FIR Interviews

For nearly 20 years, Steve Rubel was a key figure at the global public relations and marketing consultancy firm Edelman, shaping its approach to media strategy and digital communication. A pioneer in blogging and digital PR from the early 2000s, Steve has long been at the forefront of emerging media trends, helping businesses navigate the ever-evolving landscape of content, journalism, and corporate communication.

In December 2024, Steve’s journey at Edelman came to an unexpected close when he was affected by a reduction in force at the agency. He has embraced the transition as an opportunity to reconnect with industry peers, reflect on the broader PR profession, and explore his next chapter. His announcement on LinkedIn in December drew an overwhelming response, reinforcing the deep connections he has built throughout his career.

Now, Steve is focused on one of the most untapped opportunities in communications: using AI and analytics to uncover hidden patterns in media. He believes that by leveraging these insights, PR professionals can craft smarter, more mediagenic narratives, improve media engagement, and redefine the future of thought leadership.

He plans to help agencies adopt AI-powered media analytics and drive innovation in communication. His advice for PR professionals: stay curious, experiment with AI tools, and learn how to extract real value from data.

In this FIR Interview, Steve joins Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz  – for the fifth time in an FIR Interview – to discuss the role of AI in modern communication, how data-driven storytelling is transforming PR, and why agencies must adapt to survive in an AI-driven industry.

Steve Rubel is a media analyst, innovation catalyst, and communications strategist with a proven track record of identifying emerging trends and delivering actionable insights to help organizations thrive in the dynamic media landscape.

Over a 19-year tenure at Edelman, he advised hundreds of global corporations and nonprofits, shaping strategies that drove meaningful impact. Beyond providing strategic counsel, he played a key role in advancing Edelman’s competitive edge by championing innovative capabilities, accelerating the adoption of new services, and positioning the firm as a leading authority on media.

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@nevillehobson (00:02.766)

Steve Rubel (00:03.279)

Shel Holtz (00:09.072)

Steve Rubel (00:31.692)

Shel Holtz (00:34.998)

I asked ChatGPT to tell me about you, Steve. Just curious to see how accurate it would be and where it would focus. So I’m going to read these three paragraphs and you can let us know how ChatGPT did on this. says, Steve Rubel is a prominent public relations executive and professional blogger known for his expertise in media trends, digital culture and content strategy. He has held significant roles at Edelman.

the world’s largest public relations firm, including serving as chief content strategist. In this capacity, Rubel has been responsible for advancing Edelman’s thinking on the evolving media ecosystem and helping clients develop innovative programs that blend paid, owned, and earned media. Throughout his career, Rubel has been a thought leader on the future of media consumption, advising clients such as Adobe, Starbucks, Samsung, and GE. He has emphasized the importance of companies operating in real time, like media organizations,

leveraging technology to create compelling content and synchronize communications across various channels. In recent years, Rubell has focused on the potential of analytics and artificial intelligence to uncover hidden patterns within the media landscape. He believes that these insights can benefit communications professionals, the organizations they represent, and the press. By analyzing untapped data, companies can craft more compelling and mediogenic narrative platforms, develop content strategies,

Steve Rubel (01:55.15)

Shel Holtz (02:08.231)

@nevillehobson (02:19.726)

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Shel Holtz (02:30.867)

@nevillehobson (02:33.676)

Steve Rubel (02:35.822)

@nevillehobson (02:38.51)

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Steve Rubel (02:57.682)

@nevillehobson (03:04.526)

How was that? So, you know, what’s happening?

Steve Rubel (03:37.381)

I was caught in a reduction in force that they made in the beginning of December. it was just shocking and disappointing, just it’s a business decision. And so I don’t in any way take it personally. like I said, I’m just grateful for every minute that I got to spend there. As you guys may or may not know, I was…

I was very vocal and active online for many years and then about six, seven years ago, kind of a deliberate decision to step back and to really focus much more on element client work and teams. There’s no story behind it. I just kind of got tired of it and wanted to really do something different. I’m of the belief that the internet has a short memory.

