🚀 PR Futurist #66 👶 Mumsnet's AI chatbot ⚽ Football in crisis 🗞️ AP's AI guidance for journalists 29 August 2023

Welcome

🏖️Holiday AI special

Good morning 🌇. I apologise as this issue of PR Futurist is more AI-focused than usual. Actually, I don't as it is AI focused because there is so much to learn and think about.

We share news about how three different companies have created their own AI chatbots based on their own data - McKinsey, Mumsnet and a publisher of technology media.

We also take a look at three crises that have engulfed football.

This issue is a day later than usual as it was a public holiday in the UK yesterday, hope it was a good one for those who got to take the time off. 🏄

AI

OpenAI launches enterprise secure AI

It should be no great surprise that OpenAI has eventually released an enterprise grade secure version of ChatGPT. One of the big concerns about AI is sharing sensitive or confidential data with the outside world.

As well as enabling companies to use the AI for their own tools it crucially doesn't enable OpenAI to use the data.

"You own and control your business data in ChatGPT Enterprise. We do not train on your business data or conversations, and our models don’t learn from your usage."

Stuart Bruce

McKinsey creates its own AI assistant to unlock its corporate knowledge

Management consultancy titan McKinsey has created its own chatbot using the expertise of its consultants. How long before we see big global PR firms investing in developing their own AI assistants to unlock their institutional knowledge?

“If you could ask the totality of McKinsey’s knowledge a question, and [an AI] could answer back, what would that do for the company? That’s exactly what Lilli is,” McKinsey senior partner Erik Roth, who led the product’s development, said.

Unlocking institutional knowledge and enabling colleagues to know each other so they can work better with the right people is often a key objective for internal communications. It's one that AI appears to be ideal for. Not only does 'Lilli' answer questions based on more than 100,000 documents and interview transcripts, but it also identifies the best internal experts.

Stuart Bruce

🗞️ Associated Press releases guidance on AI use

If your mother says she loves you, check it out.

Associated Press has issued guidance on how journalists should use generative AI. It's the same or similar to the guidance that should be in place for public relations and communications professionals.

If your mother says she loves you, check it out was the slogan of the Chicago City News Bureau. Today we can replace mother with AI. The key point about all AI generated content is it still needs checking and approving by a human.

Stuart Bruce

👶 MumsGPT - Mumsnet uses AI to unlock 20 years of parent expertise

We often talk about the current explosion of interest and use of online communities, but some of the best have been around for a long time. Mumsnet is one of the UK's oldest and most successful online communities. It is now using AI to unlock 20+ years of parenting knowledge and conversations.

Initially it will be used to provide insight to marketing partners. Sue Macmillan, Mumsnet’s chief operating officer, confirms that while currently positioned as a research tool, MumsGPT’s future could encompass a wider user base. Already, this technology has aided Mumsnet in collaborating with skincare brands to study skin conditions that women encounter during the menopausal phase, showcasing the versatility and potential societal impact of this innovation.

We're going to be seeing a lot more uses of AI to unlock institutional knowledge and expertise from a whole variety of sources.

Stuart Bruce

The Chief AI Officer is coming, but not just yet, so don't 'panic hire'!

At Purposeful Relations we're talking to existing and new clients every week to advise them on how they need to think about and use AI. One thing we're not doing is advising them to hire a 'Chief AI Officer'.

One thing we do advise is that the adoption of AI is not an IT or technology issue as it's primarily about people, culture and ethics. The technology is the means to do it. The decision about what to do and how to do it is much bigger than simply technology.

Stuart Bruce

News publishers create AI chatbots based exclusively on their content

McKinsey and Mumsnet are not the only organisations using AI to unlock the potential of their own content and intellectual property. The publisher of Macworld, PCWorld, Tech Advisor, and TechHive has created the 'Smart Answers' AI chatbot to use its own content to answer questions from readers. It means readers don't need to read whole articles to find answers to their questions from a source they already trust.

Stuart Bruce

Crisis communication

⚽ Crisis communications in football - Mason Greenwood, Luis Rubiales and Nike

The last week has seen crisis communications at the forefront in football with Manchester United, the Spanish football association and Nike engulfed in crisis. In this article I've written about all three.

All three appear to have scored own goals in their responses.

Stuart Bruce

Case studies

New Statesman becomes first major publisher to exclusively host newsletters on Substack

The resurgence of email newsletters continues apace. We've already seen journalists start to make a living publishing their own newsletters on platforms like Substack and Beehiiv. Now The New Statesman is the first major publisher to send its newsletters wholly through Substack, a strategy it hopes will drive subscriptions.

Email newsletters are an increasingly important owned channel for companies and organisations to reach stakeholders. However, it's important to remember that the content needs to be focused on what is interesting to stakeholders and audience, which is different to many traditional corporate newsletters which are more about sharing news about themselves. How often does a mainstream publisher like CNN, The Guardian or The Telegraph publish stories about themselves? The BBC might be an exception as it appears to talk about itself every week!

Stuart Bruce