AI can write copy. It cannot earn trust. 

Recently, City A.M. aptly summarised the frustrations of journalists with their campaign ‘There should have been an op-ed here but you filed AI slop’. Features editor Anna Moloney described an inbox full of AI-written submissions and made a very simple point: editors aren’t just chasing ‘clean’ copy, they want real voices, real expertise and something worth publishing. 

And the PR world needs to take that seriously. 

This is not moral panic about AI. It is a quality question. We know AI has a place in communications; it can help teams move faster, sort information, sharpen drafts and get past a blank page. But speed doesn’t mean substance. And a polished paragraph is not a point of view. 

The risk for our industry is not just that AI creates bland content. It is that it strips out the very things that make stories land in the first place.

Judgment, texture, personality, lived experience and originality. The small human details that make someone pay attention. The old aphorism in journalism: “Dog bites man is not news. But if a man bites a dog, that is news” has never been truer. Right now, AI is scripting a lot of ‘dog bites man’. 

That is why I think the next phase of AI in PR will not be about who can produce the most content. It will be about who can prove what is real. That’s also why we created Human Voices. The proposition is simple: real journalists, sourcing real people, telling real stories.  

The case study can either tell a brand’s whole story or support a wider insight revealed through OnePoll data. Our package includes sourcing, copywriting, media-testing, along with a half-day photoshoot and a news-style video edit for distribution and use on client channels. Crucially, it is built around authentic storytelling, minimal branding and the proof that a real person is sharing a real experience.  

That matters more now than it would have done a few years ago. In an environment flooded with synthetic content, authenticity becomes more valuable. Not as a vague brand word, but as something practical. Something that helps a journalist trust the story, helps an audience believe it and helps a client stand behind it. 

So yes, use AI. Use it well; to save time and improve process. But when it comes to voice, testimony and stories that are meant to move people, keep human beings at the centre. 

Because in a market full of machine-made sameness, trust will belong to the campaigns that still sound like someone means them.