There is a contradiction in the PR industry; many practitioners want a seat on the board, but most of us perform tactical tasks. What if automation and Artificial Intelligence does not take our jobs but - on the contrary - become the enablers of something new? A no hype talk about the use of automation and AI in day to day PR operations and what it could represent to the profession.

1. 1
PR HACKING
HOW TO AUTOMATE BORING TASKS
& INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY IN PR
PHILIPPE BORREMANS
Member of the Board

2. A FLEXIBLE
NETWORK OF
SENIOR
INDEPENDENT
COMMUNICATION
CONSULTANTS
2

3. SMALL, NIMBLE,
AGILE, FLEXIBLE
3
SPECIALISED,
OPTIMISED, LEAN

4. WORK IS
BROKEN &
TEAMS ARE NOT
PRODUCTIVE
WORKERS STRESSED ABOUT THEIR JOB 83%
EMPLOYEES WHO FEEL ENGAGED 13%
PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH IN 5 YEARS 0.3%
PRODUCTIVITY DECREASE / WORK OVERLOAD 68%
THE
HARD TRUTH
B A S E D O N R E C E N T R E S E A R C H
4
Data Source: Employee Productivity Statistics: Every Stat
You Need to Know - by G.I. Sanders - Dynamic Signal

5. M E E T I N G S
62 MEETINGS/MONTH
50% of meetings
considered
time wasted
31 hrs spent in
unproductive
meetings/month
5
Data compiled by Atlassian
https://www.atlassian.com/time-wasting-at-work-infographic

6. E M A I L S
304 weekly emails
(average)
36 times
number of times the
average employee
checks his/her email
per hour
16 minutes to refocus
after handling incoming
email
6
Data compiled by Atlassian
https://www.atlassian.com/time-wasting-at-work-infographic

7. 80%
of interruptions at work are
considered trivial
7
Data compiled by Atlassian
https://www.atlassian.com/time-wasting-at-work-infographic

8. 60%or less
of work time is actually spent
productively
8
Data compiled by Atlassian
https://www.atlassian.com/time-wasting-at-work-infographic

9. “At all levels, practitioners are overwhelmingly
engaged in tactical delivery. The most commonly
undertaken activity in PR is copywriting and
editing – the third most common is media relations.
Elements of these activities, as well as social media
relations, are at risk of automation.”
9
CIPR State of the Profession 2018
https://www.cipr.co.uk/stateofpr

10. NO WONDER WE SHOULD TAKE NOTE
W H E R E W E
A R E N O W
A company is an
association or
collection of
individuals, whether
M A R K E T I N G
& P R O M O
A company is an
association or
collection of
individuals, whether
O U R
TA R G E T
A company is an
association or
collection of
individuals, whether
C O M P L E X
I D E A S
A company is an
association or
collection of
individuals, whether
10

11. WRITING PRESS
RELEASES WILL BE
AUTOMATED
S T A T U S O F A I
“In 2018, 20% of all business content
will be is authored by machines.” -
Gartner
The Associated Press now publishes
3,000 stories via AI every quarter —
and that number is poised to grow.
The system can produce 2,000 articles
per second if need be…
T I T L E
11

12. Content Analysis
S T A T U S O F A I
The Shinano Mainichi
Shimbun's news
distribution service for
cable TV summarises
articles with AI.
By utilising the AI system
it reduces the time
required for the entire
process by about half,
accelerating the
operations of the service.
12

13. “Things looked bleak for the Angels when they trailed by
two runs in the ninth inning, but Los Angeles recovered
thanks to a key single from Vladimir Guerrero to pull out a
7-6 victory over the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on
Sunday.”
13
“The University of Michigan baseball team used a four-run
fifth inning to salvage the final game in its three-game
weekend series with Iowa, winning 7-5 on Saturday
afternoon (April 24) at the Wilpon Baseball Complex, home
of historic Ray Fisher Stadium.”

14. 14
Source: How an AI Algorithm Learned to Write Political Speeches - MIT Technology Review

15. AVAILABLE
FOR FREE AT
GITHUB.
ALL YOU
NEED IS A
SERVER.
B U S I N E S S I D E A …
15

16. WE HAVE A
MORAL
OBLIGATION
TO OUR
PEOPLE &
OUR CLIENTS
TO CHANGE
16

17. 17
PR HACKING
ABOUT AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT & TOOLS

