PR Futurist | Stuart Bruce | Purposeful Relations - 🚀 PR Futurist #80 | 👑 What Katie did | 📰 Stuart's Guardian quote |💡 Does AI stop our creativity?

Welcome

We're late because of Kate

The breaking news this morning was how the British Royal family has apparently used AI to manipulate a photograph of the Princess of Wales. I've fended off media requests to comment on this despite it covering my specialisms of both AI and crisis communications. I haven't commented as those I've heard commenting are mainly providing meaningless or inaccurate opinion as they don't know enough about what's actually happened.

What does the hive mind of PR Futurist readers think of Kensington Palace's response? Why did it take so long to respond? Is it really plausible that the Princess of Wales was simply having an "experiment with editing"?

Let us know what you think.

News

Stuart's Guardian comment on Michelle Donelan's libel case

Social media isn't new yet professionals and companies still make rookie errors. The Guardian asked Stuart to provide expert comment on the latest gaffe where UK cabinet minister Michelle Donelan published a libellous letter on XTwitter.

Karen Marshall

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Data, measurement, analytics

Microsoft is using AI for measurement of its own comms

As the front runner in AI it's not surprising that Microsoft is using its own Copilot AI tool to help it plan, measure and evaluate its own corporate communications. The AI 'tech bros' evangalise about the plethora of AI tools and systems, but often it's irrelevant what is 'best'.

The reality is that for many corporates and large organisations it is going to be Microsoft Copilot for a multitude of reasons. It's integrated into the tools they already use. It's easier to get through the essential security and procurement hoops. It's part of an environment employees are already comfortable with.

Stuart Bruce

PRovoke Media and PR Council to research value of PR

PRovoke Media and the PR Council are partnering for this year's PRovoke Summit North America to examine 'Proving and Improving the Value of Public Relations'. It will include industry-wide Northern American research by AMEC to examine attitudes towards the effectiveness of PR practices. In particular it will look at the divide between agency and in-house perceptions.

Stuart Bruce

AI, digital and social

How is the BBC using generative AI tools responsibly?

The BBC has published an update on how it is approaching its use of generative AI. It's interesting for both its approach and the projects it is prioritising for exploring how AI can be used responsibly and effectively.

The approach is not dissimilar to the approach we take with clients to help them develop AI policies and plans for communications and corporate affairs. One of the biggest challenges most face is capacity to actually do the required work within a realistic timescale. We often work alongside internal enthusiasts or experts who need support to develop AI while they work on a variety of other projects their day job requires.

Stuart Bruce

Google is paying publishers to test an unreleased gen AI platform

Google is paying a handful of news publishers to test its experimental generative AI platform. Publishers are expected to use the suite of tools to produce a fixed volume of content for 12 months. In return, the news outlets receive a monthly stipend amounting to a five-figure sum annually, as well as the means to produce content relevant to their readership at no cost.

Tim Bailey

Mistral is yet another AI platform

Most people have heard of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT and powering Microsoft Copilot. They also know Google is doing AI stuff, even if they can't remember it's now called Gemini and not Bard. Some will even know about Anthropic's Claude. But not many people are aware that there is also a European start-up doing clever AI stuff.

Mistral AI has just partnered with Microsoft and now claims that its Large model is the second-best AI model available via an API (which means it can connect to and be used by other technology platforms).

Stuart Bruce

How does AI support creativity?

One concern many PR and comms professionals have is that AI is taking away their ability to be creative or do creative jobs. This research looks at how marketers are exploring the potential of AI.

Generate creative ideas - 48%
Automate repetitive tasks - 47%
Optimize strategies in real-time - 47%
Enhance data analytics - 47%
Power predictive analytics - 45%
Personalize campaign - 44%

*Stuart Bruce

Research and reports

Nearly three in four professionals say they experience ‘discriminatory or exclusionary’ workplace behaviour

I'm always frustrated when professional bodies publish research into issues such as EDI and mental health. They nearly always reveal something is wrong followed by a statement about we need to do something. That's fine as things are often wrong and we do need to do something.

But without comparative data from other professions or industries they don't tell us if it's an industry or professional issue that it's a priority for the professional body to help fix or if the profession is just part of a wider society problem, we all need to fix.

That's why this new EDI research from The Young Foundation is so interesting. It was conducted on behalf of 12 professional membership and regulatory bodies, including the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR).

I'd love to see more of this type of approach as if we are to tackle issues such as EDI and mental health then it needs to be done as effectively as possible, rather than the self-flagellation we often see.

Stuart Bruce

New B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report from Edelman and LinkedIn

Previous editions of this report have provided useful insight into the power and importance of thought leadership. It's an effective reminder that lead-driven or attribution metrics are far too crude and simplistic. At any given moment, 95% of business clients say they are not actively seeking goods or services. Listening to them, communicating with them and engaging with them is still vital to success in the 5% of time they are actively seeking goods or services.

Stuart Bruce

CommTech tools

Is Wondercraft the new Canva for audio?

Wondercraft is a new AI tool that simplifies the creation of audio content such as podcasts, audio books and ads. Last week we experimented with its newsletter to podcast template to create a summary of the last issue of PR Futurist. The summary was so good that it only took a few minutes quick editing to be ready to publish.

This is the summary podcast. The male voice is my instant voice clone, which anyone who knows me will know doesn't sound much like me.

That said, the included AI voices are excellent with a good range including different English accents such as British, American and Australian. It also provides AI translation for multiple languages and voices.

I was excited by the instant voice cloning feature, but less impressed in practice. I've tried it with three voices, all of which have quite strong Northern British accents. The cloning gets the 'rhythm' right, but totally loses any hint of an accent. We all become very posh, Southern BBC English. The next price level up includes professional voice cloning which I haven't tested yet.

You can try Wondercraft.ai yourself for free with 10 standard voices. The 'Creator' tier is just $34 a month and includes 40 voices, the instant voice cloning feature and video editor. The Pro tier is $109 and includes the professional voice cloning. Each tier provides more AI credits which are needed to produce the final version.

Stuart Bruce

Testing AI detection tools

One of the many challenges of generative AI is how can you test to see if content has been created by AI. The simple answer is there is no fool-proof way to effectively identify if you are being fooled. The Journalist's Toolbox has done an interesting 'AI detection tools smackdown' to see how different tools work.

Stuart Bruce

CommTech newswatch

Muck Rack unveils new AI analytics suite for PR measurement

Muck Rack is the latest CommTech company to reveal a new AI offering. This time it claims to "revolutionise PR measurement". We've not had time to take a look and assess it yet, but my immediate caveat is that if it's just measuring media relations and media coverage then no matter how good it is then its use is limited as it doesn't measure public relations or corporate affairs.

Stuart Bruce