🚀 PR Futurist #112 🗞️ WSJ commits genericide 🤖 AI predicts human behaviour with 99% accuracy 14 July 2025

Welcome

AI can predict human behaviour an astonishing 99% of the time

If you're an AI sceptic who thinks AI can't do 'human' stuff like emotion and judgment, you might need to think again as a new AI 'Centaur' can do Harry Potter style divination... or at least it can make behavioural predictions with almost perfect accuracy.

And if you're intrigued to find out how the Wall Street Journal committed genericide, or find out what the word means, then read on.

You can celebrate World PR Day on 16 July (and my birthday on 17 July!) by joining the World Communications Forum Association (WCFA) in Davos with a 50% discount off your WCFA Corporate Membership.

Last week's UN AI for Good summit in Geneva didn't get the attention it merited, so I've included a short summary of its relevance to PR, communications and corporate affairs, including actionable takeaways.

CommTech sees a major boost with new Microsoft 365 Copilot features—Copilot Memory, Analytics, and contextual prompting promise productivity with a personal touch, while Copilot Studio improvements empower smarter agent design for Teams and Outlook.

There are lots of conferences over the next six months, so we're trying to make the tough choices between PRAXIS, PRovoke, ICCO, PRCA and CIPR. Although PRCA NewBizFest in Glasgow is a given, as I'm speaking about how to use AI for new business.

We've also got lots of research reports including: Thomson Reuters Future of Professionals Report, which I've analysed in-depth in a separate article on my blog; the Reuters Institute Digital News Report, which is intended for publishers and journalists, but just as useful for PR and comms; Portland Communications’ UK Decision Makers News Consumption Report; and Echo’s Reputation Valuation Report, which claims reputation now contributes £780 billion to the FTSE350.

We also look at the Government Communication Service's Performance with Purpose Strategy Review, which is a great example of combining quantitative and qualitative data with storytelling to report on and evaluate communications activity.

News

Check out our newsletter AI promo video

I've been having a play with HeyGen Labs and generated this PR Futurist promo video with its URL to video feature. It took about half an hour. Tweaking the AI generated script was quick. The more time-consuming element is some of the images from the URL weren't really suitable. I also then had to manually add the logo, subscription URL and CTA at the end. Next time should be faster as I know what to avoid and what needs to be fixed.

I haven't published it on any social channels yet, so it will be interesting to see if it can generate subscriptions.

Although I doubt it can beat loyal readers forwarding PR Futurist to a colleague and recommending them to subscribe. HINT, HINT! 🙏

Stuart Bruce

Will we see you there?

The next six months have a lot of interesting and informative conferences coming up. This year I've already spoken at the PRCA NewBizFest and the Davos Communications Summit, and both me and Tim attended the AMEC Global Summit in Vienna. We are now working out which are the essential ones from September to December.

These are the ones we're considering, but let us know if you know of any that we're missing.

PRAXIS | 19-20 September | Dehradun, India - This is meant to be an excellent conference and despite previous invitations I've never been able to make the dates work.

PRCA UK National Conference and PA Conference | 17 September | London, UK - the PRCA is combining its two flagship events – the UK Conference and the Public Affairs Conference – under one roof on one date. This actually puts me off, as both promise to be good, and I don't like the idea of having to choose between sessions. What do you think?

PRWeek Corporate Communications Summit | 8 October | London, UK - Tempting as I know some of the in-house CCOs who are speaking and it looks an interesting agenda. But not sure we can justify the expense, as this wasn't in our budget as a potential, and if I'm not speaking it means other things have to go.

PRCA NewBizFest | 30 October | Glasgow, UK - Definitely attending this one as I'm speaking! I'll be alongside the same excellent speakers I was in February, and I'll be talking about how to use AI to rocket-power your agency's new business.

PRovoke Global Summit | 3-4 November | Chicago, USA - A change of venue from Washington DC. I'm really tempted by this one as, firstly, it's usually an excellent summit with really high calibre speakers, and secondly, I've never been to Chicago.

ICCO Global Summit | 11-13 November | Mumbai, India - Last year's in Istanbul was great and I gave a keynote to launch our Global CommTech Report.