I put that up just to have something on the record, just to say that I wasn’t there anymore. And I was really blown away just by how people just were responding to that post, but also just the outreach I got. had people contact me from 30 years ago I worked with, 20 years ago, 15 years ago, 10 years ago, five years ago. It was staggering. And from all ways, from LinkedIn, from email, from text messages and so forth.

And that was something I totally did not expect at all. I just really wasn’t, I wasn’t ready for that. So I took some time and I said, okay, look, I’m going to use this time to just catch up with people because that’s something I really hadn’t done in the last few years. And so I just said, I’m going to book myself silly. I’m going to have one to three Zooms a day with people just to catch up and see what they’re doing.

Steve Rubel (05:50.502)

Just to kind of, I mean, I had no infrastructure. mean, just to give you an idea of how, where did I was and planning to stay with Edelman for the run. I had no CV, had no, my LinkedIn was completely out of date. It was a mishmash of stuff. So I had to take time to go through the process of just emotionally and mentally coping with a layoff. And the community was just incredible.

in helping me do that. And then also just had to kind of start to think about what’s next and which we can get into. so, and it was just, in their case, it was just a business decision and I have nothing but respect for them.

Shel Holtz (07:04.457)

Certainly most of the people in PR and communications that I talk to about generative AI are trying to figure out how to write with it.

Steve Rubel (07:40.26)

And they were an unknown company at the time. so I, you know, you know, by some measures. And so I kind of felt weird about that. And I was like, and I viewed it as a, as a search tool, which I think I honestly, in my, know, I spent two years in Edelman’s AI task force working with and working with Edelman’s own media team on helping to kind of accelerate their use of, of, of AI. And I saw that a lot of people like me used it that way. And, you know, we had in the

@nevillehobson (08:25.07)

Steve Rubel (08:37.091)

try different things. And I was like, wow, this and everyone has one of those moments I think was used one of these tools, but wow, this is such a powerful tool for helping me understand patterns in the media environment. So here’s what I do. I pulled down massive amounts of metadata out of MuckRack. know, the MuckRack, know, full disclosure, I got a license to MuckRack in exchange for some, you know,

some promotional work, basically writing on LinkedIn with their content. So just full disclosure on that. it’s not a paid relationship per se. The data, though, I’ve just become a fan. I’ve known Greg Gellant for a million years. He’s the CEO. But the data is so rich. And I started to pull down the data out of MuckRack, the article data and the metadata, and began to use a whole bunch of different AI tools.

analyze it. And what I found was, know, are, know, earned media remains the bedrock of PR. I mean, PR has, you know, and communications as you both know and have chronicled, has become so much more multifaceted now. It’s so much more diversified. It’s so many different types of activities. But

earned media remains the bedrock of it. I mean, I find, you know, it’s often the starting point for a lot of client relationships that extend out in other ways. And, you know, everyone is challenged with trying to break through in this environment because it’s just, you know, it’s getting, first of all, less reporters, less outlets in some cases, you know, a lot of topics that are just, you know, high volume and drying out the news environment, know.

Steve Rubel (10:57.759)

@nevillehobson (11:05.644)

Steve Rubel (11:25.887)

and then compare different quarters and different periods. So you can start to understand where a story is going or a single reporter to understand where that particular reporter is going. And what I found is not only is that useful for nuts and bolts kind of, know, brass tacks, earned media applications, but so many companies, you know, want to develop executive visibility programs or thought leadership programs or narratives that are consistent

with the media environment and Mediagenic. And when you look at that data set and use AI to manipulate that, that stuff gets to be so powerful because in theory, it’s a triple win. It’s a win for your stakeholder, whether that’s an internal stakeholder or a client. It’s a win for the press because you’re creating a better story that’s consistent with what they’re writing about on the mark, which has long been a complaint of theirs.

And it serves you because you’re going to be much more successful. And so I am just so bullish on the use of AI and analytics to understand the media environment at a very granular or a very wide aperture. And I find that this is completely untapped in the industry right now, completely untapped. And it has the potential if applied at scale.

to be incredibly useful, probably more so on the agency level, but certainly on the corporate level as well.

