Old school: “Google it.”
New school: “What does AI say about it?”
Like it or not, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly becoming a part of our business lives.
Good old Google, which got its start in 1998, has been around so long that “google” is now listed in the New Oxford Dictionary. It’s still as relevant as ever, but it’s no longer the only game in town when it comes to gathering information.
The newcomer, of course, is AI.
AI is still evolving. No one knows precisely how the integration of AI into business – or anything else – is going to proceed. One thing about AI, however, is for certain. It is here to stay, and it is going to require businesses to become familiar with it, how to use it and how to harness it to their advantage.
AI is evolving into a key research tool for consumers
As the internet has evolved, search engine optimization (SEO) has become an important marketing metric. Business leaders have become entranced by SEO metrics, often to the point where they lose sight of their objective of selling products and services.
Search engine optimization is an important means to an end because it helps drive awareness. But the end game still remains sales.
Until now, Google has been the roadway to drive SEO. But, as people become more familiar and comfortable with artificial intelligence, AI is catching up as a means for online visitors to learn more about a subject—or a company.
A recent survey by Chicago-based Orbit Media Studios, an award-winning digital marketing and web design agency, provides some insight into how online visitors are adopting AI to add depth to what they can learn about something, gathered in a survey of over 1,000 U.S. search users:
- Get a quick answer, fact, or definition: 77% use a search engine, like Google, and 23% turn to an AI chat tool like ChatGPT
- Find companies or local businesses: 74% use a search engine; 26% use an AI chat tool
- Get recommendations or reviews: 69% use a search engine; 31% use an AI chat tool
- Understand why something works: 61% use a search engine; 39% use an AI chat tool
- Get step-by-step instructions: 60% use a search engine; 40% use an AI chat tool
Wellons Communications can use AI to augment PR for clients
At Wellons, we can see several ways to call on AI to accomplish three important tasks to speed up generating results for clients.
- Precision Pitching: AI maps journalist beats, past articles, and social media activity to match client news with the most relevant reporters.
- Hyper-Personalized Emails: Generative AI customizes individual email pitches at scale, matching the tone and angle preferred by each specific journalist.
- Database Management: Automation keeps media lists clean by automatically updating reporter job changes and contact details.
AI can save time and increases productivity because AI can be used as a sort of “heat seeking missile” to zero in on those media targets who make most sense for clients and provide journalists with the kind of information that will be of most value to them.
We can help you incorporate AI into your PR program
Just because we are already using AI in our business doesn’t make us the world’s leading expert on AI.
But it does mean that we are not intimidated by AI and have already adapted to what has become a rapidly changing media relations environment.
In our business, AI is a new version of an old tool (Google) …with a lot more information under the hood.
That information has to come from somewhere. And that’s our job—to create and polish the information about our clients so that Google and AI can quickly find it and share it with their online visitors.
Look us up on Google. Or, if you are feeling adventurous, look us up under Google’s recently initiated AI mode or use ChatGPT. If you want to go one step further, do the same thing…look up your business and see what it says about you.
If you are satisfied with the results, great. If not, then get in touch with us and let us share with you how we can help you augment your online presence and super-charge your public relations program. Email will@wellonscommunications.com or call or text (407) 339-0879.