How_AI_Will_Change_Our_Work_in_2024_Golin.pdf
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AI will significantly change how PR and marketing professionals work in 2024 according to predictions from Golin's global experts: 1) AI will enable brands to increase social media posting frequencies and generate new types of content at faster speeds. 2) AI tools will optimize content based on objective performance data rather than subjective feedback, removing the guessing game. 3) PR professionals will need to ensure AI systems are trained on accurate, positive information about companies to influence how information is delivered.
How_AI_Will_Change_Our_Work_in_2024_Golin.pdf
- 1. 12 PREDICTIONS FROM GOLIN’S GLOBAL EXPERTS How will AI change our work in 2024? Image created with the assistance of AI
- 2. AI in 2024: A little less talk. A lot more action. FOREWORD Following months of familiarization, PR and marketing practitioners will be more deliberate this year about implementing tools and new techniques across their workstreams, and at a far brisker pace, cementing AI’s role as a must-have technology more transformational than laptops and mobile phones were to our craft in previous decades. So, just how will AI change the way we work in 2024 and how can you get ready? Read on for 12 predictions from Golin’s global digital, media and AI experts: Image created with the assistance of AI
- 3. Social feeds explode as publishing frequency rises. In 2024, AI will revolutionize the way brands approach social media publishing. With the help of AI, brands are likely to increase posting frequency across social channels, especially in organic publishing. The shift is already underway – in fact, in 2023, 43% of marketers reported increasing their social media content output compared to 2022, and 36% of marketers attributed this increase to the use of automation tools, including generative AI (HubSpot’s 2023 Social Media Marketing Report). AI will assist in identifying new topics and creating first drafts for interesting posts, allowing brands to produce even more content at a faster pace. Additionally, AI will help gather and analyze more data points, enabling the emergence of new metrics that go beyond generated impressions. This will allow PR and marketing professionals to prove the impact of their work differently, using data-driven insights to shape and refine their strategies. In 2024, expect AI to play a major role influencing how brands post on social, driving innovation and enabling new ways of engaging with audiences. PREDICTION ONE ALEX BLASSER SVP, Executive Digital Director – Miami 2024 AI Trends 1/12 Image created with the assistance of AI
- 4. AI removes the guesswork from content optimization. For years, as marketers we struggle optimizing content based on subjective feedback. We hear things like, “Make this pop. The tone isn’t quite right. Will our customers think this trend is funny?” In 2024, AI will transform content optimization from a time-consuming guessing game to a data-driven, predictive engine, enabling marketers to optimize content based on subconscious consumer reactions, removing subjective feedback, and providing marketers with objective second by second performance data. In fact, we’ve already created a proprietary AI-powered solution helping some of our largest clients analyze, optimize, and predict the performance of their content – we call it SocialSense. PREDICTION TWO AMIT WADEHRA EVP, Executive Digital Director – Chicago 2024 AI Trends 2/12 Image created with the assistance of AI
- 5. PR plays an outsize role in training AI. For years, the stories we’ve told as PR pros played double duty: they spark media interest and elicit coverage, and they often help deliver our messages through organic search results. In 2024, AIO will be added to a communicator’s responsibilities – AI Optimization. Fact is, LLMs that power the chatbots increasingly used by journalists for story research or for delivering quick responses to consumer questions are trained on highly cited, authoritative sources like prominent media outlets, community- generated media sites like Wikipedia, and even company-owned properties like blogs and online newsrooms. Expect PR pros to be more cognizant of the sources which influence the large language models powering popular Gen AI tools and adapt media strategies to ensure LLMs are training on up-to-date, factual, positive information about their companies and products. PREDICTION THREE JEFF BERINGER Global President, Digital – Dallas 2024 AI Trends 3/12 Image created with the assistance of AI
- 6. AI makes tailored media relations at scale a reality. In 2024, AI is poised to revolutionize modern media relations by reshaping key tasks, including content creation and personalized communications. AI tools will enable the production of customized, high-quality content on a large scale, such as tailored pitches and press releases. For instance, an AI system can analyze a journalist’s interests to draft messages that align with their specific style and preferences, thereby increasing the likelihood of coverage. Moreover, AI will improve media interactions by more accurately segmenting reporters based on their interests and preferences prior to outreach. AI will be capable of performing monitoring, reporting, and analysis of journalists’ published works, social media activities, and audience to identify the most suitable reporters for specific stories or campaigns. This targeted approach allows messages to reach the most receptive and relevant targets, enhancing their effectiveness. The key challenge will be balancing AI’s capabilities with oversight and ensuring that media relations maintain a genuine human touch amidst advancements. PREDICTION FOUR JACK BARBOUR SVP, Media Relations – New York 2024 AI Trends 4/12 Image created with the assistance of AI