@nevillehobson (13:30.782)

this very topic, finding patterns. She talked about the kind of move from beyond generative AI to what she calls curation AI. And she talks a bit about how AI can provide communicators with better insights, deeper insights, and how messages are received and acted upon. She reckons that communicators who’ve worked with enterprise social networks like Yammer and so forth back in the day have very transferable skills as a result of that.

So it got me just to direct, I guess, the question that arises in my mind. If, and I’ve heard listening to what you’re saying, if AI driven analytics reveal the hidden patterns in media landscape, what, what do you think are the biggest opportunities for communicators generally? And I’m wondering what they need to shift to kind of get a handle on this is something you absolutely need to pay attention to. And so how do you think this shifts the role of PR pros and shaping narratives?

Steve Rubel (15:00.11)

and forgive me here for the Europeans, but I’m a huge sports fan, particularly a baseball fan. And we’re not getting too wonky there. You know, I’ve just been fascinated how analytics have come around and revolutionized any sport, whether it be football, know, NFL football, know, soccer, football, you know, baseball, golf, tennis, you name it. I’ve completely revolutionized it because teams or individuals understand

the statistics and the analytics about how their opponents behave. The media is not our opponent, but the media is certainly a gatekeeper. And so one of the things that I think is most powerful here, so I just looked at that and said, what did they do that we could be applying in our world? And one of the things that I think about with the press is that

They’re really good at writing about analyzing and writing about the problems in a particular, know, or what I would call the critical issues in a particular field. know, one of the critical issues around AI, one of the critical issues around DEI, mean, you and those are changing every week, every day. And it may not be, you know, the entire totality of what they write about around that topic. They’re writing about the solutions as well.

But I find that if you are able to identify and quantify the patterns in the critical issues, what are the problems that they are writing about regularly? And you can position your organization, your solution, your intellectual property as solutions to those particular issues. Or you have a point of view or some way of bringing something

Steve Rubel (17:14.974)

but it’s waste. How do we reduce that? How do we reduce that? Well, I mean, that’s where if you use the analytics to quantify and the AI is useful because it’s able to read huge volumes of information and statistically make patterns out of this. And I’ve mastered the prompts required and the different tools required to do that. But I think that has a transformation in helping us.

in communications. And even if your output is not media, your output is social media, your output is content for your website or LinkedIn or whatever it is. There’s a lot of work done in social listening to understand what people are talking about online. There’s a lot of great tools for that that are advancing every day, but there’s not a lot of work being done to look at what’s going on in the quote unquote professional content creator community and what working journalists are doing.

and using that signal set in addition to the others to helping to really shape content strategies. And so I just think that that is just absolute, probably one of the biggest opportunities with AI right now for communications professionals. Maybe not the biggest, but one of them for sure.

Shel Holtz (19:01.973)

Steve Rubel (19:05.614)

@nevillehobson (19:08.142)

Shel Holtz (19:09.845)

Jeff Livingston, Greg Verdino. It’s a real prominent topic right now that the internet is being overtaken, overwhelmed by AI generated content. How can organizations balance the use of data-driven insights with that need for having a human in the loop? And what are the ethical considerations around?

Steve Rubel (20:03.065)

Shel Holtz (20:05.877)

Steve Rubel (20:21.584)

And Aaron Judge has to go up and hit a baseball. Yes. Yes. You missed the big one in the World Series, but that’s another story. so the talent and the expertise and the humanity is still absolutely necessary. Knowing journalists, having relationships, building those relationships, none of that goes away.

Shel Holtz (20:54.773)

Steve Rubel (21:18.394)

Even if you’re new to this, it’s a year. It’s your own humanity and building those relationships are still absolutely necessary. But then I think, you know, taking the pitch and bringing it into an AI tool, whether that be Microsoft Copilot or, you know, chat GPT, or I’ve actually been using the writing tools built into the Apple intelligence writing tools that are built into the iOS and the Mac, not for pitches, but just, for

emails I’m writing and so forth. And just having it, you know, clean up, strengthen it. One of the things I like to do, for example, is to use the AI to improve the subject lines. Because I will bring in the pitch, you know, or would recommend to teams that they bring in the pitch into an AI tool and ask it based on email marketing best practices. How would you tailor my subject line, which I’ve already provided to make it stronger? Right?

