ChatGPT: Putting the AI in Communic*t*ons

Written by Dan Bailey, Associate Director, Digital & Social

Ask ChatGPT what it means for communications professionals and it will say “ChatGPT can help communications professionals save time and improve efficiency” – which is why it’s something that we should be keeping a close eye on.

For those who don’t know (perhaps been on a desert island for the past year), ChatGPT is an AI-powered chatbot that will write you a response based on a request or prompt you type into it. So yes, it will write a haiku about your dog, a tweet about Lunar New Year, and even an article synopsis about ChatGPT. It’s a working example of a tool that has tons of potential. If its adoption continues to grow, it could evolve a range of industries.

Recent research found that almost 30% of professionals say they’ve tried ChatGPT or similar tools at work. This makes total sense when you think about it. Who wouldn’t want to automate some of their more basic or time-consuming tasks? I’m not suggesting that we should be putting ALL our trust into ChatGPT. But, we can consider delegating certain jobs to it. This will help us focus on delivering more impactful work. For example, what if you need a meeting agenda template? I asked ChatGPT for one, and it suggested something which is perfectly acceptable for future use … it wasn’t anything ground-breaking, but it’s a good enough foundation to work from and adapt.

After all, if you offered someone working in a communications agency the chance to focus more on giving the right consultancy and helping their clients to deliver better work, then ultimately the client will benefit and get better value out of their agency investment.

If you need more convincing, try asking it to describe a complex subject in less than 40 words – and see what it says. No doubt it will give you something you can use as a starting point, but make sure you’re double-checking anything it’s giving you especially source data. It’s not perfect, and there have been some concerns around its reliability. All in all, it’ll help put you on the front foot if used sensibly.

Despite the positives, AI-powered tools like ChatGPT aren’t going to replace us communications pros just yet. Firstly, the results it generates are lacking any emotional intelligence (I guess AI isn’t quite there yet…) Second, the results it gives can be incredibly basic or broad. Sometimes a basic brief will give basic results, and a more complex brief will yield some slightly better-quality results, but don’t expect a masterpiece from ChatGPT. Thirdly, it won’t know your business’ tone of voice, vision or strategy and, fourthly, it won’t be able to capture the unique essence of what makes your brand special. So, don’t expect it to churn out perfect, ‘ oven-ready’ copy left, right and centre.

Don’t confuse me with an avid AI-powered chatbot sympathiser. But trust me when I tell you that ChatGPT can, and will, help you with at least one of your day-to-day tasks. So, what’s stopping you from taking it for a spin? It’s caused enough of a stir for Google to throw its hat into the ring with Bard, so start by giving it one of the basic tasks you have on your to-do list and see what it gives you. You might be pleasantly surprised at the results.