How do you feel about the rise of AI in your comms role?
Are you using it to help you be more productive or efficient?
Maybe you feel overwhelmed by it and don’t know where to begin.
No matter how much or little you use the technology, it is already having a significant impact on the comms world and newsrooms.
The Government Communication Service says its in-house AI is saving workers around three hours a week and creating productivity savings of £5.5m a year.
So, how do you get started with the technology?
And how can you use it to improve the quality and consistency of your comms work?
These are some of the questions we covered in our latest complimentary webinar, which you can watch here.
Our CEO was joined in our studios by Jonathan Pollinger, a leading AI and digital marketing trainer and a key member of our training team.
And they started the session by getting straight into one of the growing issues surrounding AI – the environmental ramifications of the surging use of the technology at a critical time in global efforts to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change.
Google emissions have climbed by 50 per cent in the past five years because of AI energy demand,
It is a hot topic in the media and something I ask about during the telephone interviews I carry on any AI topics during our media training courses.
“I think ‘surge’ is the key word,” Jonathan said.
“We all know AI is expanding fast and the energy use, is quite substantial. That is likely to rise over the coming years, with some people forecasting a 50 per cent jump year on year.
“AI consumes a lot of energy, and a lot of water is needed to cool the AI systems that do the work behind the scenes.
“But in mitigation, AI is used quite substantially to manage and reduce power so it is more efficiently used across the grid. And in manufacturing settings, such as factories, savings of up to 30 per cent have been reported.
“And we know that there is a big sustainability push, and many big AI companies are focusing on that.”
James added: “It’s important to put it into context. I read something the other day that talks about how power-hungry other things are when compared to AI.
“And, as Jonathan mentioned, it is being used for environmental good. A lot of our customers are using AI to increase efficiency in their supply chain networks and logistics.”
To show that in action, Jonathan said UPS has reported saving 10 million gallons of diesel by using AI to improve its logistics.
But are there steps you can take now to reduce the environmental impact of using AI in your work?
“Some of the AI models have cut-down versions,” Jonathan said.
“So, if you look for the word ‘mini’ – ChatGPT has O2 and O3 mini versions – they use less power than the standard versions.
“If you are looking to do a specific task, perhaps you could find a tool that focuses on that task, rather than going all in on ChatGPT to do something relatively straightforward like checking grammar.”
How can you ensure your company doesn’t rely too heavily on AI?
Jonathan said: “When it comes to the thinking side of things, the creative side of work and the relationship building, they are all human.
“While AI can assist with some research and checking of your work behind the scenes on those activities, I don’t think you should outsource them to the technology.
“AI is great for research and saving you time going to multiple websites to get stats and data. However, if you need to do some in-depth critical, strategic thinking, AI can assist, but you definitely need human review.”
Our webinar attendees indicated they mainly use AI on routine tasks to help save time, including content creation and summarising large documents.
In future, they would like to use it to help with comms strategy and planning, repurposing content, monitoring social media comments and performance management.
There is a lot of focus on AI driving efficiency and saving valuable time. But does using AI compromise quality?
Jonathan doesn’t think so.
“AI can ensure your brand tone is consistent,” he said. “It can help the tone fit different audiences, and analyse your audience to make your comms even more targeted.
“All of those things will improve the overall quality.”
Let’s take a look at some of the main AI tools out there for comms professionals, starting with the big three – ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemini – which have exploded in popularity.
“ChatGPT is a great starting point,” Jonathan said. “It is a good allrounder, and you can use it on desktop or mobile.
“It has the deep research. And it has Projects, which means you can coordinate by your clients or types of communication, to give a couple of examples.
“The voice on ChatGPT is interesting as well. You can have a conversation with your phone. It is like having a research assistant or expert on hand.”
What about Copilot?
“The strength of Copilot is its integration with the Microsoft ecosystem,” Jonathan said.
“It is built into all the apps we use, like PowerPoint, Excel, Teams and Outlook.
“And it has access to your organisation’s data. So, regarding quality and productivity, that can be huge because there could be a colleague who has already done the work you have been asked to do. Or who has done the research you need to do.”
Does it automatically link to your organisation’s data?
Jonathan said: “If it is set up correctly and you have the fully fledged business versions, it will.
“And it is straightforward in terms of the permissions because while it is an expert at search and retrieval, it is not going to access any data that it shouldn’t access. Your normal security permissions apply.”