And look, you might look at that and you’re going to say, it’s too much written like an e-commerce email. But you might pick up a trick or two that maybe there’s a word ordering where you move one word up, so it’s a little bit earlier in the preview, or some sort of optimization that augments what you do. So I think the use of AI to augment, to take your work from a five or a six to a seven or an eight, which I did with the analytics.

three years ago, definitely took my work, not to a 10, but certainly took it from, I would say from a six to an eight. And the same thing applies. And I think that to me is the opportunity with teaching teams how to do that. And to do that, so, I think you could, depending on the size of your organization, you could do that at a corporate or team level, but it works best in an individual level where you sit down with one or two or three people.

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Steve Rubel (24:20.301)

@nevillehobson (24:30.476)

So I tend to regard them as my research assistants, the same for search as well. Providing the skill, if you will, to do, to trawl through and make sense of huge amounts of data, structured and unstructured, doesn’t matter, and present you the results. Your job is still to make sure it’s accurate. And that’s a whole different, I think, conversation that we probably still need to have because…

I see this coming up a lot in conferences that I have with people that you can get all this input and great, you write your report. No, you’ve got to sift it. You’ve got to understand it yourself. So in the context of this latest idea of revealing hidden patterns in the media landscape, cetera, do you think, you know, AI, the tools are now detecting trends directly themselves and with limited

Steve Rubel (25:26.955)

@nevillehobson (25:56.847)

Steve Rubel (26:05.526)

So first of all, I think that some of the uptake, what people may not appreciate is that some of the uptake, the reason why it’s jumped so much has been the acceleration of enterprise ready tools, whether it be ChatGPT Enterprise or Microsoft Copilot or Google Gemini for Workspace or Claude having an enterprise ready tool. So I think the enterprise, some of the concerns in the beginning were

because the technology was nascent, but some of it also was because the tools weren’t really necessarily there to protect corporate information in the beginning, and there was a lot of concern about that. I think some of that, each day that goes away and there’s more more adoption of those tools. And so I think that’s part of what drove some of the uptake. In terms of…

So I guess you’re asking more about workflow, Neville, and like, how do you, you what does this mean for, you know, for corporations overall?

@nevillehobson (27:28.47)

Steve Rubel (27:35.922)

Steve Rubel (27:46.266)

And I always tell people that the AI tools will always give you an answer. They won’t say, don’t know, right? If you try to get them to say they don’t know, sometimes that’s a fun exercise. They often will not say that they don’t know. They are programmed to give you an answer. And that’s extremely enchanting and also extremely deceiving. When I find where it works best,

is when you take something that you have, either something that you have collected on your own, in my case it’s data, or something that you have already an inventory of, whether it be PDFs or speeches from an executive or content from a website or a whole bunch of, it could be a large corpus of text or it could be something small, or it could be a pitch, a press release.

you know, a short term piece of content that you’re going to be creating. And when you bring that information into the AI tools and ask it to improve it and ask for prompts and ask it to, you know, get you to think of things that maybe you haven’t thought of asking. I think that’s a really important thing is to really not just go in with your own, you know, ideas on what you want to get out of it, but to be a little bit more open-ended.

and to bring it in and say, could you tell me about this? How can I improve this? right now, today, that’s all in the prompts. It’s just getting, which I’m sure you guys have talked about all the time, is getting the prompts right. In the future, that won’t be the case. I don’t know how long exactly, but whether it’s a year or two years or whatever it is, especially through agentic AI and things of that nature, it’s gonna start to understand and personalize.

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extraordinarily useful and you know, and it’s and it’s worth the you know, the 10 or 20 bucks I think I I got some kind of deal that I’m paying for Google Gemini advanced to do that. And so I think there are situations like that where you can it can act as the Oracle where you go in and you ask an open-ended question and you get back research with a lot of links so you can go verify everything and you know, less risk of hallucinations. That’s one aspect of it.

