Contribution by Birte Orth-Freese, CEO TE Communications

The financial industry loves buzzwords. There’s hardly a lunch or panel discussion where artificial intelligence isn’t talked about. Some rave about revolutionary efficiency gains, while others warn of loss of control and linguistic garbage. Communication is not spared either. ChatGPT & Co. can now create drafts for press releases, social media posts or Q&A sets in seconds. But anyone who thinks that the future of communication is already written is mistaken.

The opportunities: efficiency, speed and democratisation

AI is both a turbocharger and a tool. Routine tasks – from researching topics to drafting a text – can be accelerated dramatically. What used to take hours can now be done with a prompt. For agencies and communications departments, this means more time to hone storylines, develop media strategies, place messages – in short, to achieve greater impact with target groups.

At the same time, access to communication is becoming more democratic. Thanks to AI, even smaller companies without large budgets can quickly generate initial drafts for texts, presentations and images. For start-ups and niche players, this can become a decisive competitive advantage.

The challenges: credibility and relevance

But every turbocharger carries risks. AI hallucinates, simplifies, confuses – and has neither a sense of responsibility nor a moral compass. A poorly worded sentence in an annual report or an inaccurate statement can quickly undermine credibility and erode trust among investors and the public. Trust is harder to regain than returns.

Another risk is relevance. AI produces texts, but not original thoughts. Those who blindly rely on algorithms quickly end up being interchangeable. In the competition for attention, that is certain death.

The role of humans: from copywriter to navigator

The role of communicators will change, but it will not disappear. PR professionals will be needed less as text suppliers and more as navigators in the information jungle. They are the curators who ensure quality, provide context and understand nuances. In short, they contribute what machines lack – judgement, empathy and strategic intelligence.

The best agencies will be those that can use AI sensibly without becoming dependent on it. This requires new skills: from prompt engineering and AI-supported data analysis to storytelling, media strategy and placement. The bottom line remains: humans create the added value that achieves impact.

Looking ahead: cooperation instead of competition

Those who see AI as competition will lose. Those who use it as a cooperation partner will win. The future of PR does not lie in choosing „human or machine,“ but in the interaction between the two. AI can increase efficiency, accelerate output and reveal patterns in data . But humans decide which story is told, how it sounds and who it benefits.

Conclusion

AI is not a panacea, but a tool. In the hands of experienced communicators, it can open up enormous opportunities – for speed, reach and precision. Without human control, however, the opportunity quickly becomes a risk. The decisive factor is not how much AI is used, but how much impact ultimately reaches the audience.