AI In Asian PR: Optimism Is High, Adoption Is The Hard Part
PR teams across Asia are upbeat about AI. Yet 60% say adopting AI and new tech is their biggest concern. That gap-between belief and execution-is the real story.
One Asia Communications' new white paper, "AI Adoption Among PR Professionals in Asia 2025," surveyed nearly 300 practitioners in September 2025 across 12 markets: Cambodia, China/Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Sentiment Snapshot
58% view AI positively. They point to efficiency, creativity, and better analysis. Fears of job loss are giving way to new ways of working.
Optimism runs strongest in Indonesia and Vietnam, where AI is seen as a clear driver of productivity and innovation. Japan and South Korea are more measured. Positive overall, but with more neutrality-greater emphasis on governance, risk, and stability over quick experimentation.
Where AI Is Being Used Now
Over half use AI daily. Others are dabbling with free tools. Usage is uneven-some teams weave AI into research, content, and media analysis; others test prompts and basic drafting.
India and Malaysia show wider adoption in media analysis and content development. Hong Kong is more cautious, often citing time, budget, or unclear frameworks.
Marketing Communications leads active experimentation-campaign ideation, content personalization, audience insights. Corporate Communications uses AI more strategically-sentiment tracking, message consistency, stakeholder engagement.
Examples On The Ground
- Thailand: Marketing teams refine social content and measure engagement, adjusting messaging to real audience behavior.
- Taiwan: Corporate communicators plug AI into reputation monitoring and stakeholder mapping to speed up decision-making.
- Philippines: PR teams use AI-driven analytics for outreach and early trend detection, but many still want clearer frameworks to judge impact.
The Adoption Gap
Familiarity is high. Strategic integration is not. Most usage is individual rather than institutional-limited policies, training, or shared playbooks.
60% call AI and emerging tech adoption their top challenge for the next two years. The blockers: speed of change, structure for rollout, and cost.
Two linked issues sit right behind that. First, AI platforms (from search to generative assistants) are now key audience gateways. Your data needs to be clean, current, and structured-or you won't be represented accurately. Second, training is still shallow. Most programs teach tool mechanics, not how to fold AI into planning, messaging, and measurement.
What Leaders In The Study Are Saying
"AI is transforming communicators into better insight generators and trust builders," said Siwon Hahm, chairperson of One Asia Communications and CEO of Hahm Partners. "We are moving from doing the work to directing how technology supports human understanding and truth."
The study flags Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) as the next frontier-where AI, data, and storytelling meet to deliver adaptive, personalized experiences. GEO rests on three pillars: governance (clear policies and accountability), ethics (fairness, transparency, truth), and oversight (humans in the loop).
"The GEO framework ensures that as we innovate, we also protect the integrity of communications," said Jin Ooi, managing director at Distilleri Singapore and OAC founding member. "AI must serve truth, transparency, and human connection, not replace them."
Action Plan For PR Teams
- Audit your workflows: Map research, content, media relations, issues management, reporting. Mark what's AI-ready now vs. what needs policy or data cleanup.
- Set guardrails: Ship a one-page AI policy-approved tools, data handling, disclosure, human review, IP and client confidentiality. Revisit quarterly.
- Clean the inputs: Standardize naming, metadata, briefs, and source lists. Structured inputs improve AI outputs and make GEO possible.
- Prioritize 3-5 use cases: Examples: media list enrichment, sentiment summarization, first-draft messaging, FAQ generation, post-campaign analysis.
- Differentiate by team: Marketing Comms pilots audience segmentation and creative variants. Corporate Comms focuses on sentiment signals, message consistency, and stakeholder maps.
- Build a training path: Go beyond prompts. Teach evaluation, risk, bias checks, and integration into your planning cycle. Consider role-based tracks and measurable outcomes. Explore curated options for communicators via Courses by Job or the Marketing Specialists Certification.
- Measure impact: Tie each use case to 1-2 metrics-hours saved, cost per asset, pitch-to-coverage ratio, response speed during issues.
- Plan oversight: Require human QA for claims, tone, and context. Document review steps for regulated or sensitive topics.
- Prepare for GEO: Keep facts current, cite sources, and structure content so AI systems can parse it. Maintain a single source of truth for company data.
- Stay aligned with standards: Use public frameworks to guide risk and governance, like the NIST AI Risk Management Framework.
The Bottom Line
Asian PR pros are sold on AI's potential. The next move is operational-clear policies, clean data, targeted use cases, and practical training.
Do that, and AI becomes a reliable co-pilot-speeding up research, sharpening messaging, and improving judgment-while your team keeps the one thing tech can't replace: trust.
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