What AI Can (and Can’t) Do For Public Relations

We wanted to get real about AI, so we asked ChatGPT and Claude what AI can and can’t do when it comes to PR. Both gave us responses that are technically correct and well-organized, but completely forgettable. Polished sentences, tidy paragraphs, but not a single moment where you’d think: Someone who has actually been in a crisis or managed difficult PR situations wrote this.

Neither AI platform hesitated. Neither one pushed back, asked a clarifying question or paused to consider whether the prompt itself was the problem or if it required nuance or clarification, and a good PR person would have. A real PR person’s first instinct is to probe, not produce. They’d want to know more before developing a response. AI skips that step entirely.

How many prompts have you written where you get a middling response because you haven’t prompted AI with all the details? AI doesn’t consider what might be missing.

And that’s the whole point. AI lacks experience, context and gut instinct.

AI is changing how communications work gets done, and we’re not here to tell you to ignore it. Used well, it’s a genuinely useful and efficient tool. It can help move a first draft forward, summarize a stack of background documents or jazz up some social captions when the well runs dry.

But useful is not the same as strategic. And fast is not the same as good.

The Work Starts Before the Draft

One of the most persistent myths about PR is that the job is mostly writing. Hand over the facts, get back a polished statement. That’s not quite how it works.

Before a single word gets written, there are questions that matter far more: Is this the right time to say something? Who needs to hear it? In what order do audiences need to hear it? What’s the reaction likely to be? Is there other breaking news that day? There are a myriad of questions that AI can’t really answer. It can’t tell you if something is going to change the calculus of your PR plan or your pitch, and that’s where PR experience is key. 

AI can produce a draft. It can’t tell you whether that draft will resonate, meet the moment or if that draft is the right angle. AI lacks context and insight, and it certainly doesn’t have trusted relationships with the media.  

On top of that, sometimes the most valuable PR advice is knowing when to not say something. AI is action-oriented and likely won’t caution you against a statement going out prematurely or provide guidance as to whether the statement should go out at all. 

Context Isn’t Something You Can Prompt For

Communications don’t happen in a vacuum. A single announcement can land very differently depending on an organization’s relationship with the community, the mood in the room, and what happened in the news that morning.

AI can process a lot of information, and it can certainly write, but it can’t read the room. And in PR, being able to read the room, understand the tone and get a pulse is a big part of the job.

AI doesn’t know when a statement sounds too polished for the moment, too defensive for the audience, or too vague to actually land. That comes from experience: Helping real organizations communicate through real situations, with real consequences.

Relationships Are Built by People

AI can help you build a media list, but it cannot build trust with a reporter.

Strong media relations are still very much built on personal connection and relationships. It means understanding what journalists actually need and knowing why your story matters right now in practice, not just in theory. It also means knowing when your pitch needs more work, or when not to pitch at all. Reporters can spot generic outreach the moment it lands in their inbox. 

In a Crisis, Judgment Matters More Than Speed

When something goes wrong, the pressure to respond quickly is real. 

But the right response matters more than the fast one. AI can help you draft options faster, but someone still has to decide what gets sent, when, why and what comes next. That judgment requires knowing what’s confirmed versus what’s still speculation or unknown, understanding who is affected and thinking carefully about what might be asked next. Crisis communications isn’t just about the first statement. It’s about thinking three steps ahead and knowing what will or could come next.

So, Where Does AI Fit?

We use it. We’re not shy about that.

It’s excellent at solving the blank page problem. Less excellent at knowing when the page should stay that way. Sometimes silence, or waiting, is the better strategy. It can support research, help explore different angles, and take some of the administrative weight off. Those are real benefits.

The value of PR has never been just the words. It’s the strategy behind them, the judgment that shapes them, the lived experiences and the relationships that give them weight.

AI can help move the work forward. It still can’t replace the judgment, relationships, and authentic storytelling that make the work mean something.