AI in PR Needs a Human Hand: Indonesia's Deputy Minister Sets the Bar
Artificial intelligence can speed up public communication, but it doesn't replace human judgment. That was the core message from Indonesian Deputy Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs Nezar Patria, who urged PR professionals to use AI with care, ethics, and oversight.
AI can draft, sort, and summarize. People still decide what's accurate, empathetic, and appropriate. The standard is simple: use AI as a tool, keep humans in control.
What AI Can Do For PR Right Now
- Draft press releases, briefs, and FAQs from structured inputs.
- Analyze public data and media coverage to spot trends and signals.
- Track online sentiment and surface issues before they escalate.
- Support planning and campaign execution with faster research and content variants.
Where Humans Must Lead
Patria underscored that empathy, accuracy, and context require human input. "AI-generated content often lacks the emotional depth that only humans can provide," he said.
Nuance matters in public communication-especially for policy, crises, and sensitive topics. AI can draft; humans set the tone, intent, and consequences.
Risks Without Oversight
- Misinformation: incorrect facts repeated with confidence.
- Awkward phrasing: content that sounds off-brand or insensitive.
- False narratives: plausible but wrong storylines built from weak signals.
- Error amplification: small mistakes scaled across channels if unchecked.
"AI can amplify errors if not carefully monitored," Patria warned. The fix: supervision, review, and clear standards.
Practical Guardrails For Government and PR Teams
- Approval chain: No AI-generated content publishes without human review and sign-off.
- Do-not-automate list: Crisis comms, legal statements, policy positions, and sensitive community topics are always human-written.
- Fact-check protocol: Require sources for claims; verify against primary data or official records.
- Context and empathy pass: Check tone for affected groups; avoid cultural or local misreads.
- Bias screening: Test prompts and outputs for skewed language or stereotypes.
- Transparency policy: Disclose AI assistance where appropriate, especially for public information services.
- Model and prompt log: Keep a record of tools used, prompts, and edits for accountability.
- Regular audits: Review samples monthly for quality, accuracy, and alignment with ethics.
Policy Context: Indonesia's Direction on Responsible AI
Indonesia is developing an AI National Road Map to guide responsible use, align with global standards, and support national progress. For reference, many governments look to the OECD AI Principles as a baseline for safety, transparency, and accountability.
Skills PR Teams Need Next
- Prompting for clarity, accuracy, and tone consistency.
- Source verification and data literacy for fast, reliable fact-checking.
- Editorial judgment: when to use AI, when to write from scratch.
- Operational discipline: workflows, logs, and audit habits.
If you're building capability across roles, explore focused training by function here: AI courses by job.
The Bottom Line
Technology should serve human communication, not replace it. As Patria put it, "The future of communication is not just about technology, but about how humans can control it."
Use AI to work faster and see more. Use people to say the right thing, the right way, at the right time.
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