How to use ChatGPT for PR, and what to keep it away from
Written by Jen Plahm · October 9, 2026
An AI assistant is useful in PR when you treat it as a fast assistant whose work needs checking. It can get you started, rephrase, and shorten. It can also state something false in a confident tone, so every fact it gives you needs a source you have opened yourself.
Key point
Use AI to get unstuck and to tighten your own writing. Keep the facts, the quotes, and the final judgment with you.
Where it helps: research
Research is where a blank page costs the most time. A specific question gets you background on an industry, a product category, or the arguments around a topic, which tells you what to look up properly next.
Give me a plain-English overview of [industry] for someone writing a press feature about a [product type] brand.
What are the main debates or trends in [topic] that a journalist covering [beat] would already know about?
What questions would a reporter ask about [announcement]?
Treat the answers as a reading list. Open the original reports and articles before you rely on any number.
Where it helps: shaping a draft
For headlines, hooks, and structure, AI works well as a brainstorming partner. Ask for a dozen options, pick the one closest to your voice, and rewrite it yourself.
Give me ten headline options for a press release about [news], written for [outlet type].
Suggest three different angles for a pitch about [product] that connect to [current trend].
Here is my draft opening. Offer two shorter versions that keep the news in the first sentence.
Where it helps: tightening a pitch
Once you have a pitch, AI can cut a draft down. Paste yours in and ask for specific changes.
Shorten this to under 120 words and keep the date and the number.
Make the first sentence lead with the news.
Remove any filler words and phrases.
What to keep it away from
- Check facts and statistics yourself, because a tool can produce a figure that sounds right and has no source. Check every number against the original.
- Use only quotes that a named person said and approved, and never let a tool invent one.
- Find journalist contact details from a verified source, since guessed email addresses bounce and look careless.
- Check your agency's policy and the tool's data terms before you paste anything confidential about a client.
- Edit the finished piece, since text that goes out unedited tends to read like everyone else's.
Be open about it
Professional bodies publish guidance on this. PRSA's Promise & Pitfalls: The Ethical Use of AI for Public Relations Practitioners examines generative AI against five provisions of its Code of Ethics, including disclosure of information and safeguarding confidences. The CIPR lists AI in PR guides on its site, including an ethics guide and a best practice guide on responsible use. Read the one that applies to you before you decide what to disclose.
Where The PR Assistant fits
The PR Assistant saves a client's voice samples, boilerplate, and key messages once, so drafts start closer to right. Writing Review then checks the draft for style, pitch quality, readability, and evidence, and the Humanize button rewrites a draft to remove common AI writing patterns. You still make the final call.
Written by a PR professional with 17 years in the industry.