PR Futurist | Stuart Bruce | Purposeful Relations - 🚀 PR Futurist #62 | Tech optimism

Welcome

It's here and is coming in a big way - is your team AI ready?

Good morning from us to you, hope you had a good weekend! A productive way to start your week would be to catch up with Stuart's webinar video on AI. AI is here and is being even more heavily invested in. Let us help your team put plans, guidelines and training in place, it's needed right now.

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A quick reminder that there's more than one way to read or share the stories in PR Futurist. If you click on any of the headlines, they take you straight to the story. Or you can click on the link at the end of each story. If you want to share one of the stories, then the best way is to copy or click on the link icon next to the domain link at the end of the article. This opens the link directly in the right part of the newsletter. As Michael Caine would say 'Not a lot of people know that'.

News

New research reveals optimism and confidence about tech, but lots of missed opportunities

ICYMI last week we published the Global CommTech Report in partnership with PRovoke Media. It reveals PR and comms practitioners urgently need to improve their use of communications technology if they are to stay competitive.

Get in touch if you want to know more about how we can help you do this.

Tim Bailey

On-demand PR masterclass on AI and communications webinar video

The one-hour PR masterclass on AI and communications that Stuart did with Aaron Kwittken, CEO of PRophet, for the World Communication Forum Association in Davos is now available on demand. In it they cover everything from what AI is and its impact on PR and communications, to the ethics and practical uses.

Dorcas Aba Annan, COO of Abjel Comminications in Ghana has written a summary of the masterclass.

If you want to do a bespoke masterclass with your team then let us know as we're now taking bookings for late July onwards. Stuart can deliver it either remotely or face-to-face.

Karen Marshall

AI

Economic potential of generative AI

When McKinsey speaks the business world tends to listen. In this report McKinsey claims generative AI’s impact on productivity could add trillions of dollars in value to the global economy—and the era is just beginning.

Stuart Bruce

AI could be most substantial policy challenge ever, say Tony Blair and William Hague

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change publishes lots of important and insightful reports and research. Its A New National Purpose: AI Promises a World-Leading Future of Britain is no exception.

The report, co-authored by Tony Blair and former UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, says AI could represent the most substantial policy challenge ever faced by the UK.

Policy recommendations from the report include requiring generative AI companies to label media they produce as “deepfakes” and for unlabelled deepfakes to be removed from the internet. The report also calls for publicly owned datasets to help build responsible AI systems. It also wants the creation of a UK national laboratory focused on researching and testing safe AI, with the aim of it becoming an international AI regulator.

It recommends that any entity wishing to access government-controlled computing power for use in building AI systems must show “responsible use” of it.

The report says the UK is “overly dependent” on the Google-owned DeepMind, a world-leading AI company, and needs to develop more businesses like it. If the UK does not adapt quickly, there is a risk of never catching up with the US, home of the ChatGPT developer OpenAI.

Stuart Bruce

Accenture announces $3 billion investment in AI

That's not a typo. It really does say $3 billion. Accenture has said it will double the size of its Data and AI practice from 40,000 at present to 80,000 through a combination of hiring and training.

What are you doing to change your team or business? Want to talk about it?

Stuart Bruce

Google warns own staff about AI chatbots

This Reuters story is a great example of some of the nonsense being written because of the AI hype. It's depressing to see prestigious news organisations like Reuters falling for it. The 'news' is simply that Alphabet Inc thinks employees need guidelines and training before using AI safely and effectively.

Well, no shit Sherlock. Just because it has Bard and its own AI tools doesn't mean it can skip plans, guidelines and training. It's what every company and team need to do right now. We can help.

Stuart Bruce

Almost 60% of people want regulation of AI in UK workplaces

AI presents huge opportunities which we can't afford to ignore, but equally we have to mitigate the risks. One of these that's often ignored is its use in HR and surveillance software to spy on employees. Prospect trade union is one of the few organisations to continue to highlight this.

Stuart Bruce

CommTech tools

New LinkedIn tool to help you create content and monitor performance

AuthoredUp is a new tool to help you create LinkedIn content. Just install the extension on Edge or Chrome and it helps you find ideas, write content, analyse performance, and reuse your best posts on LinkedIn. I've only just installed it, so it's too early to pass judgement. But it's free during the beta testing period so it's worth having a play as initial sides are promising.