- 7. AI helps us navigate the critical & complex. In the landscape of 2024, I envision marketers and PR professionals harnessing the power of custom GPTs to expertly navigate the complex realms of social inclusion and address critical issues and crises, particularly concerning race and disabilities. These advanced language models will serve as invaluable tools, adeptly crafting messaging that resonates with diverse audiences and fosters genuine connections. Custom GPTs will be instrumental in providing real-time, tailored communication strategies during crises, ensuring swift and empathetic responses. By leveraging the capabilities of these models, professionals will not only stay ahead of evolving conversations but also proactively contribute to a more inclusive and socially aware communication landscape, marking 2024 as a turning point in the integration of AI for positive societal impact. PREDICTION FIVE TONY O’NEILL Executive Creative Director – Chicago 2024 AI Trends 5/12 Image created with the assistance of AI
- 8. GenAI will nudge social media to get real. The power of AI isn’t remotely new in social media; from third party schedulers to in- platform reporting and analytics, social media is governed by machine learning right down to the algorithms. The explosion of generative AI more recently has offered amazing new ways for creative consumers to visualize their ideas and create social content (and has led to yet another ‘filter- fest’ on TikTok) but it has also intensified the push back to authentic social content, with consumers becoming savvy to filters and more inclined to spot fake imagery and cry disingenuous. The key for using AI in content and creative? A less-is-more approach to refine but not perfect, and polish but not gloss. This is especially true for influencers, whose authenticity remains their greatest selling point with brands and consumers alike. Where AI can help? Data-crunching and optimizing to ensure that the creatives who make social their home can focus their energies on just that – being creative. PREDICTION SIX GARETH DAVIES Executive Director, Integrated Media – London 2024 AI Trends 6/12 JO BROMILOW VP, Social Media Strategy Director – London Image created with the assistance of AI
- 9. AI becomes a focal point of executive thought leadership. While we won’t see executives using AI to scribe their social posts anytime soon (at least we hope not!), every executive is going to have to take a position on it this year. Along with being one of the most popular topical searches on LinkedIn, this topic is going to be top of mind for every employee in pretty much every industry. While this is obvious in some industries like marketing, advertising or production, where AI can directly impact the end product, AI tools will bring efficiencies to any business that relies on planning, logistics, operations, manufacturing, or communication… so yeah, all of them. Employees and stakeholders will want to know how businesses are harnessing the potential of AI to improve their output but avoiding the pitfalls, be it IP, bias, or misinformation. But more relevant to the everyday human worker will be how executives navigate the fears that the workforce experiences whenever efficiency is introduced: am I going to be replaced? The hot topic of the year will be how executives embrace the benefits of AI but maintain a commitment to the human beings on their payroll, whether it’s upskilling them to work in conjunction with AI, or doubling down on the necessity of human thinking, creativity, or oversight in more critical roles that contribute to business success. Every executive will be on the hotseat when it comes to putting forth a perspective on how they will improve their bottom line with better output rather than deleting humans from the payroll. PREDICTION SEVEN JIM LIN EVP, Executive Digital Director – Dallas 2024 AI Trends 7/12 Image created with the assistance of AI
- 10. AI becomes the silent MVP on your community management team. Brand communities are not a new concept - but they are still crucial to a brand’s success. However, to create lasting loyalty and authentic brand advocacy, and for community to be more than just a buzzword, it takes a lot of passion and work from community managers - something that is often overlooked and underestimated. But with AI, there is finally support for over- worked community managers! Building and maintaining communities can be taken to the next level: By using predictive analytics, AI anticipates community trends, and automated content creation ensures that members receive tailored information and engagement is maximized based on their individual interests. Community managers also benefit from AI-driven moderation: it identifies and removes inappropriate content, ensuring a positive and safe community environment. The list goes on. Will AI replace community managers? No! Have many community managers been eagerly awaiting AI? Yes! Because AI can help them become even better at their job and focus on what AI can’t yet do: making real connections with the community. PREDICTION EIGHT SARAH KOEHLER Head of Digital – Germany 2024 AI Trends 8/12 Image created with the assistance of AI