CIPR National Conference | 13 November | London, UK - Can't go to this and ICCO so need to make a decision, which is hard as I don't know the speaker line-up at either yet.

I've not spoken at as many conferences as I usually do this year, although I enjoyed speaking at the PRCA's NewBizFest as I learned so much from other speakers, and being on the stage at Davos to talk about AI was definitely memorable, which is why people keep asking me about it.

Which ones are you thinking of attending, and what have I missed?

AI

AI centaur can predict human behaviour with astonishing accuracy

Nature reports that scientists have created an AI called "Centaur" that can predict human behaviour across any psychological experiment with disturbing accuracy. This isn't for just one narrow task, but any decision-making scenario you throw at it.

The researchers trained 'Centaur' on 10 million human choices from 160 different psychology experiments and tested it against the best psychological theories.

Get ready for this astonishing fact as the AI won 31 out of 32 tests.

This has all sorts of implications for PR and communications, where behavioural science makes a critical difference to success. We can now know stuff that previously would have needed experts in behavioural science and consumer behaviour.

In Greek mythology, the centaur Chiron was wise and deeply knowledgeable in prophecy. More recently, in Harry Potter centaurs are skilled in divination, particularly through reading the stars.

Stuart Bruce

Even the Wall Street Journal is committing genericide

This WSJ article appears to be just another interesting case study about the use of AI for business and creative marketing. It's the final sentence that jumped out at me.

Clorox Co. uses Microsoft’s Copilot chatbot, not OpenAI’s ChatGPT. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that Clorox uses ChatGPT. (Corrected on July 5)

ChatGPT has become so synonymous with AI that even the venerable WSJ got it wrong. What makes it even worse is the 'correction' in the main article doesn't even now say the examples are done using Copilot.

I had to use Copilot to find out that genericide is the legal word for when a brand name becomes so commonly used that it starts to represent a general class of product or service, and it can risk losing its trademark protection.

Stuart Bruce

How can agencies survive AI?

Fascinating article by Antony Mayfield on WPP's stock plumetting 16% off the back of losing Mars, Coca-Cola and Paramount. Antony highlights how WPP is betting its turnaround on appointing Cindy Rose as CEO - an AI transformation expert from Microsoft.

He asks if this is WPP's 'Kodak' moment, where Kodak was too slow to adapt to digital photography. Or Nokia's failed attempt at survival when threatened by the iPhone... also by hiring a Microsoft executive.

If AI is central to your leadership strategy, then the risks are potentially unsurmountable.

Stuart Bruce

UN AI for Good Global Summit takeaways for PR and comms

The UN AI for Good Global Summit, held 8–11 July 2025 in Geneva, had three key themes: global standards, international cooperation, and skills for all—the pillars for trustworthy, inclusive AI. For PR and communications professionals, this highlighted the need to frame AI not just as innovation, but for it to be responsibly governed and people-centred.

Strikingly, 55% of UN member states lack a national AI strategy—and 85% have no AI-specific legislation. There is a role for professional and trade bodies to advocate for legislation and guidance, while professionals should help their organisations create policy frameworks with "regulatory readiness" ahead of regulation.

The summit hosted the International AI Standards Exchange with stakeholders—government regulators, international agencies, standard bodies, scholars and private-sector experts—exploring AI standardisation to enable innovation in governance and trust.

A key role for communicators is to "explain AI clearly” to help shape how stakeholders understand your approach to AI: what it does, what it means, and how it’s governed. The summit also highlighted the need for companies to invest in inclusive skilling programmes, to ensure that nobody is left behind in AI adoption.

The summit's conclusion is that AI’s future rests on responsible innovation—with standards, skills, governance, and inclusivity at its core. For PR, communications and corporate affairs, this means evolving from hype to trustworthy stewardship.

Key takeaways for communicators

Lead the narrative: Position your brand as a champion of ethical AI, aligned with global standards.

Engage in governance forums: Publicly signal commitment to safety and ethics via participation in initiatives like AI Governance Day.