But the whole other aspect of it is bringing in your existing assets, ideally in an enterprise protected environment, if you’re in an organization of any size, even if you’re not in a small slice firm too, you probably want to do that too. And begin to ask that questions and improvements on that piece of content. That’s where I think the power right now is today for the most part.

@nevillehobson (31:58.061)

Shel Holtz (32:21.145)

Steve Rubel (32:37.86)

it’s going to be Omnicom and PulvoSys. And then you have Edelman, which is a large independent and the largest. And then you have a whole array of smaller and mid-sized firms. And there’s questions overall about AI’s impact on the agency business. There’s a business model that is largely, yes, it’s retainer in some cases, but it’s often

it’s built around billable hours. Yes, those retainers are calculating against billable hours. And this is not just in public relations. It’s gonna be very important on the advertising side as well on the media buying side and so forth. It’s gonna be highly disruptive. AI is gonna be highly disruptive. So I would say that I am extremely bullish though about the future of the agencies because I think there’s still a absolute need for

shared expertise, whether it be, I mean, I saw the abundance of resources that I don’t have on any topic. could find anybody in the network who knew something about the most esoteric thing, they were there. And even in a mid-size firm, the same thing, you get that benefit. In a small firm too, because they tend to specialize. So I think that the agency business is gonna go through some serious disruptions with AI. The business model is gonna have to change, but the opportunity to…

to train and develop people and young people to me. I’m very excited about that in my next role. And so the things I’m looking at doing are, one is taking this media analytics approach and bringing it somewhere else and to really build on that with their expertise. Two is to really work as an innovation catalyst and help them really accelerate with their adoption and use of AI and not just generative, but overall, I would say augmented AI, if you will.

Steve Rubel (35:00.134)

@nevillehobson (35:24.11)

Steve Rubel (35:27.086)

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@nevillehobson (35:55.791)

Shel Holtz (35:55.797)

Steve Rubel (36:06.908)

And the reason why I ended up in Business Week, which was incredibly fortunate and certainly catapulted me into an amazing role and introduced me to Richard Edelman and so forth, was because I just saw that I was reading blogs by people like Dave Weiner or Robert Scoble years ago. I said, know, or Docs for Alls. And these are all names that people may not know, but certainly you should read up on them. Oh, yeah, you guys know that for sure.

Shel Holtz (37:03.007)

Steve Rubel (37:05.74)

So I was looking at, at, you know, native advertising and also brands becoming content creators and said, okay, what does that mean? And that scratched a niche to just know more and more and more about that. And then now it’s AI, right? And analytics. And look, I mean, I, I didn’t touch Excel for the first 30 years of my career. And I, know, two, two, three years ago, I sat by the, you know, by the pool and I, and I, you know, I read a book on how, and so I’m 55 years old. And so.

If I had to, so yes, it’s those three things, but if I had to sum it up is I have an insatiable curiosity. I am always trying to learn. I’m always nervous about what I don’t know. And I’m not expecting anybody to teach me. I’m expecting for me to just learn as much as I can through reading. And so I am constantly reading and trying new things just to stay at the edge of the trends.

and what’s happening and to anticipate what’s next. And so I think that where I, mean, those skills, which I think anybody can do have allowed me to really be good at understanding what I think is going to be next and what may not be, what might just be a fad.

Shel Holtz (38:46.825)

Steve Rubel (38:49.228)

Steve Rubel (38:58.146)

be doing different analyses there using the MockRack data. I’m going to be sharing tips and techniques on how to be more effective as a communicator and staying ahead of these technologies. And I’m open to ideas. But I just see the power of that channel. took it for granted. And I think that’s where I’m going to be doing things. It’s linkedin.com slash en slash steve.

Shel Holtz (39:51.487)

Steve Rubel (39:53.921)

@nevillehobson (39:54.329)

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How AI is transforming communication beyond content creation to curation AI, including predictive analytics and sentiment analysis, is at the heart of this FIR Interview with Silvia Cambie, an independent communicator with deep expertise in journalism, internal communication, and AI-driven change management.

