Mastering AI: A PR Professional’s Guide to the Workplace

Public relations professionals often have a love-hate relationship with AI. There are ongoing questions about whether PR professionals should use AI in their work. On one hand, AI helps with idea generation and quick access to information. On the other hand, more and more consumers are becoming afraid of AI technology, and there are ethical implications in AI use. As an aspiring PR professional myself and using all the information I have gathered during my time in college, I have created the PR Professional’s Guide to AI in the Workplace, with 5 simple steps. This guide is perfect for any upcoming or current professionals who aren’t quite sure about AI yet. 

1. Use it as a starting point.

Don't just use AI for the sake of using it; make sure there is a specific purpose for it. Yes, AI may be the easy way out of a task, but it lacks the human voice. Anything AI can do, a skilled PR professional can also do. Use AI to generate creative ideas or brainstorm before beginning a project if you begin to feel stuck. Possible starting points with AI: story angles, campaign themes, social copy variation. This is where I typically use AI in my work. Staring at a blank page is frustrating, as we all know, so I like to bounce ideas off my AI companion to come up with a starting point.

2. Give AI specific and clear prompts.

AI is only as good as you make it, since it works off the prompt it's given. With AI, a PR professional will need to set the tone, format, and provide information on the topic; who is the audience, what is the goal, etc. A great way to get the desired results is to input "act as a PR professional" at the beginning of the prompt. This will tailor it to the PR profession and produce PR-inspired work. For example purposes, I’ll give a simple prompt and have AI rewrite this section below. 

Prompt: Write me a short 150-word paragraph for my blog on how to prompt AI for PR professionals. The tone is educational but less formal. 

Output: For PR pros, prompting AI is a lot like writing a great brief. The clearer you are, the better the results. Start by giving the AI context—who the audience is, what the goal is, and where the content will appear (press release, pitch email, social post, etc.). Instead of asking, “Write a press release,” try something like: “Write a 200-word press release announcing a sustainable fashion startup launching in Chicago, aimed at lifestyle journalists.” Specific details help the AI understand tone, format, and messaging. It also helps to assign the AI a role, such as “Act as a PR strategist” or “Act as a tech reporter.” Don’t be afraid to iterate, either. Ask the AI to shorten, add quotes, adjust tone, or create alternate headlines. Think of it as a collaborative drafting partner, not a one-and-done tool. With strong prompts and a little back-and-forth, PR professionals can turn AI into a powerful assistant for brainstorming, drafting, and refining communications.

3. ALWAYS VERIFY FACTS

AI isn't perfect, so double-check all facts or stats AI gives to avoid a possible crisis. Professionals don't want to give the public the wrong information, as this could lead to mistrust or damage the brand's reputation. As great as AI is, it can also make mistakes and needs a human eye to ensure the facts are, in fact, facts. A simple way to verify information is to use a Google Search or the Google Fact Check Explorer tool to get in-depth results on a topic. Verifying AI information ensures that everything going public is accurate, reliable, trustworthy, and defensible.

4. Be Transparent

It's important to disclose to the public in many circumstances that AI assisted in the creation of deliverables. Being transparent goes hand in hand with verifying facts. As a PR professional, you will need to be transparent about the source of the information and stand behind what AI has created. As stated above, many consumers have growing concerns about AI use, so to ease stress and nerves, disclose AI use. Transparency fosters trust and accountability in the brand. Depending on the project that AI helped with, put the disclosure in an easy-to-spot location, either at the beginning or end. For visual content, it’s easiest to put it in the meta description.

5. Use it as a support system, not a replacement for strategic thinking.

Based on the information from above, it is clear that AI should be used as a resource to simplify the workload, rather than take over assignments. No matter the content AI produces, it will always need to be verified and edited to fit the brand before it goes public. AI is a great tool for brainstorming and simple tasks, but for strategic thinking, a human voice makes a huge difference. Context is important in PR work, and AI cannot, for ethical and well, real-world reasons, ever get the full context about a project. Strategic thinking should be left to the PR professional, with subtle help from AI.

AI is becoming an essential tool in PR, but it is important to maintain a balance of human to AI work within a project. Remember to use this simple 5-step guide to perfect AI use in the PR profession. AI isn't going anywhere, so I suggest becoming familiar with it now, before it gets too complicated.

About the Author

Chloe Coker is a junior at Grand Valley State University, majoring in Advertising and Public Relations. She is expected to graduate in May of 2027, where she hopes to continue her work in PR, either politically or in the sports industry. Being an Account Associate in GrandPR has allowed her to grow both professionally and personally, and she is excited to see where GrandPR will lead her next.