NEW YORK: With tech platforms and PR agencies increasingly using generative AI, Muck Rack has dived into the data to see specifically how it is being used.
The PR management platform’s 2023 State of AI in PR report surveyed more than 1,000 PR pros. According to its findings, 61% are either already using AI or plan to explore using it. Among the rest, 24% are undecided and 15% are opposed to using AI in their work.
The report also found that employees of smaller companies are slightly more likely to be using AI, with 31% of people at companies with one to 49 employees saying they do so, compared with 26% at larger companies.
The most popular uses of generative AI are for writing tasks. Fifty-seven percent of those polled say they use generative AI for crafting pitchings, 48% for press releases, 48% for drafting social copy and 44% for research. Twenty-one percent are using AI technology to help them find journalists, and 10% use it to generate images to accompany their copy.
In terms of how PR pros want to use AI technology, 68% say it could be most impactful in research and list building, 54% want to use it for monitoring and measuring and 52% for writing. More than one-quarter (26%) want to use AI for strategy and planning and 36% for pitching.
Many of those surveyed also expressed concerns about the technology. Sixty percent said they are worried about unscrutinized AI output diminishing the quality of work. Others said young professionals may rely too heavily on the tools for work (58%) and 56% said it could pose a risk to their livelihoods if clients think they no longer need content creators.