Champion human impact: Use storytelling rooted in real-life beneficiaries of AI.
Clarify, don’t hype: Avoid buzz; explain AI accurately and truthfully.
Invest in inclusion: Showcase diversity in projects and workforce; reinforce AI access for all.
Celebrate early wins: Pilot projects provide credibility—share results to build trust and narrative momentum.

Stuart Bruce

Get in touch

What's with the Folgate Advisor's partnership?

In June we announced our corporate partnership with Folgate Advisors. We've had some people asking what Folgate Advisors actually does. Telling a better story is one of the things the founders have been working on. But the best way to find out if either Purposeful Relations or Folgate Advisors can help you is to set up a quick call. We're always open to a chat.

Folgate was set up with one purpose – to move communications forward. That aligns perfectly with our pupose - improving the performance of communications. Folgate does this through its proposition of ‘compound knowledge’, which is delivered through a global network of experienced advisors offering agencies, consultancies and in-house teams support in six interconnected areas.

Purposeful Relations can support and be part of each of these. AI and technology is listed as a separate area, because it is so fundamental to success. But it's actually an integral part of all the areas.

Strategy and growth - AI enables growth
Finance and operations - AI massively helps with speed, quality and effectiveness
Talent and culture - Our humans-first approach to AI is about using AI to unlock talent (not replace it) and successful AI adoption is primarily about culture, not technology
AI and technology - from strategy and implementation to training and constant improvement
Client service - AI enables comms professionals to work faster and better
Mergers and acquisitions - companies that crack the top five are far more valuable than those who fall short

Stuart Bruce

CommTech tools

Raft of new Microsoft 365 Copilot features

Microsoft 365 Copilot has another round of new features. As with most Microsoft releases it takes time for them to roll out to all eligible licenses.

A potentially big one is Copilot Analytics. This will provide organisations with insights on how users are engaging with Copilot. It's big because it provides a potentially invaluable way to track take-up, so help to ensure widespread AI adoption.

One of the most useful new features is Copilot Memory, which learns and remembers key facts about users and enables custom instructions such as tone or formatting preferences. Users can set this up using two new prompts:

Ask me 5 questions to learn more about my writing style
Ask me 10 questions about myself to get to know me better

My tip for the writing style is to first get Copilot to analyse examples of your writing, to help you describe it better. Use examples in your own voice, as often communications professionals need to write in different styles and even ghostwrite for others.

The Create experience now has improved support for brand templates and storytelling. It also includes improved image generation "with better text depiction". This was previously terrible, so it will be interesting to experiment and see if it actually works now. Outlook gains new Copilot capabilities, such as summarising email attachments and better meeting set-up and preparation.

I'm a big fan of OneNote, so I am interested in exploring how Copilot Notebooks will now be available in OneNote. It hasn't rolled out yet, but from this description it looks useful..

Another new feature that will require backend set-up to work effectively is the ability to add brand-approved images with Copilot in PowerPoint via integration of Copilot with SharePoint asset libraries.

Potentially the most powerful new feature is intelligent assistance that helps users ground their prompts in relevant, real-time work context. Whether users are drafting a message, summarizing a meeting, or searching for a document, it surfaces the right people, files, meetings, and more.

Finally, there are two important app updates. The Microsoft 365 Copilot app is now available for MacOS, and the mobile app has been updated so it can now use the deep reasoning agents Researcher and Analyst.

Copilot Studio gets a raft of powerful new features

Microsoft 365 Copilot is the default AI for many companies and organisations as it is so closely integrated with all of their existing apps and data that it provides time-savings and context that other AI tools can't. It's also the one that can tick the most rigorous privacy and security requirements, as it inherits the ones already in place.

However, it's fair to say Copilot isn't necessarily the most powerful AI or the one most favoured by users. This can change if you start to take advantage of Microsoft Copilot Studio, which has just got a raft of powerful new features:

Agents can now reference even more sources including Outlook emails and Teams messages—including group chats, channels, meeting chats, and files you upload directly. It can even suggest and help you find the most relevant sources.
File grouping makes it easier to create file collections to ensure Copilot's knowledge sources are customised to your needs even if data is in different locations.
Copilot Tools are now more accessible so its easier to discover and add connector actions including Model Context Protocols - MCPs are how AI can talk to other apps and data sources.
Copilot Studio's prompt builder now enables adding logic and testing within the build process.

