AI comes to public relations, but be cautious, experts say - by Harry Zlokower

Last month Bisnow scheduled the New York AI & Technology cocktail event on commercial real estate, moderated by Tal Kerret, president, Silverstein Properties, and including tech officers from Rudin Management, Silverstein Properties, structural engineering company Thornton Tomasetti and the founder of Overlay Capital Build, a digital transformation consulting firm. The event illustrated how commercial real estate is diving into AI.

As it happens, so is public relations.

Recent articles in Forbes and New York Times note how public relations firms launched tools to monitor global trends, identify audiences and test messaging. Public relations tech contractors, including Cision, Prowly and Prophet, who traditionally provide media databases and other services to   companies, including real estate, now offer their own external AI applications according to Forbes. There are also startups which are automatically generating news releases and e-emails for companies, noted the Times. Some public relations professionals use AI to save time manually writing press releases so to have more time for strategizing and message development, Forbes pointed out. 

But that’s where the warning comes in for commercial real estate firms that do their own public relations and/or work with outside agencies. As tempting as it is, do not rely on AI to do all your public relations work to save money and time and/or to substitute for human professional counsel and execution. Years of human expertise cannot be replaced, noted an expert in a Cision sponsored panel on AI in public relations.

As Forbes warns AI generated press releases “can easily plagiarize,” and require human editing to correct grammar and spelling and be more resonant. For overall effectiveness, there is no substitute for human professionals who understand your business and your messaging.

Harry Zlokower is a real estate public relations consultant based in New York.