By Sam Becker
We’ve heard about how artificial intelligence would change the world for years. But recently, we’re starting to see AI actually implemented into our everyday lives—be it to unlock our smartphones with face recognition or generate new visual or written content using tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
While some AI mechanisms are already being used to create content, there are many others in the works. One such tool, designed for the public relations industry specifically, will make its debut at South by Southwest (SXSW) this week in Austin, Texas.
Stagwell, a global communications firm, is launching a new generative AI tool named Taylor, which will work in a similar vein to ChatGPT, although it is not built using OpenAI’s technology. Launching this month, the tool will help PR professionals write press releases, story pitches, and even generate social media posts—saving untold amounts of time and resources. Stagwell is also forming a Comms Tech Business Unit, which will use a suite of AI-powered products and services like Taylor to help give the PR field a technological shot in the arm.
The tool’s name is a play on the word “tailor,” as in “tailoring” content. It will be both “generative and predictive, and there’ll be a free version,” Aaron Kwittken, who will serve as the unit’s CEO, tells Fast Company. Kwittken is the founder and CEO of PRophet, which is the unit’s flagship product as well, and already uses some AI features to help publicists and others facilitate their workflows. He says it “takes about two minutes to generate drafts rather than a couple of hours—the time-saving is tremendous for a marketer.”
Taylor’s functionality is relatively simple: Users can give the platform a small prompt (minimum of 30 words), and Taylor will produce a pitch from that prompt. Or you can upload or paste in a press release, and Taylor will supply a pitch—and pitches can even be personalized for individual journalists or reporters, too.
Ultimately, Taylor will be one part of a much larger investment in the AI space by Stagwell. And while it may seem odd or unsettling to some that AI is now being used to shape content and media, the same predictive tools have been used in many other facets of our lives for years. Streaming services, for instance, use similar technology to curate or suggest TV shows or movies that we might like based on our previous choices, and the same applies to social media feeds.
As such, Kwittken says that these sorts of technologies “have always been there,” or at least have been there for a while, but now, “we’re just giving it a name.”
With the popularity and proliferation of ChatGPT in recent months, AI has become a hotter topic of discussion, and it’s starting to see widespread adoption in several areas. A majority of teachers are utilizing AI tools, for example, and new AI-powered tools are rolling out to help clean out your email inbox, drive your car, or even read to you. In other words, AI is everywhere—but that doesn’t mean that people are necessarily going to be completely out of the equation in the near future.
“You need a human to come in over the top to make it all work,” says Kwittken of Taylor’s capabilities. “You still need an idea, and to have judgment,” he adds. “These tools can make us more performative, but they don’t have judgment.”
He also says that although tools like Taylor will help revolutionize the PR industry in a huge way, right now, it’s mostly going to help firms save time and resources, rather than lead to a wide-scale thinning of the ranks. Ultimately, AI could simply make a PR firm’s workflow a whole lot faster and easier, freeing up manpower to focus on other tasks.
“AI will be assistive,” says Kwittken, “but it will never replace a human.”
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