Much of the conversation around AI in communication has focused on generative AI (ChatGPT, Bard, Claude, etc), yet Silvia argues that curation AI is just as important. By analysing patterns and predicting audience reactions, AI can provide communicators with deeper, data-driven insights into how messages are received and acted upon. Those communicators who have worked with enterprise social networks (ESNs) like Yammer, Jive, and Chatter may already have transferable skills. Extracting data from ESNs and mapping a company’s social graph can help train AI-powered assistants that improve internal communication.

AI is also revolutionising communication measurement. Silvia shares a case study from a major UK retailer, where AI-driven surface occupancy data helped better reach deskless workers, moving beyond traditional surveys. Silvia notes that a growing concern in AI adoption is bias in training data. She highlights the impact of misinformation in AI models, particularly when large language models (LLMs) are trained on public internet data. Another key challenge is AI bias — as LLMs train on internet data, misinformation risks grow. Communicators must collaborate with IT and vendors to ensure ethical AI use.

Silvia also discusses Agentic AI, where autonomous AI agents manage data, track sentiment, and support decision-making. She sees AI-assisted writing as a shift, not a threat, encouraging communicators to embrace it as a strategic partner.

AI’s impact goes beyond business — Silvia envisions AI shaping storytelling in space exploration, reinforcing its role in preserving human narratives.

Silvia Cambie is an accomplished professional who works at the crossroads of communication and technology. Her background includes business journalism, corporate relations, internal communication, consulting and digital transformation.

Throughout her career, Silvia has worked for companies like IBM and Wipro. Her experience in tech spans enterprise collaboration, Cloud, AI and change management. In IBM she used to focus on the application of Watson’s AI to the workspace. She has consulted with organisations in a wide range of sectors in the UK, continental Europe, the US and Middle East.

Silvia is a former member of IABC’s International Executive Board and used to serve as President of IABC EMENA. Fluent in four languages, Silvia is a recognised public speaker and published author.

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The post Silvia Cambie on AI’s Overlooked Role in Communication appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

In this FIR Interview, recorded on 19 December 2024, Shel and Neville chat with Martin Waxman about the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on public relations. From relational AI and synthetic personas to crisis management and ethics, the discussion highlights opportunities and challenges for PR professionals. Martin shares insights from his academic research and LinkedIn Learning courses, offering practical advice for integrating AI into communication strategies while maintaining trust and human relationships.

Martin Waxman, MCM, APR, writes a popular ‘Digital Marketing Trends’ newsletter, conducts AI research and leads digital and AI training workshops. He’s a LinkedIn Learning instructor, adjunct professor at the York Schulich School of Business and associate director of the Future of Marketing Institute. Martin is also president of a consultancy, an instructor in the McMaster Master of Communications Management program and a member of the Institute for Public Relations Digital Media Research Center. He regularly speaks at events across North America.

Martin received the Institute for Public Relations Best Master’s Thesis Award in 2019, for his paper, “My BFF is a Chatbot” and the 2024 Thought Leader award from the Canadian Public Relations Society. He has a Master of Communications Management from McMaster-Syracuse Universities.

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The post Exploring AI’s Future in PR with Martin Waxman appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

In this FIR Interview, Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson speak with Monique Zytnik, a business communicator and author of Internal Communications in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Monique delves into the transformative impact of AI on internal comms, highlighting the need for experiential, audience-centered engagement over a flood of generic content. This approach, she explains, responds to content overload and the need for more meaningful and strategic engagement.

On the topic of authenticity, Monique shares that while AI and outsourced content can support communication efforts, leaders should ultimately take responsibility for the content shared under their names to maintain trust and credibility. Her insights underscore the importance of genuine involvement and accountability in today’s fast-paced, content-saturated world.

The conversation also explores:

Monique Zytnik’s expertise in AI-driven communication provides an invaluable perspective on the evolving role of internal comms in an AI-powered era.

Monique Zytnik is an award-winning, global internal communication leader based in Berlin, Germany and author of Internal Communication in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. She has worked internationally, presented on communication best practices at world conferences, and guest-lectured at universities.

Her campaigns have been recognised by Gartner, Mumbrella CommsCon, and the Digital Communication Awards. She regularly shares her knowledge through industry publications and podcasts.

