Your PR Portfolio Is Not Sustainable Without AI
You’d have to be living under a rock to not know that AI is transforming the PR world. And it’s not just a trend — it’s becoming a necessity in 2025.
It wasn’t too long ago that Prowly’s PR Trends 2025 report revealed that 74% of PR pros believe AI-powered tools are the future of PR.
But I’m sure this stat is no surprise to you. Conversations about AI in PR have been increasingly popular over the past year.
I recently posted on LinkedIn about how I had noticed AI adoption is so high in the PR industry and asked PR pros in my network why this is happening.
I got a comment from Rowan Toffoli, an AI-powered executive communicator at Lockheed Martin that stood out to me:
I got intrigued and wanted to, as ChatGPT would say, “take a deep dive” into her last statement: “I don’t think our portfolios are sustainable *without* AI.”
So I decided to interview her as part of our #LeapsPRSeries to hear her thoughts. Let’s get into it!
Why AI is necessary for sustainability in PR
Q: You mentioned in a comment on my post about AI in PR that you believe PR portfolios are not sustainable without AI. Why do you believe so?
A: PR pros have large portfolios that span a wide range of skills. We are not only writing content, we're:
- competing for attention from our audiences in an environment with increasingly lower attention spans,
- managing media relations,
- collaborating with partners in and out of our companies,
- reacting to and predicting trends,
- analyzing data and sentiment, and much more.
You can't be a "one-trick pony" in PR — you need to be agile and deliver across a broad portfolio.
Where AI delivers the most impact for PR pros
Q: From your experience, which PR tasks or roles do you believe AI supports most effectively?
A: AI, specifically Generative AI, can support PR professionals in rapidly generating the first draft of deliverables (like press releases or social media posts). The goal is never to get a perfect piece of content.
The goal must be to quickly get to the first draft faster so you can edit for final voice, tone, and brand message.
Getting to the first draft faster allows you to focus your saved time on tasks that AI cannot do — things like relationship management or thought leadership.
Q: How has AI helped you deliver more value to your organization? And what other ways do you think it can help other communicators deliver value to their clients and orgs?
A: AI helps me deliver value to my organization because it makes me much more efficient. I use AI literally every day — from organizing my (very long) to-do list, to drafting content, to evaluating sentiment and the social environment.
Some of my tasks, such as writing social posts, now take minutes vs. taking an hour or more depending on topic and content. I can use that saved time to focus on bigger picture tasks and strategy.
I believe AI can empower communicators to deliver at even higher levels. AI can help free up our energy and creativity to focus on the things AI can't do well.
When we spend our time and energy on "every day" tasks — the basic tasks we all need to complete — we're taking that time and energy away from strategic, original thinking, thought leadership, and creative key messaging.
By off-loading our everyday tasks to AI, we can use our time and energy on more impactful work.
Overcoming challenges with AI adoption
Q: What challenges have you faced when adopting AI tools that other communicators should be aware of?
A: The biggest challenge that I faced and I see other communicators face is doing what I call "drop by AI." Drop by AI occurs when you go into a tool, such as ChatGPT, you make a request, then you leave.
Drop by AI follows the prompt format of "Do X about Y" like “Draft a press release about my new product” or “create an image of two people shaking hands.”
This type of prompt almost always produces poor, generic results, and that can leave a sour taste in your mouth.
You might think AI doesn't perform well, or that it can't actually help you, because its initial results weren't good. I encourage users to get away from drop by AI by engineering stronger, more effective prompts.
Give the tool clear information and details that support your ask, give it limitations and examples. Engineered prompts help you communicate effectively with AI and get better results.
Advice for PR Pros hesitant to use AI
Q: What advice would you give to PR pros hesitant about integrating AI into their workflows?
A: My advice for PR pros is that we're on this journey together. We know that communicators may feel excited and curious about AI. But we also know that many of them feel scared or hesitant about adopting AI.
Considering AI as a partner that can boost your efficiency, rather than something that can replace you, is step one. I genuinely don't believe that AI will ever fully replace communicators.
There is far too much nuance in our field and too much human-to-human relationship management necessary for message success.
The best way to get into AI is to think of a problem you have — a repetitive task you have to do — that AI can help you solve. For example, I usually tell folks to start with meal planning.
You can tell ChatGPT (or other tools) what types of meals you like to eat, things you don't like to eat, and any dietary or allergy restrictions you have, and it can help you plan meals that meet your needs.
My family has a lot of specific preferences and dietary needs, and we often get stuck in a rut of eating the same things over and over again.
When I was first starting to work with Gen AI, I used ChatGPT to help me generate some new meal ideas for my family that we'd all like, that were within our skill level, and that was easy for our very busy family to prepare.
Meal planning is such an applicable example for folks because it's something we all have to do every single day. Get into the tools and give it a try! You can always give feedback to the tool to help it generate more applicable and accurate suggestions, too.
Q: Anything else you'd like to add?
A: I'm so excited to see how AI is revolutionizing the communications field. The possibilities genuinely feel endless, and we're just at the beginning of our collective journey.
And that's really important for people to recognize. We are on this journey together. When we share knowledge, ask questions, and come together to learn, we're all better for it.
AI is here to stay
AI is no longer optional in PR. As Rowan shared, adopting AI isn’t about replacing your human expertise but enhancing it.
By embracing AI tools thoughtfully, you can tackle repetitive, time-consuming tasks and focus on the work you do that truly makes an impact.
So here’s the friendly nudge you need to start exploring AI tools that will make your work more efficient.
Goodluck!
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Rennie Ijidola
Hi! I'm Rennie, Co-founder @ Leaps, the Expertise to Content Platform that makes it super easy to capture insights from yourself or your execs, founders, and experts, and turn them into content that builds brand authority.
Before building Leaps, I spent years as an editor working with content writers before joining my co-founder, Victor to run our content agency for B2B and SaaS brands, from startups to enterprise companies.