How a PR Team Used AI to Scale Smartly and Achieve a 5X ROI in 10 Days
When ChatGPT hit the market, plenty of people asked if it would help or hurt PR. Years later, the answer is taking shape: use it as a multiplier, not a shortcut. Teams are building content faster, operations tighter, and results more predictable-when the process is dialed in.
Here's how one team used AI to solve a classic PR problem: serving a big client push without burning out the staff or overhiring for a short spike in workload.
Preparing for Growth Without Overhiring
Many firms carry one or two heavyweight clients. It's great for revenue, risky for headcount. When one such client hinted at a surge in activity, the math was simple: more work, same team, and a firm "don't drop the ball" deadline.
Full-time hires on a single client? Risky. One-off contractors? Expensive and messy. So the team went with a cleaner option: expand capacity with AI-immediately, and without long-term commitments.
They brought in Samantha Riel, CEO of Scale Without Chaos, to build custom writing assistants and train the staff on how to use them in real workflows. Not just tools-systems. By the end, the firm had a streamlined content creation and editing process ready to run across clients.
When the Surge Hit
Right after training wrapped, the big ask landed: find five authors, write five op-eds, and place them across multiple verticals-fast. A bonus per landed piece sweetened the urgency.
Old way: late nights, other clients ignored, and a team running on fumes. New way: normal hours (mostly), strong authors, and placements in three verticals. The client paid the bonus, and the team didn't torch the week to get there.
AI Scales. Humans Win.
AI doesn't replace thinking. It accelerates it. If you ask a machine to "write an op-ed," you'll get machine-sounding copy. If you give it a brief, voice cues, angle, and structure, you get a strong first draft that saves hours.
The right move was investing in setup: repeatable prompts, voice profiles, structure templates, editing checklists, and fact-check passes. That's where the real leverage shows up.
The ChatGPT-Optimized Op-Ed Workflow
- Get the brief from the client. Clarify the goal, audience, outlet tier, and non-negotiables.
- Interview the named author to lock tone, experience, and narrative angle.
- Feed relevant background into ChatGPT with voice notes, structure, and placement targets.
- Set context: stance, proof points, examples, and mandatory inclusions or exclusions.
- Iterate quickly. Give specific, direct feedback on clarity, logic, and line edits.
- Run the final AI draft through a structure pass and two rounds of fact-checking.
- Ensure four human eyes on the piece before sending to the author and client.
- Pitch with tailored hooks by vertical; track outcomes and tighten prompts for the next round.
Results: 5X ROI in 10 Days
The system paid off fast. More throughput with fewer bottlenecks. Better consistency across authors. No "heroics" required to meet the deadline.
And nobody asked if AI was used-client, editors, or authors. They cared about sharp arguments, clean structure, and on-time delivery.
What PR and Comms Teams Can Use Today
- Build voice kits for each author: sample paragraphs, phrases to use/avoid, and tone guidelines.
- Create prompt templates for briefs, outlines, draft generation, and edits. Keep them in a shared library.
- Standardize quality: structure checklist, style rules, and fact-check protocol.
- Limit context bloat. Feed the model only what's useful for the argument and outlet.
- Measure: time saved per draft, placement rate, and revenue per piece. Improve the prompts based on outcomes.
- Keep humans in charge of framing, accuracy, and final voice.
Want This Running Inside Your Team?
If you're building AI-assisted content ops for PR, start with practical training and repeatable systems. Browse focused programs and resources here:
The Bottom Line
AI gives you scale on demand. Process gives you consistent quality. Put them together and you can take on bigger asks, keep your team sane, and grow margins without gambling on headcount.
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