Scholar-practitioner collaboration aims to define AI’s role in PR – Scholar Q&A with Ammina Kothari

As the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technology continues to change the public communication landscape, the reality and acceptance of AI is starting to settle in. The industry, however, is still learning how it can be applied to what practitioners do and its long-term implications on creativity and jobs. Public relations and journalism scholars Joon Kim, University of Rhode Island, and Ammina Kothari, Simmons University, are partnering with MikeWorldWide, to gather insights on how AI is being used by public relations companies and what ethical considerations are involved when integrating AI into workflow. The project is part of the Page Center’s 2024 research call featuring scholar/practitioner collaborations. In this Q&A, Kothari discusses the current state of AI in public communication research, the plan to learn more about its ethical use and the importance of collaboration to the team’s research goals.

Talk about how this collaboration came together.

My background and training are in journalism. I work at the intersection of how technology is changing newsrooms. When I was at [the University of Rhode Island], we had a pretty big program in public relations and journalism. One of the alumni is Bret Werner, president of the PR company MikeWorldWide and an award-winning C-level marketing agency executive with expertise in content strategy and digital marketing. He is also on the Harrington School advisory council there and active with PR professional organizations. He knew my background in this research space, so from the beginning we would talk about the implications of AI for communication. Joon and I were already working on other projects, and when we saw this research call, we started to explore possibilities for a project involving industry collaboration. It’s a perfect match.

What questions are you hoping to answer with this research project?

We think there are three applications to it. One is that there's limited research in this area. Algorithmic tools, analytics and social listening have been around a long time, what we think is interesting is generative AI. How are PR companies using it? Two, we want to understand how widespread the use is and in what areas. What does it mean when some of the work that was conceptualized and produced by humans is now being generated by computers? When you’re using generative AI, there is a lot of regurgitation of stuff that’s based on machine learning. So, as more and more companies use it, how do you differentiate and create campaigns that are unique? Three, what does it mean for PR programs as we prepare the next generation of students? How can we help students understand the process through which PR campaigns are put together and shared with target audiences? and how audiences interact?

How does the collaboration with Bret and MikeWorldWide help?

What we are proposing is very unique. It’s not researchers collecting data on their own. This is really a true collaboration to the point that we will be consulting with MikeWorldWide’s team on even the type of questions we want to ask. We want to be mindful of what industry practices are right now. Is there integration of AI tools? Is the company developing policies or code of ethics to guide use of those tools? How much disclosure is there, if any?

What’s your plan to do that?

We realize that this project is sensitive. Because, in some ways, we are asking companies to share their approach and perspective on an emerging area that people are still trying to navigate. So, we are starting with focus groups. We will not be disclosing names of any companies to protect their privacy and we will gather baseline information from the early adopters of various AI tools, including generative AI. We have identified companies at the international level, some large national companies and some mid-size ones. We will use that information to develop surveys that are going to be distributed through a third party that are geared toward practitioners and also clients of PR companies. Our focus is on identifying – What do they know about integration of AI tools? What is their perception of generative AI?

Do you have a sense of how AI and AI tools are being used now?

It's interesting. I've talked to quite a few high-level PR practitioners and, from the business point of view, using AI makes sense. Some jobs are expensive and time consuming. So, if you can use generative AI and you have guidelines for your team, it actually expedites your work and saves you money and resources. It’s one main reason people are using it. But, like I mentioned, I think what they're also realizing is that by training people to use this – whether it's ChatGPT to generate ideas or other tools – we lose creativity. We lose the individual ideas. You might generate multiple ideas, but then you pick from the box that’s provided to you. Once you lose a skill set, it's very difficult to regain it. And, at a high level, I think people are starting to understand that.

Can you share the Page Center’s role in helping make this research happen?

The funding is the impetus. We have a lot of ideas, but oftentimes you need that funding to give you focus. Also, even though I've been researching in this space for a while, presenting to the Page Center advisory board, answering their questions and getting feedback was a great opportunity. The board is in the strategic communication/PR field, but they are not looking at it just from the research perspective. The comments and questions are more from the practitioner side. For example, the board members suggested we look at the impact of AI on job security PR including whether PR practitioners expect fewer PR jobs in the future due to AI. This was a helpful suggestion, as it validated some of the things we're already thinking about. I am hoping when we present our preliminary results next year, there will be more information and feedback, which will help us think about other lines of analysis. We will have a lot of data, and those conversations are going to be helpful.