Your boss saw that viral AI post

PR people may be overlooking a key takeaway from the viral post about AI that ricocheted around the internet last week (83 million views and counting).

The author details recent AI advances and claims “the breakthrough” is already here. Fine. What matters most to you as a PR pro is this paragraph in his list of industries he claims are being automated right now:

“Writing and content. Marketing copy, reports, journalism, technical writing. The quality has reached a point where many professionals can't distinguish AI output from human work.”

Whether you buy that or not (I don’t…yet), I gently submit you shouldn’t waste energy debating it.

Instead, recognize that the reaction to this piece tells us:

Executives at your organization are increasingly likely to assume that paragraph is true.

Using shorthand from my previous post, “Spot Your Boss’ AI Stance,” bosses high enough up the ladder to lack hands-on PR or content experience are now more likely to be in the “Automate It” or “Improve It” camps.

You can point out all the em dashes and corny turns of phrase you want, but execs who got this piece (and others like it) in their b-school classmates’ group chats assume “methinks thou dost protest too much” and start looking for more ways to automate PR.

So what do you do?

Get there before they do. Lean into AI in the areas where it actually is as good or better than humans. Be proactive and visible about it. Show them advances like these I detailed in November.

Then their attention will turn to other parts of the organization that aren’t being as proactive with AI.

A final thought: This disruption is unsettling. Even if you’re someone like me who believes in it and gets excited about opportunities to leapfrog, it’s still very uncomfortable. I’ve got nothing to make that angst go away.

My tip is to realize it’s okay to sit with uncertainty. It’s okay to be open to pivoting and responding to changes in the environment. That ability has been a reliable advantage for humans for a long time.