How AI can help you communicate. Local pros share tips.

Local communication pros are embracing AI tools like ChatGPT even as many in the industry worry it will replace their jobs.

State of play: The potential — and anxiety — surrounding generative AI tools was evident at a recent discussion hosted by the local Public Relations Society of America chapter and moderated by John.

• "It's not the AI that's going to take your job, it's the person who knows how to use AI," Shehryar Akhtar, the co-founder and CEO of Pronto Media Group, told the crowd.

Be smart: The panelists offered tips on how to think about and deploy AI tools. The key is asking the right question, they said.

• Liesl Leary, co-founder and chief marketing officer at Axis Integrated Mental Health, sees it as an idea generator for blogs, titles and reports. In the prompt, she suggests including a variation of "Act like a McKinsey consultant" to get a particular style output.
• Stephen Hutt, an assistant computer science professor at the University of Denver, has used ChatGPT to rewrite lesson plans into language that is age-appropriate for different grade levels.

• Patrick Ward, the CEO at public relations firm 104 West, uses it for brand research, gaging opinions on particular products or companies, or to edit and make content better.

Yes, but: AI tools are "not perfect," Akhtar said, and must continue to be trained.

• Hutt cautioned that the internet is biased and non-inclusive as a whole, which will affect what content it produces through AI tools.

Related … Be an AI realist