And Gemini?
“If you are a Google-type workplace, it is worth considering,” Jonathan said.
“It is good working with YouTube videos. If you need a summary of a YouTube video, it is the only AI tool out there that does that.
“And it is good at producing audio overviews. People have mentioned using AI to summarise. And if you would like a summary by audio, it is an interesting way of learning and absorbing information.”
But there is a lot more to AI than the big three.
Shall we have a look at a few of the other AI-powered tools that have more specific use cases?
Our experts had a few recommendations they think could help comms pros.
James said: “Opus Clip takes a recording and generates social media clips with captions, graphics and your branding. Those clips can be 20 seconds, 30 seconds, or two minutes long – however long you want them to be,
“We will use it after this webinar to create clips for our social media accounts.”
Jonathan is a fan of Gamma.
“It allows you to easily create presentations or eye-catching reports with lots of visuals,” he said.
“It works best if you use your creativity and come up with an outline for your content. It will then populate accordingly, pulling in the copy you want and adding icons and graphics.
“And you can export it as a PDF. So, you could put it on LinkedIn as a carousel post, which is popular on that channel. Or as a PowerPoint.”
Shall we see some of these AI tools in comms action?
In this short video, Jonathan uses the deep research feature of ChatGPT to find relevant contacts for a press release.
In this next clip, Jonathan uses Gemini to create a crisis communication plan.
In this next video, Copilot is used to rewrite a press release for different audiences.
And in this final short video, ChatGPT is used to help identify potential negative media interview questions – a vital part of media interview preparation, as we highlight during our media training courses.
Media interview preparation leads us seamlessly to another AI tool – Thirty Seven.
This is our newly launched AI-powered training companion that allows spokespeople to practice interviews with AI journalists. And receive instant feedback on their performance.
Here’s James demonstrating how it works.
Soon, every delegate who trains with us will receive 30 days of free access to Thirty Seven.
During the webinar, our experts answered many questions about AI. Here are the key ones:
“You want to make sure your data, your organisation’s data and your clients’ data is secure,” Jonathan said.
“There is a setting in ChatGPT, for example, you should ensure is switched off so your prompt data and any files you upload are not shared with OpenAI, its owner, for training purposes.
“With Copilot, it is kind of automatically taken care of because Microsoft, having worked with business for the past 30 years or more, is up on the security aspect. There is no data sharing, and everything is encrypted.
“But be wary with other AI tools because they will be data sharing.
“It is also worth mentioning your privacy policy on GDPR. If you use customer data in your AI tools, you should mention that, just as you would if you are using email addresses for marketing.”
On Thirty Seven, James added: “Thirty Seven is completely GDPR compliant, and it does not coach any other learning model or AI.
“Any videos you record on the system will be just within the tool. No one else can access them. Not even we can see what people are using it for.”
“This is basically referring to SEO,” Jonathan said.
“The results that come in when someone Googles a particular search term and there is an AI overview at the top.
“There is no magic formula for getting yourself positioned there.
“But one bit of advice is to ensure your website and content are value-led, and there is a lot of ‘how to’ content and instructional material.
“When someone says, ‘How do I write the perfect press release?’, for example, you want your website to answer that question. You are then more likely to appear on the overview.”
James said: “You can definitely use AI to identify what is happening in your industry and what’s coming up, and it can be quite a simple prompt.”
Jonathan added: “One thing you can do in both Copilot and ChatGPT is to set up a recurring action. And it would be ideal for something like this.
“And you could get your industry news in as often as you like.”
James said: “You can take the information you need to communicate, upload it to the AI, explain the disabilities and challenges and ask it how the information can be better presented.”
Jonathan added: “You could also point your AI at your website, and it could identify any accessibility strengths and weaknesses.”
Could you ask AI to create the prompt to make that happen?
“Yes,” Jonathan said. “Another similar technique you could use to improve the overall quality is to say, ‘What questions can you ask me that would help improve the quality of your response.”
“Many of them will have demo and trial accounts,” James said.
“But none of them are hugely expensive, and they should quite quickly generate you a return on investment, based on time savings.”
Jonathan added: “I think that is the way to look at it – it is an investment, not a cost.”
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Media First are media and communications training specialists with nearly 40 years of experience. We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers.
Click here to find out more about our media training and crisis communication courses. And click here to learn more about Thirty Seven.
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