Will artificial intelligence take away your job?

Last week a few readers emailed me links about a new software startup that is going to “disrupt” the public relations industry by automating much of the pitching process.

This used to happen about once every two years. Now the emails come about every six months. Investors are really into artificial intelligence replacing humans.

I love it when this happens for two reasons. First, because it would be awesome if someone could get this right someday. Second, because that day is a loooong way off, when people are chasing this dream that means less competition for those of us who still believe in “old-fashioned” one-to-one relationship building.

The start-ups tend to go like this. A software engineer sees a bunch of people who want content (journalists and bloggers) and a bunch of people trying to give it to them (us). But the exchange is super-messy, with lots of unwanted emails flying at the wrong times. To the engineer, this appears to be a marketplace like collectibles were before eBay came along. The engineer thinks, “If I can be the one to unify this market onto a platform that smooths out this exchange of information, everyone will be better off, and I’ll win.”

They usually start by creating some artificial intelligence that processes jillions of articles and posts and tweets around the world to determine who covers what. This is the part of the process that I’m looking forward to someone conquering. Right now, when we build media lists we basically have two choices – pull a list from a subscription database built by humans, or apply our own “mental algorithm” to our own Google searches.

After identifying the targets, the engineer’s process typically involves a smoother communication process for the gatekeeper, like some sort of opt-in platform where they can quickly click “yes” or “no” after receiving a pitch. The engineer is looking to build a walled garden where everyone wants to be.

And this is where the approach breaks down. I’ve seen this happen repeatedly in the 15 years I’ve been training on media relations. The startups haven’t been able to get a critical mass of journalists or bloggers to join their system.

It’s telling that the only such effort that’s worked has been HARO, the platform where influencers can query PR people to ask for sources for stories they’re working on. That succeeded because the journalists are the ones driving the process, on their time and their terms.

And if the engineer pivots and tries an approach that doesn’t require permission from the influencers, it requires too much human expertise to be cheap enough to sell at scale.

Until I see a system that is invisible to the influencers that captures the same nuance as the savvy media relations pros I work with every week, I won’t believe that software can replace PR pros. I sure hope it can get better at the repetitive tasks associated with pitching, such as combing for producers of relevant content.

And I’ll continue to be excited whenever one of these new approaches builds momentum, because the more common it becomes for influencers to see outreach handled by a computer, the easier it will be to stand out by simply being human.