PR professionals need to become much more literate in generative AI if they hope to capitalise on the technology's creative capabilities, according to findings from the 2024 Creativity in PR study, which examines how generative AI is impacting the creative process.

The 2024 survey, entitled 'Navigating the New Frontier of AI', is co-authored by Now Go Create and conducted in conjunction with FleishmanHillard. The findings launched last week by revealing that more than one third of creative work is expected to be supported by AI within the next year, amid concerns about education, familiarity and overall industry preparedness.

When asked how they see Gen AI influencing the future of creativity in the PR industry, around one-third of the 150+ respondents (34.8%) said it would 'enhance human creativity', ahead of 'revolutionising content creation' (11.8%) and 'streamlining operations' (8.8%). Only 2.9% believed there would be no impact on creativity, the same proportion that think AI will promote collaborative creativity.

For this to happen, AI literacy appears to be crucial, emerging as the skill most required to leverage new technologies most effectively.


AI literacy ranks ahead of technical proficiency and ethical/responsible use. Project management and collaboration skills are viewed as being far less important.


Most users, furthermore, see the biggest opportunity for Gen AI in terms of automating routine tasks in the creative process (72.5%), ahead of improved media monitoring (62.3%) and insight development (60.9%). Far fewer — just one third — see a significant opportunity from predictive analytics, despite the investments made by many of the major PR networks. There are similarly low levels of support for 'innovative campaign ideas', 'enhanced storytelling' and 'crisis management support'.

"As more clients expect us to move at the speed of culture, the creative process has become truncated," said FleishmanHillard New York ECD Ellie Tuck. "Could gen AI help us speed up parts of this process yet still provide that all-important time to think? Many respondents believe so. Almost three quarters (73%) said the greatest opportunity for AI is in automating routine tasks to focus on more strategic and creative work."


Dovetailing with concerns about AI literacy, almost half of respondents (47.3%), report being somewhat familiar with AI, although almost the same proportion (46.2%) are very or extremely familiar. Despite that, there is little consensus in terms of how gen AI-driven insights should be balanced with human creativity in order to develop effective PR strategies.


The highest proportion (25.9%) see gen AI supporting human creativity, and very few (4.9%) see gen AI as either a primary driver or equal partner. But more than one in 10 (13.6%) think there should be minimal AI use, and almost one in five (18.5%) support a case-by-case basis.