Using Generative AI for Media Monitoring, Outreach, and Crisis Simulation
Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash
Before anything else, let me clarify that this article is not meant to be blindly pro-AI. It’s just that the reality is, in today’s fields of writing, marketing, and PR, there are clients, scenarios, and industries where AI is just impossible to avoid. The only thing we can do is keep up, lean more into our skills, and watch out for AI overdependency.
That said, if you’re a business owner or PR professional who wants nothing to do with AI, this article isn’t for you. And I absolutely understand where you’re coming from.
But if you’re a business owner or PR professional who thinks AI can give you an edge in your PR strategy, keep reading. From a PR standpoint, we’ll be discussing how our industry can use generative AI for media monitoring, outreach, and even crisis simulation.
What Is Generative AI?
Let’s define the basics.
AI (or Artificial Intelligence) is the broad field for a wide array of machines that try to imitate human thought and creativity. Smart technology like Alexa or Grammarly (my favorite AI editing tool) falls under what is considered AI.
Generative artificial intelligence (generative AI) is a branch or type of AI that can generate new output from prompted input. This includes:
- conversations
- general ideas
- stories
- images
- music
- videos
- web codes
- poetry
…Well, anything, really.
What Is (and Isn’t) Considered Generative AI?
Not all AI is generative AI.
What Isn’t Generative AI?
- ALEXA before ALEXA+
Up until February 2025, ALEXA was simply considered a conversational form of AI that followed orders and didn’t generate anything.
- Grammarly
Grammarly also isn’t considered generative AI because it wasn’t built to create anything. It only edits and provides feedback on whatever text you give it.
What Is Generative AI?
- Google Search (and Gemini)
Google’s search now uses Generative AI to create summaries. Here’s a screenshot as proof that its SEO knows it uses Generative AI.
- ChatGPT
ChatGPT is one of the best and most popular examples of Generative AI. It’s also a great free tool to use when you’re a brand that isn’t sure about investing in a business account just yet.
How Can You Use Generative AI for PR?
One of the biggest benefits AI can give PR professionals is a faster streamlining of drafts, processes, and frameworks. Like so many articles on AI tell you, AI is an efficient assistant that can condense hours of work and brainstorming into seconds. It is not a replacement for human-led work.
Media Monitoring (with Analysis)
Generative AI is incredible at processing vast amounts of data from various sources (news sites, social media, forums). Use for things like:
- Automated Summaries: Much like what Google does in real time, Generative AI models can condense large numbers of articles and social media posts about your brand into concise and informative summaries, saving you a lot of time.
- Real-time Social Listening and Media Tracking: Generative AI tools monitor online conversations to track brand mentions, campaign performance, and emerging industry trends. It’s a controversial way to use AI, so do this at your own risk.
- Identifying Influencers: Generative AI helps pinpoint key journalists and social media influencers that are relevant to a brand or campaign, based on their content and reach (or whatever KPI you can think of).
THE CAVEAT: AI is prone to hallucinations or making up information, so it is crucial to have a layer of expert human intervention and quality assurance to ensure the information it gathers is accurate. For instance, the influencer list it created needs to be further vetted by an experienced influencer manager, then culled ruthlessly if the list doesn’t meet brand standards.
Outreach
Generative AI can help personalize any brand’s outreach and create a wide range of PR materials.
Here are some concrete examples of how AI can help with outreach.
- Drafting Press Releases and Pitches: AI can generate initial drafts of press releases, pitches, and other materials that PR professionals can then refine and polish.
- Targeted Media Lists: AI can analyze journalist databases and their recent reports. You can use this to build highly targeted media lists for specific campaigns that you want your PR partner to reach out to. They have the network, after all.
- Efficient Messaging Copy: AI tools can help tailor email pitch drafts to individual journalists based on their past work and interests. This tailored approach can help increase the chances of any brand’s coverage.
THE CAVEAT: I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to have a layer of expert human intervention. The burden of creativity, ensuring your copies don’t sound AI, and aligning your outreach message to your brand’s tone falls on you and your team.
Crisis Simulation
I know what you’re thinking: how?
Use generative AI like ChatGPT to test your perceived crisis scenarios and ask about possible crisis mitigation suggestions you can implement immediately. Practices with:
- Realistic Scenarios: AI can generate dynamic and evolving worst-case scenarios (e.g., product recalls, data breaches, etc.) with realistic media sentiments and social media backlashes.
- Automated Processes and Responses: PR teams can also use Ai to generate automated responses for times of crises. I do not recommend doing this, though, as people don’t appreciate a bot answering for a brand’s mishaps.
- Performance Feedback: AI tools can analyze the team’s responses during the simulation and provide constructive feedback, highlighting areas for improvement.
THE CAVEAT: You can prepare for crises scenarios as diligently as you can, but the real work is in being flexible when the actual crisis hits. Partner with an expert PR agency — filled with human experts —- to help guide you through if these scenarios and responses are accurate and ultimately safe to execute when push comes to shove. It’s better to have them develop your crisis communication plan.
AI is Not Everything
Generative AI is not the end-all-be-all solution to everything, nor does it provide all of the answers you need. Even when it cites sources and gives summaries, it can still make mistakes.
Still want to use AI in your PR strategy? Partner with NGP IMC! With a decades-old portfolio for both digital and traditional PR, NGP IMC has already adapted to the art of AI.
Start a conversation about it here, or book an appointment here!