How AI is Changing Corporate Communications

ChatGPT, which is evolving at a dizzying pace, offers countless creative uses. People are increasingly choosing ChatGPT over Google for online research, and finding that they can locate the information they want faster. Generative AI such as ChatGPT, which excels at creating text, images and video, is rapidly proliferating in the communications field, and we believe it will help transform SEO, corporate information dissemination and risk management.

 

• AI is transforming online search

Even if you don’t use ChatGPT or Google Gemini directly, the amount of AI-generated text you encounter has exploded seemingly overnight. The first thing you see at the top of Google’s search results is the AI Overview, a summary of the information returned, often saving you from having to browse multiple websites. Soon, many searches will be completed simply by interacting with ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot, which search sites for you, eliminating the need for a search engine like Google or Yahoo.

have historically analyzed search engine algorithms and implemented SEO measures to get their company or products in front of more eyes. But as people shift from search engines to GenAI, could we see a rise in AI optimization (AIO), instead of SEO, which analyzes AI algorithms and implements strategies? Well, even if it were technically plausible to continuously optimize the massive amounts of data and ever-increasing complexity of AI models, AIO is simply not realistic from a long-term perspective. In the short term, however, and particularly in the PR domain, it is possible to imagine using GenAI as a search tool for various types of information dissemination.

 

• AI is transforming information dissemination

Building relationships with journalists, encouraging them to conduct interviews and providing them with relevant information will continue to be important tasks for PR departments. In the future, however, it’s possible that GenAI could create information from articles or websites that a company’s PR department hasn’t read or is unaware of, potentially forcing the company to provide official information to those sources. In addition, if GenAI were to pick up websites that publish false or inaccurate information, the company may be forced to demand corrections or retractions as well as counter with correct information on its own website. Accordingly, it will be extremely important to monitor GenAI’s output and, if needed, counter with information that best reflects the company’s official direction and content.

 

• AI is transforming content creation

We often see headlines such as “GenAI takes over jobs” due to the speed with which GenAI performs tasks such as text creation, translation and summarization. This side of AI evolution is certainly affecting those of us who work in PR and communications, so the evolution of AI in these areas is familiar to us.

Importantly, while AI can analyze human emotions based on linguistic models, it still cannot understand such emotions. AI has a long way to go before it can grasp people’s intentions and aims, which are generally difficult to define. So even though GenAI is good at creating content such as text, images and videos based on information inputs, it’s safe to say that GenAI still cannot understand the complex emotions and intentions of both content creators and recipients, and therefore cannot generate messages and stories that drive changes in attitudes or behaviors.

Still, AI can be useful for content creation. With the power to produce hundreds of ideas, drafts, images, etc. in seconds, GenAI is a strategic tool for brainstorming and other tasks, so communications professionals should strive to combine the strengths of AI with their own human sensibilities.

 

• AI is creating new PR risks

begin to use the growing number of AI services available for generating images, video and audio content, there have been instances where certain companies and organizations have come under fire online for distributing fake videos and images. Of course, fake videos and images about companies have been circulating online for some time, but few have caused significant damage because they were obviously not real. The prudent communications approach has been to wait until media inquiries, if any, are received.

However, with advances in GenAI, the quality of fake images, video and audio content has improved dramatically, making people much more susceptible to accepting the authenticity of such content, especially video and audio. Consequently, the spread of false information is increasingly causing real damage to companies. In some cases, fake, AI-generated audio and video of company executives have caused share prices to tumble.

Combating misinformation and disinformation created by GenAI has become a huge headache for some corporations. Soon, PR departments may find themselves issuing statements in response to fake scandals that never happened. Companies will be increasingly obliged to monitor the Internet from a risk-management perspective and establish PR structures capable of dealing with misinformation and disinformation.

 

At Weber Shandwick, we are exploring ways to incorporate GenAI into our corporate communications activities in offices worldwide. We are actively raising awareness, both internally and externally, about the importance of changing mindsets and building structures to deal productively with GenAI. In the spring of 2023, we launched our own ChatGPT platform and developed in-house chat apps to assist day-to-day PR work. Employees are encouraged to take advantage of the tools we provide.

One app allows an employee to easily set up a specific persona on ChatGPT and then suggest ideas that the persona can respond to, both positively and negatively. Another app is configured to generate only opposing viewpoints on ideas. We currently offer more than 10 chatbots, including one that generates strategic keywords for social listening tools (Figure 1).

(Figure 1)

When developing ideas and messages, it is crucial to take a third-party perspective to predict the possible opinions and reactions of different audiences. At Weber Shandwick, we are increasingly using a hybrid approach to combine opinions and ideas generated by AI chatbots with the third-party perspectives of our consultants. While GenAI can sometimes produce irrelevant opinions and ideas, which requires careful determination of which results can be used, our AI chatbots are increasingly helping us generate new ideas and insights, which is especially useful if discussions reach an impasse (Figure 2).

(Figure 2)

To some extent, it is possible to use the current version of ChatGPT to experiment with asking GenAI for ideas. In the case of translation or text generation, try asking ChatGPT “Why did you give me that answer?” You may this changes the way you interact with GenAI.

GenAI is developing so fast that it’s difficult to predict how it will evolve, even in the next few months. But however it evolves, GenAI will increasingly impact the work of PR departments that use text, images and video to communicate with their stakeholders, so the need to work with GenAI is not in doubt.

As a communications agency, Weber Shandwick is in a position to advise on ideas, solutions and risks from multiple perspectives. We are confident that using GenAI is helping us add value by enabling our consultants to discover new perspectives and ideas. It’s all about leveraging the positive aspects of GenAI, so we believe that PR professionals need to develop skills for identifying and maximizing GenAI as a key partner offering unique strengths.

 

By
Masahiko Oshiro, Vice President, Corporate Communications
Shintaro Furukawa, Vice President, Consumer
*Reference: Keizai Koho August 2024