- 11. Planning goes into overdrive, delivering sharper insights that fuel stronger creative. PREDICTION NINE EVAN CONFIELD EVP, Executive Planning Director – New York 2024 AI Trends 9/12 Strategy is a constant search for meaning and truth, in the service of creating change – whether it’s consumer behavior, in culture, or a company’s purpose. The role of the strategist is to master the tools and processes to investigate past and present information; find inspiration in truths, and shed new light on insights that will help create change. In 2023, AI-powered tools like Waldo gave us a glimpse of the power of GenAI. A virtual researcher, Waldo aggregates information that used to take hours in seconds, giving us more time to spend truth-hunting than doing repetitive tasks. In 2024 the fruits of our experimentation will come to bare. A recent 4As survey confirmed that agencies are much further along than their clients in GenAI experimentation and planning; 43% of companies are unsure how to best use them. But every marketer in 2024 will need to keep up with this rapidly changing space. From the comms director to the CMO having agency partners they can lean on and learn from will be critical and strategy will play a vital role in learning, unlearning, and relearning the new skills required to responsibly move our clients and our agency forward. And, as with every technological advancement, GenAI will reveal new challenges. For brands that are fine with the status quo there will be an abundance of average work made for average reasons at below-average cost. All of us should challenge each other to deliver work that’s exceptional, showing our dynamic understanding of human behavior and cultural meaning. GenAI is a powerful tool and a gamechanger, but it will always be an enabler not the solution. Strategic thinking and human ingenuity combined with GenAI innovation will lead to positive change.
- 12. AI fuels diversity in conceptual creativity. AI will prompt greater diversification of the conceptual creative talent pool. Traditionally, most conceptual creatives came from art or copy background with the advantage of better visual or verbal storytelling capabilities. Gen AI is creating equity by equipping everyone with tools to better express their ideas through images or text. Expect the competitive growth mindset among this bigger, diverse and equitable group of creative thinkers to fuel bolder ideas in 2024, creating even more change that matters. PREDICTION TEN SHOUVIK PRASANNA MUKHERJEE Chief Creative Officer, APAC – Singapore 2024 AI Trends 10/12 Image created with the assistance of AI
- 13. Applied models for all. PREDICTION ELEVEN ZACH TARVIN Creative Technology Director – Chicago 2024 AI Trends 11/12 2023 was defined by everyone who didn’t already love chatbots learning to love chatbots. Thanks to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google Bard and Microsoft Copilot, chat became the one user experience touchpoint to rule them all, right? Wrong! While those interfaces were powerful in helping new users and folks who aren’t building AI understand what large language models (LLMs) can do in addressing their day-to-day needs, curiosity, or just make conversation, 2024 is the year these models leave the browser and the chat interface and start weaving themselves into every interaction on your device. And it won’t be just one model, either. From next-generation smart assistants to new media capture and autocorrect—transformer- based models and LLMs are just going to be another layer of 2024’s operating systems. Suddenly your devices are more personalized, more context aware, more powerful than before thanks to a balance of both LLMs and smaller, more specialized models running on-device. For PR and marketing professionals, this is going to mean a lot more interaction with AI—even if there’s not a chat box to type into. While less splashy than a new chat interface, the efficiencies here are no different. Look for content tools to start nudging or generating alt text for images, for smarter corrections and tweaks based on internal style guides, even context-aware recommendations for workstreams that previously required collating across several tools like vetting and influencer management. The kicker? As these models become more focused, more context-appropriate, they also become more secure for enterprise and professional use. PR pros should have already been aiming for encrypted, approved tools that don’t donate client data to model training, but embedding these brings additional security that transforms how we live, create, and work. That shift not only means more folks using AI day-to-day, but also using it securely at a time when companies like OpenAI are rolling out legal indemnification. While 2024 might not be the year every company gets cleared to do more with AI, it’s safe to say that the tooling to make it possible will continue to roll out. You’ve seen the demo of Copilot writing an email for you, now imagine if Copilot understood you the way your smartphone did. 2022 and 2023’s remarkable pace of progress will look quaint faster than we think.
- 14. Behavioral measurement proves PR’s impact. In 2024, AI will help practitioners prove the link between PR campaigns and buyer behavior. No longer stymied by last-click KPIs that favor media buying campaigns, top of funnel awareness marketing will be proven by linking earned media and change in customer actions via the purchases they make. RIP vanity metrics such as impressions, AVE and reach! PREDICTION TWELVE JONNY BENTWOOD Global President, Data & Analytics – London 2024 AI Trends 12/12 Image created with the assistance of AI
- 15. To learn how Golin can assist you on your AI journey, contact us: AI@golin.com. Image created with the assistance of AI