Can industry experts continue to be heard in the age of AI?
In June, we published an edition of The Hook on why it’s time to take a stand against 'AI slop' and 'word froth'.
This came as Anna Moloney, City AM’s Deputy Comment Features Editor, expressed her frustrations with being sent a 600-word op-ed written entirely by AI, and subsequently feeling motivated to write it herself.
Given the time and consideration ploughed into our written content at Democracy, we were overjoyed to hear that City AM had declared war on ‘AI slop’. AI chatbots reduce personality and experience-led content to merely impersonal, polished words.
In a surprising twist of fate, we were recently made aware of newsdesks utilising AI chatbots to refine thought-leadership content supplied by PR agencies, including expert commentary from established industry spokespeople.
This reportedly made the content double in length, without adding any substance, while simultaneously watering down the key messaging delivered by spokespeople, putting words in their mouths in the process.
News writers are taking a logical step to save time, but this is coming at the cost of losing the unique and valuable voices of industry experts.
Further to this, recent scandals have shown PR companies presenting fake experts to help bolster their content. Research from Press Gazette found that national news outlets are producing expert-quoting content where the named expert cannot be verified.
This raises the question of what is worse - a fake expert created by AI, or a real spokesperson losing their voice to an AI chatbot?
As a creative-thinking agency, we strive to share our clients’ unique and experienced voices in a way that feels authentic to them.
We work closely with spokespeople and brand representatives to help shape meaningful narratives, prompt relevant conversations, and deliver messaging in a way that has impact.
Our hope is that these voices can continue to be heard and cut-through the ‘AI slop’ that is inevitably growing in the name of timesaving.