These are just some of the improvements.

Stuart Bruce

New news app claims to provide "curation with context"

I stumbled across Particle, an intriguing new news aggregator that looked good, despite it entering a crowded field. The reality is different.

If you're an iPhone user and American, then give it a go. If you're not, then it's a hard pass, as it's only on iOS and the customisation is clearly targeted at a US market.

It's a shame, as potentially it could be a useful app.

This Media Copilot podcast has an interview with Sara Beykpour, CEO of Particle.

Stuart Bruce

CommTech newswatch

What do you get if you ask ChatGPT to rank the top media intelligence platforms?

You know by now that AI answers are rapidly becoming more important than search results, so this was a fun and informative experiment by Onclusive's Jack Richards. He asked ChatGPT:

“Who are the top media intelligence platforms for PR and communications teams in 2025?”

Its initial answer, wasn't great for Onclusive as it listed the big, legacy providers - Meltwater, Cision and Talkwalker.

However, when he gave it a longer prompt with context, Onclusive came out on top.

Of course, most people asking the question won't give the same context. One of things this highlghts is the need for PR, comms and marketing to ensure there is enough content for AI to learn from that does give the right context.

Stuart Bruce

Research and reports

Hype-free, realistic research on AI benefits

AI is undoubtedly transformative, but defining what this really means requires navigating a sea of over-hyped reports commissioned to help companies selling AI products and services.

The Thomson Reuters Future of Professionals Report 2025 stands out by calling out the hype and attempting to provide a report focused on action rather than hype.

The report looks at the current landscape of AI adoption in professional services. I've done an analysis of its relevance to public relations and communications.

Stuart Bruce

Mainstream media and journalists losing ground to podcasters, YouTubers, and TikTokers

The annual Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism 2025 Digital News Report is out. Obviously, you need to read it.

A major trend is the fragmenting media environment where mainstream media and traditional journalism are rapidly losing ground to an alternative media environment via social media and video, containing an array of podcasters, YouTubers, and TikTokers.

Stuart Bruce

How do the UK's decision makers consume news?

Portland Communications has published a new research report on how Britain’s most influential leaders consume news and shape opinion.

An overwhelming 81% of UK decision makers now use AI tools to understand current affairs. This is nearly double the general public on 47%.

If you're doing corporate communications and haven't included influencing AI answers in your communications strategy and plans, then you might as well give up the day job.

It's an interesting report, but I'd recommend downloading and reading the actual report rather than the rather gimmicky website, which looks pretty but makes the information harder to access and digest.

Stuart Bruce

Can you really put a value on reputation?

It's the perpetual question by public relations professionals. How do we put a monetary value on what we do?

There are several companies and methodologies that claim to be able to answer the question, "What is your reputation really worth?"

But can they? Fundamentally, they are all flawed. It's a given that reputation is an incredibly valuable intangible asset, but it's its "intangibleness" that makes it so hard to value.

Echo’s UK has just published its Reputation Valuation Report 2025: Beyond Perception – The True Market Power of Reputation. Despite not actually putting a genuine tangible value on reputation, it's still an invaluable report.

Echo's data claims reputation now contributes £780 billion to the FTSE350 - nearly 29% of total market value.

This year’s report reveals:

Which companies consistently lead on reputation contribution
How trust performs under pressure — from ##Brexit to #COVID to today's market volatility
Why ESG dipped, and what its recovery tells us
What boards, CFOs and Comms leaders need to measure and manage

It also states that 5% of the FTSE 350 fail to meet their full potential, because poor reputations have eroded approximately £9 billion off their value. Typically, this is because of issues such as perceptions of poor crisis handling, weak governance, or appearing to fail to align with evolving societal expectations.

This is Echo's 16th annual report.

It also makes what should be an obvious point, that companies that treat reputation as a core business strategy will be the ones that win shareholder trust and therefore value. That's why reputation isn't an indicator of the effectiveness or success of the public relations or communications function. That's why you should put the emphasis on "what you do", in the CIPR definition of public relations:

Public relations is about reputation - the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you.

