Study: 79% of comms professionals plan to increase Gen AI usage in the next two years

As different industries experiment with generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) to deliver results, 74% of communications professionals across the APAC region have integrated the technology into their work. While marketers had the highest adoption rates at 90%, only 60% of journalists are leveraging Gen AI in their work.

These were the results of a survey done by editorial and research strategy company Media Collateral that also revealed that despite the high adoption rates, less than 20% of respondents fully integrated Gen AI for their tasks. In fact, 55% use Gen AI occasionally, it said. The report surveyed 227 respondents which includes journalists, marketers, PR practitioners, content creators, and advertisers.

Don't miss: Study: APAC ad revenues to grow by 6% to US$304bn in 2024

When it comes to how communications professionals are utilising Gen AI, 75% say that they it is used in content generation, ideation and optimisation while 37% of the industry also use the technology for strategy and planning. Other usage cases include automated data summarisation, audience sentiment analysis and predictive content targeting to name a few.

The main reason for adoption of Gen AI among communications professionals is due to its ability to improve productivity and efficiency with 80% of respondents saying so. Similarly, 67% look to Gen AI to simplify complex tasks and reduce manual workloads.

Factors such as uncovering previously overlooked insights along with its ability to personalise customer experiences at scale have also been cited as major drivers for Gen AI adoption in the industry.

Popular Gen AI tools and platforms include ChatGPT, Japser, Microsoft, Adobe and Canva to name a few. The report also noted the diverse range of functions these tools offer such as copywriting, data analysis and realistic AI-generated voiceovers.

Apprehensions about Gen AI

Despite the benefits brought about by Gen AI, communications professionals are mainly concerned about the inaccuracies and mistakes of AI-generated content or advertisements, with 65% of respondents agreeing to that. More than 50% have also said that the use of Gen AI has been limited at work due to ethical concerns surrounding data usage and transparency while 44% are concerned about the legal issues surrounding AI-generated content.

More specifically, 64% of journalists and 59% of PR professionals marked the ethical issues as an apprehension while 44% of content writers and 48% of marketers were concerned about this area.

Interestingly, about 20% have noted that financial constraints and unclear ROIs for Gen AI tools have prevented them from actively integrating AI in their work. In fact, 20% of respondents say that they are uncertain about how Gen AI will benefit their work.

The vast majority of respondents believe Gen AI will disrupt the workforce with 60% believing it will transform roles, 25% believing it will reduce job roles and 8% believing it will create more job opportunities.

While about 10% of professions such as marketing and PR have fewer concerns about the impact of Gen AI on job opportunities, 39% of journalists and 35% of content creators believe Gen AI will reduce jobs.

Gaps in the industry

As AI advances rapidly, industry information and knowledge gaps are also growing in tandem with 60% of respondents identifying limited training resources to unlock Gen AI’s capabilities in the workplace. Additionally, 47% also believe there are misunderstandings about Gen AI’s potential and limitations within their industry.

Respondents also highlighted a lack of adequate resources to educate themselves on Gen AI. In fact, 37% of respondents believe that there is a lack of unbiased and comprehensive information about the technology while 41% perceive there to be a limited connection between Gen AI, tech developers and industry professionals.

In spite of the gaps in the industry and apprehensions about Gen AI, 79% of practitioners plan to increase their use of Gen AI over the next two years. On the other hand, 2% intend to decrease their usage, citing inefficiencies or specific concerns.

Related articles:
Amazon Web Services to launch gen AI-powered assistant, Amazon Q
Why OpenAI's comms strategy was a tragic fail amidst the Sam Altman ousting saga
Study: APAC marketers (finally) start embracing the death of third-party cookies