Katrina Cameron, TGC alumni, shares her experience using AI the right way in the PR field.
By: Paris Auerweck
As public relations students and soon-to-be professionals, the question that’s been circling our minds is this: Is AI capable of taking our jobs? The recent surge and development of AI technology has made us wonder about the future of the PR workforce.
Katrina Cameron, TGC Alumni and Client Relations Lead at Cred agency, has been using AI tools in her daily work and recently took a course on LinkedIn called “How to boost your productivity with AI tools”. We chatted about her key takeaways and what role AI is playing in the PR field.
“I was already using ChatGPT before taking the course, but the course really validated how I was using it,” Cameron says. These platforms make writing (or copy and pasting) too easy. What it should really help with, she says, is brainstorming, strategizing, forming inspiration and creating organization.
“It’s really just making our jobs a little easier… Using AI can really help you streamline your ideas,” she says.
As busy students and professionals, our attention is divided. Our thoughts can run in different directions making it difficult to concentrate and communicate ideas in a concise way. For those who struggle with some attention deficit problems, like Cameron and myself, using AI can help you put your ideas in order, build a list, or relate ideas to one another.
“The biggest takeaway of using AI is that you have to give it context to work… By doing that you kind of have to let it play a role,” said Cameron.
What does that look like? Not using AI and ChatGPT to write for you, but to make it work for you. Cameron described how, in the event space, they need to write a lot of event descriptions. Using AI to help her put her ideas in a list, develop a certain order, or prompt it to write from a PR professional perspective, aids her in starting the process, but doesn’t do all the work for her.
Katrina Cameron smiling in front of Bay Area view
“It definitely can’t do your job, you still need to be the human element to it.”
We specialize in public relations for a reason, all of us care about the way brands and our organizations interact with the public. We know what is best, we show that we care. Our writing and content naturally lets the human in us shine through. And as Cameron noted, “you always have the final say in whatever it does,” so your voice and your ideas are still an important part of the picture.
With graduation and professional life in the near future, I wonder about how I can make sure I stay relevant or needed with AI around.
“Since I’ve been working in PR and tech for a few years now, I’ve seen the best way to make yourself indispensable is to learn how to use the technology,” Cameron said. “Use it to fuel your creativity, use it to make you better at your job.”
Development of AI has undoubtedly created a new pressure to beat AI, we need to be better. With Cameron’s experience, it’s reassuring to know that generative AI is not taking our jobs anytime soon. In fact, we can use it to our benefit, we can use it to be better.