PR Futurist | Stuart Bruce | Purposeful Relations

Welcome

AI dominates PRWeek's PR360 conference

It was the 10th anniversary of PRWeek's Conference and it was dominated by AI. I think every keynote speaker and every panelist mentioned AI at least once. I was lucky to be a speaker in the second session of the two-day conference so my panel on AI helped set the scene.

Other stories this week include research that reveals that 66% of corporate leaders said they would not hire someone without AI skills and how the CEO of WPP was targeted by an AI scam. We also look at how XTwitter's AI chatbot Grok is surprisingly good at analysing the news.

What the PR360 conference and the research by BCG and Microsoft reinforced for me is just how much trouble PR and comms teams are in if they don't act fast.

This week I'm speaking at the Public Relations Institute of Ireland's AI in PR conference and next week both me and Tim are in Sofia for the AMEC global summit on measurement. Let us know if you'll be there.

Photo by PRWeek official event photographer.

News

Speaking at the Dublin AI in PR conference

Stuart is giving the opening keynote presentation at the Public Relations Institute of Ireland's AI in PR conference later this week. It's online and there's still time to book.

Karen Marshall

PRWeek's PR360 conference was a hit

Last week Stuart was in Brighton for PRWeek's PR360 conference. He was on an expert panel with Samsung and fintech brand Plum to talk about AI in PR and communications. It was the second session of the two-day conference and sparked a lot of interest. Over the next two days Stuart had lots of interest from delegates asking him more about AI for communications and corporate affairs.

Karen Marshall

See you in Sofia for the AMEC Summit?

The Purposeful Relations team is again off to the AMEC global summit. The AMEC Global Summit 2024 on Measurement's theme is ‘Innovation, Implementation and Insights: The Global Communication, Data, Measurement and Evaluation Journey’.

Our news story highlights some of the key speakers and sessions including how Jim Macnamara, Distinguished Professor in the School of Communication at the University of Technology Sydney intends to “impart one-third of the knowledge required for a PhD in evaluation of public communication in less than one hour”.

Stuart Bruce

Research and reports

Two-thirds of corporate leaders wouldn't hire someone without AI skills

The new Microsoft and LinkedIn 2024 Work Trend Index report reveals that 66% of corporate leaders said they would not hire someone without AI skills. I can already hear some of you saying, well Microsoft would say that wouldn't it. My riposte is look at the early 2000s when many professionals still thought the internet might be big but it wasn't relevant to them.

The difference is that AI is moving even faster and is making an even bigger difference than the internet did.

Another key finding was that 52% of marketing and public relations leaders fear they won't be able to fill key roles.

Get in touch for a free, no obligations chat about what you should be doing and how we can help.

Stuart Bruce

Consumers are ahead of many businesses in AI adoption

A global study by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) reveals consumers are far savvier than many business leaders think. This research reinforces the point made by Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation at Saïd Business School that we should consider AI a stakeholder.

Consumers are already using AI extensively for research and to help them make decisions. 28% have used AI for personal recommendations for items such as cosmetics, and 28% have used an AI-powered visual search to find products that match or resemble items they want to buy.

You need to modifying your PR and communication strategy to take account of AI. It needs to consider issues such as: what AI says about you impacts your reputation; tapping into consumer interest and excitement about AI, while reassuring them about their concerns around myths and risks.

BCG‘s Center for Customer Insight surveyed 21,000 consumers in 21 countries.

Stuart Bruce

AI, digital and social

How PR is using LinkedIn for thought leadership

LinkedIn is now used extensively for thought leadership and executive communications which has led to concerns about effectiveness and saturation. Used properly LinkedIn is still an effective platform and our LinkedIn courses for PR teams and the C-suite need to be constantly updated to take account of LinkedIn's seemingly never-ending changes.

Stuart Bruce

AI's role in journalism - the editors' views

A panel at the Society of Editors conference agreed that artificial intelligence could not replace the value of journalists reporting from the ground, but had many other uses.

Stuart Bruce

Ukraine now has an AI-generated foreign ministry spokeswoman

Ukraine has introduced an AI-generated spokeswoman called Victoria who will make official statements on behalf of its foreign ministry.

Stuart Bruce

CEO of world’s biggest ad firm targeted by deepfake scam

It's becoming harder and harder to spot fraudsters and scams. And AI means it's only going to get harder, The Guardian reports fraudsters impersonated WPP’s CEO using a fake WhatsApp account, a voice clone and YouTube footage used in a virtual meet. In this case it was spotted before it succeeded in the con.

Stuart Bruce

X launches Stories, delivering news summarized by Grok AI

Last week I got access to XTwitter's AI chatbot Grok. Given all the controversy about Elon Musk's politics and management of X I had low expectations. AS Grok's AI source content was X I feared its analysis and summaries would be awfully biased. I was wrong. It's actually quite impressive.

I've tried a few queries and on most of them its answers have been good. It occasionally misses important points, but I'm not seeing much bias.

The image is an example of one of Grok's suggested prompts and the result.

As a tool to help PR and comms professionals understand the news it has potential. As it's only available to premium X subscribers it might even tip the balance and make it worth paying for if you're undecided. The usual proviso with AI applies - check it before using it.

Stuart Bruce

How to and tips

More lessons from David Ogilvy

David Ogilvy quotes are popular memes on business social media. This LinkedIn post has 23 'lessons' from the man himself.

Stuart Bruce

Get in touch

Chat about AI?

After speaking about AI for PR and communications at the PRWeek PR360 conference Stuart came away with more than 10 companies that want to talk to Purposeful Relations about advising them on AI. Issues they need help with include creating AI policies and strategies, integrating AI into their workflow, AI training, AI for crisis communications and managing the reputational implications of AI.

If you want to do the same then [let us know}(https://www.purposefulrelations.com/home/about/contact/). We can't provide free consultancy or talks (people do ask!), but we do offer a free 30-minute introductory chat.

Tim Bailey