AI Won't Replace Good Communicators. Bad Ones Should Worry.
PR professionals face a legitimate question: Will AI take their jobs? The answer depends on what they actually do.
AI can write adequate content faster than most humans. It struggles with everything else that matters in communications.
Mediocre writing was already vulnerable
Writers who produce decent-but-forgettable content will lose to AI. That's not a prediction-it's already happening across the industry.
The communicators who survive and advance are those who can think strategically, uncover authentic stories, and develop narratives that resonate. These skills have no AI equivalent.
Sara Miller, an AI communications strategist and former head of strategy and operations communications at AWS, distinguishes between two approaches: "AI slop is what happens when writers outsource their thinking." She said the smarter move is to write first, then use AI to pressure-test assumptions and sharpen messaging.
A strong writer brings emotional intelligence, creative ideas, a genuine voice, and a point of view. Those remain irreplicable.
Real stories come from real conversations
AI excels at processing information-transcribing interviews, summarizing notes, drafting paragraphs. It cannot sit across a table from an executive and ask the questions that uncover what makes them different or what shaped their perspective.
Those conversations build relationships. They also surface the authentic stories that actually move stakeholders.
Evan Boyer, founder of Leaders PR, said his team spent hours talking to different customers when a trucking client needed media coverage. "The personal conversations yielded some incredibly unique stories that supported a narrative people in those markets needed to hear," he said. An AI system would have missed those nuances entirely.
Authenticity becomes the differentiator
As AI-generated content floods every sector, stakeholders, journalists, and influencers will demand proof that what's being said is real and who's saying it is genuine.
Technology changes. The fundamentals of communications do not. Seeing around corners, identifying elegant solutions, and knowing what a client needs to say before they can articulate it-these skills have driven communications for centuries.
Leah Dergachev, founder of Austley, said the difference shows immediately: "When communicators treat AI as a content machine, you can tell. It all sounds the same and says nothing specific." She worked with a CEO whose messaging kept opening with "we're fixing a broken system"-the same line every competitor used. Using AI to pressure-test the message revealed what actually differentiated the company and spoke to customers.
AI functions best as a tool to sharpen thinking, not replace it. A calculator doesn't help someone who can't balance a checkbook. Neither does an AI system help a communicator without a strategy.
Learn more about AI for PR & Communications and how to use prompt engineering effectively.
Your membership also unlocks:
