In a world where pizzas are assembled by robots and hotel room service can be delivered by a mechanical butler, is it safe to assume that with the help of artificial intelligence and automation we might soon see the demise of the (human) public relations professional?

Selfishly speaking (as both a PR professional and a human), I hope not.

There are technologies available that automate parts of our job in terms of press release distribution and social media posting, to name a few. Platforms like PitchFriendly and Bullhorn provide PR-focused customer relations management (CRM) solutions that allow teams to integrate media activities with email and mobile platforms, receive read receipts on pitch emails, share media lists and pitching notes, and more.

The benefits of technologies like these are clear – they can offer agency- or team-wide improvements around the following areas:

• Collaboration and information sharing – Offering a centralized system where team members can update and access historic details about contacts and pitches.
• Greater efficiencies – Providing a quicker way to find interview notes rather than manually searching through countless notebooks, Excel sheets or Outlook folders.
• Continual output of information – Allowing organizations to post tweets and other content on a scheduled basis, ensuring a consistent flow of content and audience engagement

In an industry that bills by the hour, automating many tasks – particularly administrative ones – makes good business sense. If a platform or tool can save time that might be spent looking up notes from an interview or avoiding people double-pitching a reporter, all the better.

But there are challenges with an automated approach. As with any CRM or database system, the information must be updated consistently by all parties to ensure its accuracy. A database is only as a good as the data that lives within it, after all, and for it to be valuable for agencies and clients, it needs to be a living, dynamic resource that is fed and nourished frequently.

Further, while a machine might be able to send out press releases or social media posts on a scheduled basis, it doesn’t take into account breaking news or other unanticipated factors that require real-world, human interaction and professional counsel. If a client finds themselves in crisis – whatever the issue – there’s no place for automation or templates.

Above all, the most important part of our job is in our title. Public relations. At the end of the day it’s about the relationships we build over time with our very human media contacts, clients and co-workers. Machines might be able to identify which reporter is likely to cover our news, but it can’t craft the story angle or understand the nuances and rapport that has been built with that contact.

And here’s where PR professionals need to up their game against the machines. Too often reporters complain – rightfully so – about receiving irrelevant, generic, untailored pitches from PR contacts that clearly haven’t bothered to do their research and apply some creative thinking in their outreach. In these scenarios, we’re no better than robots simply hitting “send” to hundreds of reporters, which does a huge disservice to those media professionals, our clients, and ultimately to ourselves as PR professionals.

Public relations is a creative field and one that requires us to be constantly vigilant in staying on top of our clients’ industries in order to provide them with good counsel and identify media opportunities that will help grow their business. Automated services like Google Alerts might be able to flag competitive news for us, for example, but it’s our job to take that information, apply our knowledge about our client’s business, and tailor a pitch that will resonate with the right contact at the right publication. That’s where the challenge is, but also the fun and the reward.

No machine can, or should, replace the brain power of a good PR professional. And to be clear, I’m far from a Luddite when it comes to technology. That robot pizza delivery service could come in very handy during a late-night press release writing session!

Is your organization using a tool that helps to automate parts of your PR program? What has the experience been like? We’d love to hear more in the comments – let us know!