gen­er­ated con­tent and text any longer. Seo​.ai. https://​seo​.ai/​b​l​o​g​/​g​o​o​g​l​e​-​i​s​-​n​o​t​-​a​g​a​i​n​s​t​-​a​i​-​c​o​n​t​ent

In an increas­ingly arti­fi­cial world, PR pro­fes­sion­als must dare to think differently. 

• Public rela­tions is a zig­zag. When every­one is zig­ging, you’ll have to zag. You must stand out — or drown.

The rise of AI-gen­er­ated con­tent presents a counter-intu­it­ive oppor­tun­ity for pub­lic rela­tions. In a quant­it­at­ive world, your brand could go the oth­er way and focus on qual­ity (the prin­ciple of scarcity).

• Compete with the human touch. If a poten­tial cus­tom­er wants to con­tact your brand, don’t give them a robot. Invest human time. 
• Connect humans with each oth­er. When there are auto­mated mes­sages and inter­act­ive screens every­where you turn, let people come to your brand to con­nect with oth­er humans.
• Go for qual­ity over quant­ity. Many brands are likely to pro­duce vast amounts of AI-gen­er­ated con­tent. Handcrafted com­mu­nic­a­tion will become an artis­an­al rarity.

By focus­ing on qual­ity over quant­ity and safe­guard­ing the human touch in com­mu­nic­a­tions with stake­hold­ers, influ­en­cers, and pub­lics, organ­isa­tions can stand out from the crowd and make a real impact with their messaging.

Learn more: The AI Content Explosion

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“Too Much Content” — The Principle of Scarcity

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The Principle of Scarcity

The prin­ciple of scarcity is well-estab­lished in sci­entif­ic lit­er­at­ure. If some­thing seems scarce, we anti­cip­ate our pos­sible regret of fail­ing to acquire the resource in time:

“In 2 exper­i­ments, a total of 200 female under­gradu­ates rated the value and attract­ive­ness of cook­ies that were either in abund­ant sup­ply or scarce sup­ply. […] Results indic­ate that (a) cook­ies in scarce sup­ply were rated as more desir­able than cook­ies in abund­ant sup­ply; (b) cook­ies were rated as more valu­able when their sup­ply changed from abund­ant to scarce than when they were con­stantly scarce; and © cook­ies scarce because of high demand were rated high­er than cook­ies that were scarce because of an acci­dent.“
Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology ⁴Worchel, S., Lee, J., & Adewole, A. (1975). Effects of sup­ply and demand on rat­ings of object value. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32(5), 906 – 914.

We are pro­grammed for sur­viv­al and will, there­fore, a) over­value items and ser­vices that are scarce and b) under­value those plen­ti­fully. ⁵Silfwer, J. (2016, August 4). FOMO & Digital Trends: You Don’t Have To Catch Them All. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​f​o​mo/

Creating arti­fi­cial scarcity (by lim­it­ing avail­ab­il­ity) is a power­ful PR strategy, but to avoid back­fir­ing, the PR pro­fes­sion­al must refrain from fram­ing the offer using untrue statements.

Learn more: The Power of Artificial Scarcity

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The Electronic Age

Enter: The Electronic Age

Human cul­ture is often described based on our access to pro­duc­tion tech­no­lo­gies (e.g., the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age).

According to Marshall McLuhan and the Toronto School of Communication Theory, a bet­ter ana­lys­is would be to view soci­et­al devel­op­ment based on the prom­in­ence of emer­ging com­mu­nic­a­tions technologies.

McLuhan’s Four Epochs

McLuhan sug­gests divid­ing human civil­isa­tion into four epochs:

“The Gutenberg Galaxy is a land­mark book that intro­duced the concept of the glob­al vil­lage and estab­lished Marshall McLuhan as the ori­gin­al ‘media guru’, with more than 200,000 cop­ies in print.”
Source: Modern Language Review ⁶McLuhan, M. (1963). The Gutenberg galaxy: the mak­ing of typo­graph­ic man. Modern Language Review, 58, 542. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​2​3​0​7​/​3​7​1​9​923

As a PR pro­fes­sion­al and lin­guist, I sub­scribe to the concept of the Electronic Age. I firmly believe soci­ety is unlikely to revert to the Gutenberg Galaxy.

Read also: The Electronic Age and the End of the Gutenberg Galaxy

Subscriber-Only: “Echo Sapiens”

PR Resource: Free Content PR Course

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Spin’s PR School: Free Content PR Course

Unlock your poten­tial with this Free Content PR Course. Learn effect­ive digit­al pub­lic rela­tions strategies and elev­ate your career to new heights today.

Content Communications

• Content is Not Marketing — It’s Communications
• “For Content!” — The Infamous Influencer Battle Cry
• The AI Content Explosion
• Mediocrity is Slowly Killing Your Corporate Content
• My Content Marketing Experiment (That Failed Miserably)

Content Management

• The Core Message
• Content Themes: The Power of Focus
• Content Packages (And What To Include)
• Content Skyscrapers: Better Inbound and SEO
• Deep Content: Win By Going Deeper

Content Strategies

• The Superhero Solution: Become the Obvious Answer
• Evergreen Content: Forever Is a Long Time
• The Surround Message: Making the Box Smaller
• Level 5 Content: Go Big or Go Home

Learn more: All Free PR Courses

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