AI & Financial Comms - PRSA Webinar Takeaways

I had a great time chatting with Andrew Healy & Aaron Kwittken about the current and potential impact of AI on financial comms during a recent Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) webinar: “AI and Its Impact in the Financial Industry.”?

Some key takeaways:?

1. AI is a tool to supplement the human experience. The apocalyptic narratives are (arguably) overstated, and the question becomes: how do you effectively learn about this new technology? Because…?
2. We are all students of AI, since it’s incredibly early and developing in real-time. We are living through beta launches of new AI innovations. So, it’s important to think about how this new tech may help or disrupt your current work, and be willing to learn/adjust accordingly.?
3. Innately human skills are going to be more important than ever. Complex data science is being automated with a consumer-friendly interface, and as we look ahead, social-emotional skills are going to be incredibly important — contextualizing, problem solving, empathy, creativity, and more. As Comms professionals, how can we help leaders create a culture that inspires, hires, and rewards these traits and values to create a culture where employees are empowered to build the future in our respective industries??
4. Comms professionals should be preparing today for the inevitable changes that will emerge as a result of the proliferation of AI & related outputs. I like to think about this in two dimensions — how do we continue promoting AND protecting corporate brands, personal brands, and our executive team members effectively??On using AI to support or promote our brand:?a) You can use these tools to get work done more efficiently and cost effectively -- and reach a broader audience in a more targeted way. We can use large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT to write the first draft of an article or social media copy, but increasingly can use these tools for market research to answer questions like: how is my product or executive covered or reported on? Is that positioning accurate and positive? If not, how might I be able to use paid, owned, or earned media strategies to help shift that perspective or coverage? There are also a ton of new PR/marketing tools that have been developing over the last few years (Aaron spoke brilliantly about some of them!) that have embedded AI features to help Comms professionals do their jobs more effectively.?b) You can explore if there is a corporate POV on AI that aligns with your business’ overarching goals in an authentic way. We know AI is a timely, hot topic that’s being featured from the promenade at Davos to conferences and webinars around the world, so does it make sense to have a POV about the emergence or development of AI? I’d stress this needs to be totally aligned to your business to not come off as performative or confusing; don't try to force it if it's not there. At Grayscale Investments , we have thought a lot about how blockchain technology fits in the fourth industrial revolution, so we have been considering synergies of AI and crypto (more here), and our CEO, Michael Sonnenshein , was one of the first executives to publicly discuss how blockchain could solve?potential AI challenges (see his interview with Nicholas Carlson from Business Insider here).On protecting our brands from the proliferation of AIa) Since it is early, it’s a great time to begin building appropriate governance processes and scenario planning. Do you have the appropriate media and social media monitoring capabilities set up? Are you partnering with your CISO to ensure that your company’s data is protected if you’re using AI tools? And, importantly, what do you do if there’s a deep fake or AI-generated threat related to your business, a key executive, or product? This is where a partnership between legal-security-communications is critical, and where leveraging an outside agency partner or consultant can be really helpful in thinking through some of these risk mitigation planning areas.?

We covered a lot of ground in an hour, and this blog is a very small snapshot of our robust AI-Communications conversation. I am personally very excited to see how the Communications/PR industry evolves to meet this new moment, and I have no doubt it will… because, ultimately, we can build great products/technologies, but we need great Comms professionals to help tell the stories of these products if they’re going to be successful.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. For my Comms friends... what are you thinking about as it relates to AI and the intersection of communications, marketing, content strategy or brand? For my friends in business, tech, or leadership roles... what should Comms/PR folks be thinking about as we progress in this next technological chapter??