Artificial Intelligence - Super Intelligent or Simply Artificial?

In today’s economic climate it’s no surprise that business owners are cutting back on what they perceive as non-essential spend, including PR and marketing. Despite Bill Gates once famously stating that if he were down to his last dollar, he would spend it on public relations, some are now leaning on tools like ChatGPT to handle their full marketing needs.

At Zen, we’re all for evolution - and yes, AI has its place. It can absolutely be useful to streamline tasks such as researching facts and stats, but is it truly as revolutionary as it seems? And more importantly, can it replace a human PR and Comms expert? Or is it actually more artificial than intelligent?

A while ago, we ran an experiment asking an AI tool to write a short bio on our lovely Founder, Fliss. At first glance, the result was impressive - it appeared eloquent and well-structured. However upon closer inspection our awe dried up and we realised something was missing - us. While the content looked good on the surface, it lacked substance and soul - it was in fact vacuous and essentially said nothing at all. Some details were inaccurate, and the emphasis on certain points was off. It was clear that AI couldn’t match our human understanding of nuance, context and tone.

More recently, we gave it another go - this time asking ChatGPT to write a press release. With a greater understanding of how to ‘feed’ the tool, we expected more. But again the results were somewhat disappointing - we found it to be impersonal, repetitive, not particularly media-friendly, and totally off-brand for the client.

Initially, this blog was meant to compare that press release with one written by us - but of course, this would only be our (expert) opinion, and we already know where we stand. We were curious to hear AI’s ‘thoughts’ on the matter, so we asked ChatGPT one simple question:

“Can AI write a press release better than a PR and Comms expert?”

Here’s what it had to say …

“AI can assist with writing a press release, and in some cases generate drafts that are fast, grammatically polished, and on-brand - but saying AI writes “better” than a PR and communications expert depends on context. Here’s a breakdown:

Where AI Excels

• Speed & Efficiency: AI can instantly generate press release drafts, saving time for busy teams.

• Consistency: Maintains tone, structure, and formatting across different releases.

• Grammar & Style: Offers polished language with no typos or awkward phrasing.

• Template-Based Content: For standard announcements (e.g., product launches, event recaps), AI performs very well.

• Multilingual Drafts: Can quickly translate and localize press releases.

Where Human Experts Outperform

Strategic Positioning: A PR expert knows how to tailor messaging to stakeholder needs, industry timing, or competitive narratives — something AI still struggles to do at a high level.

Media Relationships: Humans understand the nuances of pitching a story to specific journalists or outlets — AI can’t replicate that.

Crisis Communications: Tone, timing, and legal nuance are critical in sensitive scenarios; humans are better at reading the emotional landscape and avoiding PR pitfalls.

Deep Brand Voice: AI can mimic tone, but real PR professionals live the brand — they understand cultural resonance and subtext AI might miss.

Realistic Use Case

A great PR expert might use AI as a first-draft tool - letting the AI do 60-70% of the heavy lifting and then applying their experience to sharpen angles, massage messaging, and align with strategy.

Verdict

AI can write a press release, and sometimes even a good one - but a seasoned PR professional can write a strategic press release that lands headlines, influences perception, and builds relationships. That’s where AI still lags behind.”

So there you have it - straight from the robot’s mouth. If you’re looking for a quick, typo-free release to announce a standard event, AI may suffice - assuming it avoids any potential PR pitfalls. But if your goal is to deliver strategic messaging that truly reflects your brand’s voice and lands exactly as you intend - aligning with stakeholder priorities and industry timing and tone - then you need more than polished sentences. You need people. You need PR experts.

Whilst we don’t deny this fascinating step forward in content creation is innovative and very clever - and could well replace some of the churn-it-out-for-cheap agencies whose only aim is to fill a word count - it fails massively from a communication and connection perspective. It can’t replicate the work of trained PR professionals who understand human psychology, language nuance, and the craft of emotionally resonant storytelling.

And as a kick-arse communications agency made up of trained grammarians and psycholinguistic and neuro-linguistic programming practitioners - that focuses on big, hairy results using carefully crafted and psychologically-nuanced language - that means it simply isn’t for us.

Thanks for your ‘thoughts’ ChatGPT, we couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Or actually …