18. T I T L E
T H E T O O L S W E U S E
PR Hacking tools are;
Low cost, online, open
and co -exist well with
others.
They are easy to learn
and to use, always
available.
They are OS agnostic,
continuously improved
upon and easily replaced
when needed.
They are by definition
and set up collaborative
and agile by default.
T H E WAY W E W O R K
Change is constant in
our business
Unpredicted challenges
cannot be addressed in
a traditional manner.
Scrum/agile accepts
that the problem
cannot be fully
understood or defined.
Focus is on the team's
ability to deliver
quickly & respond to
emerging requirements.
18

19. THE ADVANTAGES
T H E W A Y W E W O R K
19
Puts emphasis on quickly
delivering the most added value
Provides quality,
transparency
and predictability
Stimulates
early feedback
Ensures everyone is happy
doing what they are good at

20. SOMETHING
Y O U C A N W R I T E H E R E
A company is an association or collection
of individuals, whether natural persons,
legal
M O R E
20
STAND UP MEETINGS
• Every day
• 15 minutes
• Standing up (no seats)
• No coffee
3 Q&A/TEAM MEMBER
1. What I did since the last meeting
2. What I plan on doing today
3. What is impeding me from doing my work
T H E W A Y W E W O R K

21. KANBAN BOARDS
T H E W A Y W E W O R K
21
TO-DO DOING DONE
Task
Task
Task
Task
Task
Task
BOARD
LIST
CARD

22. 22
T H E W A Y W E W O R K

23. 23
PR HACKING
AN EXAMPLE OF CONTENT CREATION & SMART TOOLS

24. CONTENT CREATION
T H E W A Y W E W O R K
24

25. CONTENT CREATION WORKFLOW
T H E W A Y W E W O R K
25
1
Research Topic
2
Research Influencer
3
Record Podcast
4Promote / Publish
PODCAST

26. CONTENT CREATION WORKFLOW
T H E W A Y W E W O R K
26
5Transcribe
COVERAGE
From a 30 minute podcast
into 3 to 4 articles and 1
“video”
8
Promote again
7
Publish in sequence on blog, Linkedin etc…
6
Copy Edit into 3/4 articles

27. WORKFLOW TOOLS
T H E W A Y W E W O R K
27
Research Topic Research Influencer

28. WORKFLOW TOOLS
T H E W A Y W E W O R K
28
Record Podcast

29. WORKFLOW TOOLS
T H E W A Y W E W O R K
29
Promote / Publish

30. WORKFLOW TOOLS
T H E W A Y W E W O R K
30
Transcribe
$0.006 / 15 seconds

31. WORKFLOW TOOLS
T H E W A Y W E W O R K
31
Copy Edit into 3/4 articles

32. WORKFLOW TOOLS
T H E W A Y W E W O R K
32
Copy Edit into 3/4 articles

33. WORKFLOW TOOLS
T H E W A Y W E W O R K
33
Publish in sequence on blog, Linkedin etc…

34. WORKFLOW TOOLS
T H E W A Y W E W O R K
34
Publish in sequence on blog, Linkedin etc…

35. From a 30 minute (evergreen)
podcast into 3 to 4 articles,
several social media updates
and 1 “video”
35

36. D A T A
EXCEL…
It’s a spreadsheet
software.
NOT A DATABASE!
36
(My own pet peeve…)

37. 37
PR HACKING
HOW WILL WE REACT?

38. MARKET DATA
P R H A C K I N G
Category 1 Category 2 Category 3
3
22
1,8
4,4
2,4
3,5
2,5
4,3
38
The global public relations (PR) tools
market size was valued at USD 4.55
billion in 2015 and is predicted to
increase over the next eight years.
Creating, streamlining, automating,
and improving processes accounted for
over 70% of the overall industry share.
F O L L O W T H E T R E N D ?
PR Tools Market Size | Public Relations Tools Industry Report, 2024

39. The rise of 'Strategic Planning' - strategic planning is now the
third most common way PR professionals spend their time,
behind content creation (81%) and media relations (73%).
Tightening budgets and reduced fees - Almost a third (32%) of
in-house professional report budget cuts and double the
number of agencies and consultancies (15%) cut fees,
compared with last year.
39
CIPR State of the Profession 2017

40. 87% of professionals say that the term
“Public Relations” will not describe the
work they will do in five years…
40
Global Communications Report 2017 - USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

41. THE PUBLIC
RELATIONS
PROFESSION HAS
A UNIQUE
OPPORTUNITY TO
MAKE A
DIFFERENCE LIKE
NEVER BEFORE
M Y 2 C E N T S
41

42. 42
PR HACKING
HOW TO AUTOMATE BORING TASKS
& INCREASE
PRODUCTIVITY IN PUBLIC RELATIONS
PHILIPPE BORREMANS - www.reputationand.co
+212707127270 - phil@reputationand.co