Chris Hall, CEO, Primary Comms Group
Artificial intelligence (AI) has dominated professional conversations over the past two years. It’s been positioned as the ultimate productivity tool, transforming how we work, think, and create.
I’ll admit, we have approached it with equal parts caution and excitement. Like any major innovation, when the whole world is adopting technology at pace, not understanding its risks is the fastest way to be left behind.
But as the hype starts to fade, we are beginning to see AI for what it truly is: powerful, yes, but it’s not the be all and end all in PR.
I want to acknowledge that the risks and ethical implications of AI misuse are very real, and we are yet to see the full extent of these, especially with the advent of issues like deepfake impersonations, data leaks and prompt injection attacks.
The technology is evolving so rapidly that legislation and regulation will never keep up. PR professionals can’t rely on guardrails to keep them safe; we need a forward-thinking mindset that anticipates risks rather than reacting to them. The work of building proper safeguards deserves its own dedicated discussion but today I want to focus on something else I’m increasingly noticing across our industry.
The limits of “intelligence”
AI is not yet the revolutionary force many hoped it would be. It can help us work faster, but it can’t yet think for us. As I like to describe it, AI is a poor second cousin to human thinking, similar in form, but lacking intuition, originality and the spark that drives great communication.
For now, the best use of AI lies in the mundane and repetitive: media monitoring, research, compiling data and other administrative tasks. It can support us, but it can’t replace the human judgment and creativity that sits at the heart of public relations.
The strategic blunder of overreliance
One emerging concern is the growing number of young professionals entering the sector who are leaning heavily on AI, specifically generative tools, to do their work. It feels efficient, until it isn’t.
If a person outsources their thinking to AI, they risk losing the very skills that made them valuable: curiosity, insight, critical thinking and reasoning. The uncomfortable reality is, if an employee depends solely on using AI, their employer can just as easily use AI without them.
False productivity
By 2026, I believe we will see a clear divide emerge, those who use AI to service PR, and those who use human intelligence to shape PR.
The early adopters of AI have enjoyed a perceived advantage, producing more content, more quickly. But that productivity is often false efficiency. Volume without vision, information without meaning.
This highlights the issue of client‑servicing ethics. A recent example was when Deloitte Australia agreed to partially refund the federal government after a $440,000 report was found to contain errors stemming from AI use, including non‑existent academic references and even a fabricated Federal Court quote.
The view that “technology changes the tools, but never the ethical questions” is a prominent argument within information ethics, championed by philosophers such as John Weckert, and in this case, it has never been more apt.
PR is the business of news
Public relations is the business of news. Communicating what is new, relevant and timely. AI, however, can only work with what already exists, or what I like to call the “olds”. By definition AI can only produce the olds because it is trained on existing data. It can’t anticipate a story or sense the nuance of a developing issue.
For anyone who overly relies on AI, they risk the seduction of outsourcing their originality and thinking and will be the ones behind the eight ball, not in front of it.
Reclaiming the human element
A recent TIMES article delves into a new MIT study that has revealed how AI is eroding critical thinking skills, potentially dulling our capacity for deep thought. The risk for the PR industry is the same.
AI isn’t the enemy, but we need to be intentional about how we use it. It is a support tool, not a substitute for human intelligence.
The future of PR will not belong to those who use AI the fastest. It will belong to those who think critically, connect authentically, and use AI wisely.
At Primary, while we do use AI tools, our consultants have developed a “sniffer dog” approach to AI-generated content and strategies and aren’t afraid to call it out when it falls short. We have clear guidelines in place and invest in staying abreast of AI progress so we can critically consider what will work best for us. One thing is for sure: our clients can rest assured that human judgment, critical thinking, and creativity remain at the core of everything we deliver, as we continue to make great things happen
