Former Director – Corporate Communications, Texas Instruments
The Future of Public Relations
“Digital” is the first thing that comes to mind when anyone asks me about the future of PR. Digital indeed will be the overarching technology that will drive PR in the future. Digital assists the PR professional to be creative and package messages to suit the exact requirements of each stakeholder. It provides ways to forge conversations and interact with target audiences on an individual basis.
There will be many ways to reach out to stakeholders on digital platforms. Podcasts and videos will be extensively used to effectively get messages across. Digital gives brands opportunities to use media in all its formats – owned (company websites, microsites), earned, paid and shared (platforms like Medium, Quora, etc.).
Having said that, digital and traditional communications will co-exist in the future. There will be a large section of stakeholders who reach out to both digital platforms and traditional media – print and online. This will also keep communication nuanced. While digital would be the preferred medium to reach Gen Z audiences, some ‘old school’ stakeholders can be reached through traditional media.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be the disrupting factor in PR and communications as well. Functions like Content Creation will see significant changes. AI tools will help make content sharper and reduce creation time. However, some amount of human intervention will be required, particularly to set up caveats like sources of information, tonality of content and adhering to ethical practices. AI will significantly help in reducing time spent on mundane things like research, structuring of op-ed articles, etc. Already many AI platforms like Chat GPT, Perplexity.ai, and Gemini, earlier known as Bard, are used quite frequently by content creators and more will follow from time to time.
Artificial Intelligence tools will also play a major role in the way Design teams operate in the future. Tools like Canva and Gamma, powered by AI, are already in vogue and there will be many more that will help create designs particularly suited to social media. AI tools will also help in strategic planning.
The role of regional media will be much greater than what it is at present. With Internet penetration in the country touching nearly 800 million, brands are reaching out to regional markets across categories – auto, technology, consumer, hospitality, entertainment, etc. Influencers on digital media will play a larger role in promoting brands in these markets. Already, we are witnessing a large number of content creators in the consumer space on YouTube and Instagram. They are bound to penetrate newer digital platforms as and when they come up. It is only a matter of time for influencers to become a critical factor in the purchase of automobiles, particularly in the two-wheeler segment. The number of young professionals conducting master classes on digital platforms on financial investments is increasing rapidly.
The future will see more data-driven PR campaigns targeted at specific audiences with compelling stories. AI and Machine Learning will help to deep-dive and analyze large amounts of data to identify various trends. PR will also be more purpose-driven and will have a much greater alignment with stakeholders’ sustainability goals and social responsibility initiatives.