Stuart Bruce

Crisis communication

Ron DeSantis ad uses fake AI-generated photos of Trump and US coronavirus task force leader Anthony Fauci

The early stages of next year's US presidential election are already seeing AI being used to generate deep fakes. A new Ron DeSantis campaign video attacking Donald Trump purports to show three photos of the former president embracing Anthony Fauci, a key member of the US coronavirus task force, with kisses on the cheek. But the images have the markings of fakes created using artificial intelligence technology, three experts in media forensics told AFP.

Stuart Bruce

Humza Yousaf 'disturbed' by claims NHS spied on families

It's standard practice to set-up comprehensive media monitoring and social listening when managing any issue or crisis. However, this story indicates the need for care and sensitivity as it can easily be misconstrued as 'spying'. An NHS trust has been berated by the Scottish First Minister and in the media for "paying a private company to monitor bereaved families."

The Daily Record story is even more sensationalist than the BBC.

Many people are incredibly naive about using social media and don't understand that if they make public posts, they can be seen by anyone, including employers, or in this case the NHS.

Stuart Bruce

Case studies

Twenty-seven sentenced in Northern Ireland’s biggest ever tax fraud case

The UK's tax and finance body, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), has just successfully prosecuted 27 people for a huge tax fraud. What is fascinating for PR and comms professionals is how it communicated the prosecutions.

Along with its news release it has also published multiple photos of the criminals, but the best part is a video showing the ringleaders of the gang being secretly recorded and videoed having conversations about the fraud and hiding the cash.

It shared the video on Twitter and made it available for download on its digital newsroom (hosted on Mynewsdesk).

It's a fantastic example of using owned media to tell a news story.

Stuart Bruce

CommTech newswatch

New tool to cost-effectively pre-test campaigns and messages

We've been fans of Stickybeak since it launched four years ago. It's a cost-effective tool that lets you quickly research public opinion using a panel recruited via social media, or using your own data and channels. In a personal blog post Stickybeak co-founder David Brain explains its latest tool which lets you test ideas for as little as $350.

I worked with the Stickybeak team shortly after the invasion of Ukraine when a group of Ukrainian tech start-up entrepreneurs asked me for comms advice. We worked with Stickybeak to quickly research public attitudes in four countries towards a boycott of companies still operating in Russia.

Because Stickybeak recruits respondents via social media (Meta platforms, TikTok, YouTube and Twitter) they are always 'real people' rather than the 'professional' survey respondents that make up many traditional market research panels.

Stickybeak was our research partner for the Global CommTech Report.

Stuart Bruce

NewsWhip's new Interest Quadrant helps you spot opportunities

One of the ways that PR and comms professionals can become more valuable to a company or organisation is if they can provide analysis, insight and counsel to shape future decisions.

NewsWhip is a powerful monitoring tool that uses data and AI to predict what will happen with a news story or social media post. It has just launched Interest Quadrant which builds on its technology to provide an AI-powered way for comms professionals to identify the top people and brands dominating online conversations.

NewsWhip was a sponsor of our Global CommTech Report.

Stuart Bruce

Research and reports

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism Digital News Report 2023 is out

The 2023 Reuters Institute Digital News Report is out. Lots to unpack but these are some of the highlights identified by the authors.

💵 Cost of Living crisis means people are rethinking how much they can afford to spend on news media.

🎥 Changing nature of social media with Facebook declining and TikTok rising (along with other video platforms).

🗞️ Just 22% of people start their news journeys with a media branded website or app with most accessing news via social media, search or news aggregators. Down from 32% in 2018.

💻 Fewer people are participating in online news. Only 22% are active participants with almost half (47%) not participating in news at all.

⚖️ Trust in news has fallen with just 40% saying they trust news most of the time.

📺 More than a third of news consumers (36%) say they often or sometimes try to avoid news.

🌍 In the 20 richer countries just 17% pay for news. The UK is amongst the lowest with just 9%. In the US, Germany and UK about half of non-subscribers say nothing could persuade them to pay for online news.

We're currently analysing the full report to identify some other insights and think about how we as PR and comms professionals need to respond. Contact us to find out how we can help if you're looking to review your PR and comms processes to identify areas to modernise and improve

Stuart Bruce

Social media most effective upper-funnel marketing tactic for B2B marketers

New research shows that half of US B2B marketers say that social media contributes most to achieving top-of-funnel goals. Email (43%) and in-person/live events (34%) were the second- and third-most effective top-of-funnel tactics.

Tim Bailey