The CIPR #AIinPR panel is seeking contributions from practitioners to create a new dataset of tools used in public relations practice. 

The CIPR's #AIinPR Panel has launched a crowdsourced project to characterise the AI tool market in public relations. It is inviting practitioners to submit details of the tools that they use in practice via this form before 12 August 2022.

The tool dataset will be characterised against a taxonomy based on the application in practice, ranging from research to planning, and from image manipulation to writing. The level of perceived automation or artificial intelligence (AI) sophistication will also be recorded.

The crowdsourced dataset will be cross-referenced against the dataset from the previous CIPR #AIinPR crowdsourced project in 2018 and Scott Brinker’s Martech Stack for 2022.

The CIPR plans to publish the dataset and its analysis. The report will include an analysis of the tool landscape and a high-level description of tools used in PR practice. It will also examine practitioner attitudes to tools and the perceived use of automation and AI versus its actual usage.

The project builds on previous work by the CIPR in this area. A crowdsourced project in 2018 identified more than 200 tools used in practice across more than 20 application areas. It resulted in a research project and paper called Humans Still Needed that explored the opportunity and threat of AI in PR practice.

The project is being led by CIPR #AIinPR panel chair Andrew Smith and myself.

We expect to find that the past two years have seen a wholesale adoption new technology to support workflow (video, messaging, project management etc.) but that the actual application of AI remains limited.

“The COVID-19 pandemic saw a wave of innovation in public relations practice and workflow as practitioners shifted to remote-first work. The CIPR #AIinPR panel is keen to understand how the adoption of automation and artificial intelligence tools has changed over this period,” said Andrew Smith.