AI is having a bit of a moment; we’ve hit an era where bots are the frontmen of brand communication. Chatbots, templated emails, auto-replies, generative press releases—convenient, sure. But there’s a growing unease I can’t ignore, when brands let automation lead their voice, they risk losing their soul.

From a PR standpoint, I get it. Efficiency is king; AI tools can whip up copy in seconds, draft pitches, and even generate responses to media inquiries. That’s power. You save hours, sometimes days. But there’s a fine line between streamlining and sterilising. When these bots start speaking for brands, things can get a little… well, robotic.

I’ve seen it happen with press releases; those once vivid, personality-infused announcements have started to read like they came off the same corporate conveyor belt. You know the type: “We are thrilled to announce…” followed by jargon, passive voice, and a quote that sounds suspiciously like it was never said aloud by a human being. It’s safe, professional and completely forgettable. 

And occasionally, it backfires spectacularly. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, a pitch generated entirely by the AI tool PRAI for Mainz Biomed went viral, for all the wrong reasons. With a subject line scolding journalists for caring more about “Tesla than a cancer killing thousands,” the email struck an aggressive, accusatory tone. The backlash was swift. Instead of spotlighting Mainz’s cancer research, it drew criticism from reporters and PR professionals alike for lacking empathy and tact. It’s a clear reminder that AI, without human oversight, can miss the mark, alienate audiences and damage reputations.

The trouble with robotic messaging isn’t just tone, it’s trust. PR is built on relationships. Whether you’re pitching a story, handling a crisis, or launching a new product, people want to feel the company behind the communication. That feeling is driven by nuance, personality and humanity.

Imagine handling a crisis with robotic language. An apology written by a bot, scrubbed of emotion, is worse than no apology at all. “We regret any inconvenience” does not cut it when real people feel hurt or misled. Bots can generate words, but they can’t gauge emotional temperature. They lack empathy, that subtle but critical compass of good PR.

Let’s talk storytelling. Great PR isn’t just about correct syntax or SEO-optimised copy, it’s about narrative. It’s about knowing when to pause, surprise and get raw. A bot doesn’t know what your audience needs to hear right now. It knows what was statistically successful based on patterns from the past. But people? We live in the now. We crave resonance, not repetition.

Now, I’m no Luddite. I use AI daily. But I treat it like a drafting assistant, not a ghostwriter. It’s there to support, not to speak for the brand. The best use of bots in PR is augmentation, not substitution. Let them handle the grunt work, while humans shape the message’s heart.

So next time you are writing some messaging, don’t hand the mic entirely to the machine. Because when bots speak for brands, the voice might carry, but the meaning gets lost in translation.

And trust me, the audience can tell.

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