Will 2024 be the year of AI?

Some of you are probably thinking that 2023 was the year that AI finally broke through into the mainstream. But in reality there was a lot more hype and experimentation than actual mainstream implementation.

Welcome to my first LinkedIn newsletter of 2024. It's entirely written by me, with no use of AI... except for the image used in the header!

I don't use my LinkedIn newsletter enough as my focus is usually on my fortnightly PR Futurist newsletter which curates the latest news and research on PR and communications. If you don't already subscribe then please do so as it's news and issues focused, while my LinkedIn newsletter is more personal and professional.

The year AI helps you do your job

Back to why I think 2024 will, or rather should be, the year of AI. The AI hype was triggered by the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022. Since then the advances by OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Anthropic and others have been too rapid to list them all here. We're now at a point where many of the initial concerns have been addressed by the big technology companies and there are mature products that are safe to use in the workplace.

Most of my AI related work in 2023 was giving talks and training about the broa implications, opportunities and risks. I've delivered AI for PR and communications talks or training to 100+ organisations and 1,000+ people.

In 2024 I'll still be doing this (you can find out more about the AI talks and training here). But in 2024 we expect most of Purposeful Relations' work will be focused on helping clients to create practical plans and providing training to comms and corporate affairs teams on how they should be using AI to assist with different tasks and activities. If you want help with AI for comms then it's worth talking to us now as we need to schedule work to match the resources of our team.

What I did in 2023

Last year was a busy one and some of the highlights included:

• AI Masterclass for the World Communications Forum Association (WCFA) in Davos, Switzerland

• Judging Communicate magazine's DataComms Awards

• Speaking about AI at the University School of Mass Communication, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprasthat University conference in Delhi, India

• Appearing on the Smoke Signal podcast in Australia

• Interviewed on the Socially Unacceptable podcast

• Resurrecting my PR Futurist on Flipboard magazine

• AMEC Measurement and Evaluation Summit in Miami

• Global CommTech Report with PRovoke Media

• PRovoke Media Global Summit in Washington DC

• Contributing to The Pursuit of Reputation book by Sujit Patil, ABC and Amith Prabhu

• Chartered Institute of Public Relations Humans Needed More Than Ever draws on our Global CommTech Report findings

• Participating in the Labour Party Conference in the UK

• PRCA Measurement Conference, London, UK

• Corporate Communications Conference, Athens, Greece

• Contributing to Prowly's PR Trends and Predictions for 2024 Report

What's happening in 2024?

Already 2024 promises to be a busy year.

• AMEC Global Summit in Sofia, Bulgaria

• World Communication Forum in Davos, Switzerland

• PRovoke Global Summit in Washington DC and/or PRovoke EMEA Summit

If you'd like to invite me to speak at your conference or event then please get in touch.

Global CommTech Report 2024

We're just about to start work on the Global CommTech Report 2024 with PRovoke Media. We're finalising sponsors and partners this month. We're then putting the research questions out into the field in early February. Let me know if you'd like to be involved in this year's report. Last year's report had 11 pieces of editorial coverage and lots of social media mentions and engagement.

Consultancy and training in 2024

AI is changing PR and communications so rapidly it would be foolhardy to make concrete predictions. I do know that while I did a lot of work for clients on AI in 2023 I'll be doing a lot more in 2024.

Get in touch if you think we can help you or if you're already doing exciting things with AI for PR and communications which we can learn from. I'm always looking for new ideas and approaches.

Who am I?

I'm Stuart Bruce, the co-founder of communications transformation consultancy Purposeful Relations and Stuart Bruce Associates | Crisis Comms and Repuation Management.

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