I welcome the PRCA’s AI Green Paper and commend the organisation for taking a clear leadership role at a critical moment for the profession. As a PRCA Fellow and long standing supporter of the PRCA’s work, I see this paper as an important and timely foundation for responsible AI adoption in public relations and communications.
This is a moment for confidence. AI is rewriting how reputation is formed, how authority is established and how brands are built. If PR does not lead here, others will. If we do lead, with ethics, evidence and commercial iron fist, then this becomes the era where PR finally claims the strategic ground it has long deserved.
The focus on trust, ethics, governance and skills is not only appropriate but necessary. These are core professional concerns, and it is right that the PRCA positions PR as a discipline grounded in accountability, judgement and public trust as AI becomes embedded in how information is created, distributed and consumed.
I offer the note below in the spirit of strengthening the Green Paper’s impact, sharpening its relevance for senior decision makers, and helping the PRCA advance its ambition to ensure PR leads, rather than follows, the AI conversation.
Trust and ethics is a vital foundation, but not the full story
The Green Paper is right to foreground ethics, social responsibility and trust. In an age already shaped by misinformation, declining confidence in institutions and fragmented media environments, PR’s role as an ethical interpreter and steward of information has never been more important.
However, I would suggest that trust and ethics are the licence to operate, not the primary reason organisations engage. The paper could be more commercial, so let’s go for it and put a few people in their place without going full on Martin Sorrell.
For boards, CEOs and commercial leaders, AI is currently framed first and foremost as an opportunity. For boards, AI is framed around visibility, influence, reputation and commercial outcomes.
If PR is seen to lead only with risk mitigation, governance and caution, there is a danger that other disciplines, particularly SEO, digital marketing and technology teams, will define the opportunity narrative, with PR positioned as a supporting or downstream function. We can’t have that!
My view is that the PR profession must lead: articulating how AI can be used ethically and transparently, while also demonstrating how PR creates value, influence and advantage in AI-mediated environments.
We should point out the flaws in AI being driven by SEO, which often misses the lens of reputation and ethics in favour of commercial outcomes. SEO might be good at measuring clicks bit this is for the most part a zero click brand reputation space and that is where PR comes into its own.
AI as a commercial opportunity for PR and a leadership moment
One area where I believe the Green Paper could go further is in explicitly framing AI as a strategic and commercial opportunity for the PR profession.
AI systems increasingly shape:
- how brands are discovered,
- how organisations are understood,
- how authority is established,
- and how “truth” is summarised and presented.
These systems recognise
- credibility,
- authority,
- consistency,
- earned media and social narratives,
- and trusted sources.
These are not the core SEO industry’s strengths. They are PR’s strengths.
Yet the market conversation around “AI optimisation” is still dominated by SEO and performance marketing. My concern is not that these disciplines are engaging with AI – that is inevitable – but that PR risks being perceived as secondary in a space where it should be leading.
There is an opportunity here for the PRCA to more explicitly position PR as:
- a primary architect of “AI reputation”,
- a shaper of “machine narratives”,
- and a strategic advisor on how organisations are represented inside AI systems.
This would materially strengthen PR’s relevance at board level and reinforce its strategic authority.
Let’s get on the front foot.
Skills, people and innovation
I strongly support the Green Paper’s emphasis on upskilling, AI literacy and the centrality of human judgement. The profession must invest in people, not simply tools.
I would suggest, however, that the definition of “AI capability” needs to extend beyond tool usage and prompt literacy to include:
- understanding how AI systems source and weight information,
- interpreting AI generated outputs critically,
- and explaining AI driven reputation and visibility to clients and leadership teams.
This is a strategic PR role. The technical element matters, but it is not the point. We need to be more assertive and confident that this time, SEO reports into communications
SMEs, scale and the reality of innovation
The Green Paper rightly highlights the risk of a two-tier industry, where large agencies have access to secure tools, training and governance structures that smaller organisations struggle to match.
I broadly agree with this concern, but I would offer a reframing.
In practice, much of the most innovative AI adoption, experimentation and best-practice development is currently coming from independent and mid-sized agencies, not large networks. Smaller organisations are often:
- less constrained by legacy processes,
- faster to adapt,
- closer to clients,
- and more willing to test new approaches responsibly.
Large agencies may have scale and procurement power, but they can also be slowed by internal complexity and risk aversion.
The real risk to SMEs may emerge later, if AI licensing costs rise sharply or access becomes restricted. At that point, the PRCA’s role in supporting shared frameworks, guidance and standards will be crucial.
In the meantime, I would encourage the PRCA to actively recognise and champion SME-led innovation as a strength of the profession, not a vulnerability.
Misinformation
I am fully supportive of the PRCA’s focus on misinformation. We are already operating in a misinformation environment and AI simply accelerates its scale and speed.
This reinforces PR’s role as:
- verifier of facts,
- sense maker,
- contextualiser,
- and ethical filter.
However, combating misinformation also strengthens the case for evidence, evaluation and accountability, which leads to the most significant gap I see in the current paper.
Measurement, AI environments and the missing opportunity
While the Green Paper acknowledges measurement as a longstanding challenge for the profession, it does not yet grapple with how PR impact should be evaluated in an AI led environment.
AI changes where and how reputation is formed:
- through generative answers,
- AI search summaries,
- Copilots and random chatbots
- and probabilistic outputs rather than ranked links.
This raises new questions:
- How do we measure PR’s influence inside AI systems?
- How do we assess visibility, authority and narrative?
- How do we demonstrate that earned media, expert commentary and credible storytelling shape AI generated representations?
This is an emerging area of work, and one where I am actively working with AMEC on developing practical, evidence-based approaches to GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) measurement. That work is intended to move the conversation away from hype and towards best practice, transparency and accountability.
I believe there is a significant opportunity for the PRCA and AMEC to work together in this space, ensuring that measurement evolves in step with ethics, skills and governance – and that PR can clearly evidence its value in AI driven environments.
