It was great to be in Anaheim, California this month for Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) ICON 2024—the largest, and I believe, oldest PR event of the year, of which PRophet was proud to be the titanium sponsor.
We’re finally winding down and reflecting on a week packed with demos; 1:1 chats with customers, students and professionals; and great programming, including a session on ‘Human-led, Data-fed AI’ by from PRophet CEO Aaron Kwittken.
I’m hopeful about the future of the PR profession, and now seems like a good time to share some learnings.
PRophet is an AI-powered platform, and for attendees at PRSA ICON, AI itself was the source of a ton of questions. We know AI is everywhere, in the abstract—but real knowledge is still nascent across our industry.
PR and marketing professionals are equally skeptical and optimistic. Everyone is, rightfully so, warning and wary of misinformation, disinformation, and AI hallucinations. At the same time, they are accepting, inquisitive, and eager for information on how to infuse AI into their day-to-day workflows.
The choices are overwhelming and anyone who can educate and advise on the right purchase moves will find a big audience.
Generative AI is the most well-known and most used of AI tools—famously skilled at jumpstarting a thought, re-writing text, or creating an image from a prompt.
When it comes to Predictive AI however, understanding of how and when to use it is more limited. I chalk this up to Predictive AI needing a good publicist. Granted, it's early days.
Predictive, not generative, AI is the future, and it needs more education and attention.
—Jason Brandt, CMO of PRophet
Part of the issue is buyers of AI have too many choices and too few bundled solutions that combine bigger and smaller tools into one. Similar to cable package bundling, I see AI bundling coming with combined plans to encourage easy experimentation. That way, predictive solutions can be consumed alongside other AI solutions, conveniently and cost effectively.
I met an overwhelming number of young, articulate, motivated talent looking to get into comms at PRSA ICON. If anyone thought PR was a dying art, think again.
We are seeing an influx of newcomers so impressive that unless one asked, it was hard to determine if the person you were talking to was a student or a seasoned professional.
The discussions I had were mature, the base-level of AI understanding was high, and the sheer numbers of engaged students was vast.
We have all heard and used the term, “crawl, walk, run,” and I am finding, at least among the PR people I spoke to, this is changing, fast. This age-old workflow trope is being flipped to “run, crawl, walk.” Comms professionals are looking for help and fast. They don’t want to waste money, but they really don’t want to waste time.
Many professionals are happily testing heavily, and indeed are often running to gather data quickly.
From there they are taking a breather, crawling through the results to find an equilibrium in which to operate (that’s the walking bit). The launching point is moving further up and the cycles are quicker. Run, crawl, walk.
The exhibitor space needs a greater diversity of companies taking a chance with a Comms audience.
Do you want to know how many media monitoring companies exhibited at ICON? Too many. Attendees are itching for new tech, new tools, and more creativity in the exhibitor space.
I would also love to see exhibitors who bring their tools to conferences like these focusing on more education in their spaces. Planned event sessions offer great success. Why can’t that education spill into the show floor?
The potential for growth is there for companies willing to take a chance and just push their MO a bit out of their comfort zone. It would also be refreshing to see companies exhibit that are not the traditional PR suppliers. I believe there is an audience for that, and budgets can open up if the story is good.
People want to be with people again. PR is a tribe, for sure, but more than that, it’s a complex community that operates with shared language, rules, goals, culture and personalities.
It was good to see professionals from rival organizations celebrating together IRL. We can tout the virtual virtues of Zoom and Teams all day long, but people in attendance were looking to talk, share, network, and party with one another, in-person.
See you next year, PRSA.