Echo says reputation is driven by nine factors:

Long-term value potential
Quality of product and services
Global competitiveness
ESG
Quality of management
Financial soundness
Use of corporate assets
People management
Capacity to innovate

"Quality of management" has increased in importance in recent years. Echo claims it is now responsible for just over 10% of corporate reputational value.

Stuart Bruce

Professional practice

🎉 Celebrate World PR Day and my birthday with half price WCFA corporate membership

To celebrate World PR Day, the World Communications Forum Association (WCFA) in Davos is offering 50% off your WCFA Corporate Membership – now just €125!

World PR Day on 16 July is the day before my birthday, so by joining you can celebrate both!

📅 Offer valid: July 16–23, 2025 👥 Corporate membership open to: PR agencies, communications consultancies, and in-house teams worldwide.

I'm a member of the global executive of WCFA and Regional President Europe.

Stuart Bruce

GCS's storytelling scorecard for its Performance with Purpose strategy

The UK's Government Communication Service has just published a report reviewing its progress over the past three years implementing its Performance with Purpose Strategy across three pillars:

1. Collaboration The big challenges facing the country can only be tackled together. To foster collaboration and overcome the institutional barriers that prevent joined up communication, we need a shared plan and a central team that aids joint working.

2. Innovation We need to adopt a culture of continuous improvement, embrace innovation, and learn from best practice to lower costs and increase quality.

3. Great People Our people are central to achieving our mission. To continue to deliver for the public, we need to raise professional standards, attract and retain talent, improve leadership, and create a more diverse and inclusive Government Communications located throughout the UK.

It measures the three pillars against 30 commitments or targets, with clear dates and owners. The report doesn't have as many numbers as I'd have hoped, but is still a valuable insight into how to evaluate the achievements of 7,000 communications professionals.

It uses multiple measurement and evaluation approaches, including efficiency, effectiveness, satisfaction and behavioural. It focuses on business metrics such as time saved, costs reduced, processes improved and capabilities built, rather than vague metrics such as "awareness" or "engagement", or even worse, the number of activities and outputs.

Some of the highlights include:

Use of multi-year campaign approvals to transform long-term planning and save time
Leading the comms industry on AI including GCS Assist, its AI chatbot that on average saves 2,8 hours per user every week, which is a 7.7% improvement in productivity, and has already saved £5.5 million.
£1.3m annual saving on external training
Standardised protocols and response frameworks such as the approach to crisis management
Case studies with quotes using qualitative data alongside quantitative data
Failures and learnings, so not just what succeeded but what took longer than planned

The report combines quantitative and qualitative data with storytelling to provide a surprisingly digestible report.

Stuart Bruce

PRCA Confirms Sarah Waddington As CEO

Purposeful Relations welcomes the appointment of Sarah Waddington as the CEO of the PRCA. She has been fulfilling the role as an interim since November 2024.

Stuart Bruce

Digital and social

Instagram accounts now appear on Bing and Google searches

All public Business and Creator Instagram accounts are now being indexed by Bing and Google. This means photos, videos, carousels, and Reels can appear in search results off Instagram. It's possible to turn this off in privacy settings, but most businesses and thought leaders should welcome this and ensure search engine indexing is turned on.

Instagram posts now need to be optimised to improve their visibility in search engine indexes. This includes: natural language, keyword-rich captions including FAQs and lists to fully describe content; descriptive ALT text (you should be doing this for accessibility already); hashtags (mix of broad and niche); if location is relevant, then ensure posts are geotagged. It's also worth changing uploaded file names to be search-friendly.

You can build an AI agent to help you do this.

Stuart Bruce

Disclaimers

The centaur image was generated using Copilot with the prompt: "Image of a centaur resembling a Shire horse, engaging in a lively conversation with a female PR professional in a modern workspace filled with vibrant, colourful furniture, a lush moss wall, and a cabinet brimming with PR awards and trophies."

The UN AI for Good summit used AI to provide an initial summary of the summit and research relevant elements so I could write an article myself.

Other uses of AI are simply to speed up, make easier, or improve the quality of the newsletter.