Artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere, so you knew it was only a matter of time before a PR agency tried to package it for public relations. But can AI help get stories in the news or is it just a new agency spin to stand out from the crowd?
For three years, my PR agency ran the media and branding campaign for a digital health company that is a leader in AI. Its co-founder told me how his company had four billion data points from real people and that was why he believed the technology was more accurate than and superior to its competitors.
You need billions of data points for AI to learn, grow and predict over time. But more importantly, you need quality data. If AI uses incomplete or unreliable data, it will never be able to learn and develop.
PR is nowhere near gathering this kind of big data for news coverage. Yes, social media can predict which stories will gain momentum in their news feeds, but that is analyzing existing data. Google and Yahoo News also have big data on news stories tailored to individuals, but that is merely filtering out existing news content based on individual habits. No one — to my knowledge — is gathering big data on the local or national news cycle.
