Welcome
AI's social licence is critical to UK's success
This issue features two pieces of research that both highlight the importance of a social licence for AI. A YovGov report highlights that 40% of people in the UK express negative feelings about AI, compared to a global average of 24%. A UK government report shows that four in 10 expect AI to have a positive impact, but three in 10 think it will be negative.
PR and communications professionals have a huge role to play as AI is introduced into their organisations to ensure it is welcomed and trusted by all stakeholders, including employees and customers. That's just one reason why PR and comms leaders need to rapidly upskill themselves on AI.
Other news includes an opportunity to use 'deep thinkin' AI for free and new CIPR guides on ESG.
We're talking to both clients and potential clients at the moment about how we can help them invest remaining budgets and underspends. If you have one then get in touch ASAP.
AI image created by Plugger.io.
Karen Marshall
Stuart Bruce | PR Futurist
News
PR and Comms Leaders’ GEN AI Summit 2025 in Sydney
Stuart is speaking at the ANZ PR and Comms Leaders’ GEN AI Summit 2025 in Sydney, Australia on 7-8 May. The summit looks at the Future of Generative AI in Public Relations and Communications.
He's giving an opening keynote on 'The evolution of PR across ANZ organisations addressing the global adoption of PRTech and imminent local opportunities'. Later the same day, Stuart will do a fireside chat with Paul Cheale, host of the popular Smoke Screen podcast.
They will talk about the new qualities of PR and communications leadership, including why PR leadership requires new capabilities and technical creativity, how to skill up to lead the pack in radical PR innovation, and recruiting PR and comms teams to embrace and transform efficiencies.
If you're in Australia and want to do an AI for PR, comms and corporate affairs workshop for your team while I'm there then get in touch ASAP.
Karen Marshall
ibrc.com.au
AI
How publishers can us AI-powered slingshots to fight the Goliath of big tech
Three innovative ideas for how publishers can use to help them survive and thrive in the era of big tech.
1) Create unique ‘unanswerable’ content - this is content it's hard for AI to do. One example it gives is that journalists within a regional newspaper could produce an in-depth, multi-part series exploring the evolving cultural identity of a specific town or city over the past 50 years. Content such as oral stories from residents can't be replicated by AI.
2) Collaborate with your former rivals - create joint ventures and alliances to build technology to help, work together in trade bodies.
3) Embrace AI Tools - yes, they need to embrace the opportunities of AI themselves, in order to fight the threat it poses.
Stuart Bruce
pressgazette.co.uk
Corporate affairs
CIPR publishes updated ESG guides
The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) has published updated versions of its ESG guidance. It is a series of three guides that are available to non-members as well as members. My favourite thing about the guides isn't the content, but simply the fact that there are three guides. It is E, S and G. Too often the S for Social and G for Governance gets subsumed by the E for environmental. They should carry equal weight.
Stuart Bruce
cipr.co.uk
Get in touch
Quick ideas for budget underspends.
The new financial year is approaching rapidly and the old one is not quite finished. If you're looking for impactful activities that you can start before the financial year end, then talk to us. Whether training in AI or measurement and evaluation, or strategy consultancy to better use CommTech, we can help you before the month end.
Tim Bailey | Digital Futurist
CommTech tools
Microsoft announces free, unlimited access to Think Deeper and Voice
If you haven't tried deep thinking on an AI tool, then you really need to. The results can be truly astonishing. Unfortunately, if you're still in the early days of experimenting, then you might not be able to as until now it has only been available in paid AI tools. Microsoft has just announced that it is making Think Deeper and Voice available for free in Copilot.
Rather oddly (although not for Microsoft, as its products are usually brilliant and licenses bizarre), it's only in the consumer version of Copilot and not yet in Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, which is likely to be the one you have permission to use at work.
Stuart Bruce
microsoft.com
Case studies
New York Times sues big AI and goes big on using AI tools
The New York Times might be having high-profile intellectual property battles with OpenAI, but that isn't stopping it from embracing AI itself. The company said it was greenlighting a number of AI programs for editorial and product staff.
Stuart Bruce
semafor.com
CEOs’ forced smiles show the limits of AI-driven investing
Executives at large US companies are displaying more optimism because of AI. Investors are using AI algorithms to analyse not just the words but the audio for speech patterns such as hesitations and micro-tremors. AI presentation tools like Yoodli could be adapted and used to help coach executives on presenting earnings results.
Stuart Bruce
ft.com
Research and reports
British attitudes to AI in the media
Generative AI is here, like it or not. The YouGov Trust or trepidation: Attitudes to AI in media report shows British consumers are concerned.
The survey reveals 65% of Brits are worried about misinformation and deepfakes. The most alarmed are Baby Boomers, with 74% expressing concern about misinformation. It also found 86% want explicit labels when AI is involved in content creation. While 70% believe we need more AI regulations.
Thankfully, It's not all doom and gloom. Brits recognise the many benefits of AI such as cost savings (36%) and increased efficiency (35%).
The huge risk is that Brits are far too sceptical, with 40% expressing negative feelings about AI's growing role in daily life, way above the global average of 24%. The UK risks being left behind countries like India, with a 57% positive sentiment, and the UAE, with 44% positive sentiment.
PR and communications leaders have a responsibility to lead on ensuring AI is implemented safely and ethically. For the UK to embrace the opportunities of AI and mitigate the risks, it's critical that AI has social licence and that we increase public understanding and therefore trust.
Stuart Bruce
yougov.com
Four in ten expect AI to have a positive impact, three in ten anticipate a negative impact
The YouGov report is interesting and prompted me to look again at the most recent UK government report on public attitudes to data and AI. It's an annual tracker survey, now in its fourth year. This year’s survey captured the perspectives of over 5,000 people. Key finds included:
- Awareness of artificial intelligence (AI) is nearly universal among the online population.
- Around four in ten expect a positive impact on society and themselves, while three in ten anticipate a negative one.
- Six in ten members of the public report having used chatbots in the past three months, with over four in ten of these using them at least once a month.
- More than half the public think that AI is already used, at least sometimes, to deliver public services.
Photo realistic AI image generated using Plugger.io.
Stuart Bruce
www.gov.uk
Another global survey on AI in PR and communications
The Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management has partnered with member organisations — Centre for Strategic Communication Excellence (CSCE) and Reputation Lighthouse — to run an AI survey primarily focused on ethical AI issues and to "benchmark professional insights and influence."
Stuart Bruce
globalalliancepr.org