She is currently the Chair of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) EMENA Region.

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The post Trends, AI and Authenticity in Internal Comms with Monique Zytnik appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

In this FIR Interview, consultant, writer, and science fiction enthusiast Ezri Carlebach offers a unique perspective on how speculative fiction can be a valuable tool in business leadership, innovation, and ethical decision-making in planning for the future. He discusses how sci-fi fosters imaginative thinking, helping organizations tackle complex challenges, including the ethical dilemmas posed by emerging technologies such as AI, biotech, and space travel.

Carlebach explains his concept of “Applied SF,” highlighting how storytelling and “what if” scenarios can drive creative solutions in strategic planning and leadership development. He explores the role of empathy and ethics in leadership, offering insights on how speculative fiction can inspire future-thinking and better decision-making. A key theme in the conversation is the ethical implications of new technologies. Carlebach argues that speculative fiction can help leaders engage more deeply with ethical issues, fostering empathy and better decision-making. He discusses how fiction, in general, has been shown to improve empathy and leadership, citing examples like Barack Obama, who attributed some of his leadership insights to reading novels.

Overall, the interview highlights the transformative power of speculative fiction in business, offering leaders new ways to think about the future, improve decision-making, and address ethical challenges. Carlebach emphasizes the importance of fostering imaginative capabilities within organizations to better navigate the complexities of modern innovation and leadership.

Whether you’re a sci-fi fan or a business leader, this interview provides a thought-provoking discussion at the intersection of fiction and business.

Ezri Carlebach is a multifaceted professional with extensive experience in various fields. He is a communication consultant, writer, editor, facilitator, and musician. His background includes senior communication roles in the public sector, and he has worked as a visiting lecturer at the University of Greenwich for six years, teaching social theory.

Additionally, he is a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute and has coordinated AI and emerging technologies on the Institute’s Policy and Practice Committee.

Carlebach has also been involved in PR and communications for over 20 years and has founded the Climate Action Society at University College London. He is known for his expertise in countering conspiracy theories and has written about the power of words and stories to influence beliefs and behaviors.

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AI can greatly enhance media production and social media engagement, but it should be used to complement, not replace, human creativity and connection. And, as AI becomes more integrated into media and social platforms, it’s crucial to establish ethical guidelines and robust systems to prevent the spread of misinformation.

In this FIR interview with Pete Pachal, founder and CEO of The Media Copilot, Neville and Shel explore the intersection of artificial intelligence and media, with a focus on how generative AI influences social media, journalism, and brand engagement. We also consider how brands must adapt to new social media landscapes where AI-driven conversations may replace traditional metrics of engagement, requiring a shift in how they interact with their audiences.

Pete argues that the rapid advancement of AI tools means that businesses, media companies, and communicators need to stay ahead of the curve to leverage these technologies effectively while being mindful of the potential risks.

Pete Pachal is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Media Copilot, where he writes about how generative AI is changing journalism, the media and creative fields. He also teaches journalists and content creators how to use AI tools and consults with companies of all sizes on how to incorporate generative AI into real work.

Pete has a long career in journalism and media, previously holding senior roles in global newsrooms such as CoinDesk and Mashable. He also puts his encyclopedic knowledge of Doctor Who to work every week in the podcast ‘Pull To Open’.

Follow Pete on LinkedIn.

Links from This Interview:

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Google searches link to Wikipedia more than any other website. It is the largest and most-read reference work in history. It is consistently ranked as one of the 10 most popular websites in the world, and as of 2024 is the fifth most visited website on the net. Wikipedia is also one of the richest sources of information for AI training models. With all those eyes on Wikipedia, it’s no surprise that PR professionals want relevant entries to reflect their priorities and messages. Yet Wikipedia’s rules generally prohibit people and representatives of organizations from editing their articles. Some people try to game the system, frequently facing consequences like bans from Wikipedia. Others work with companies like Beutler Ink, a reputation agency specializing in Wikipedia entries based on founder William Beutler’s knowledge of working with the site’s volunteer editors to achieve the best possible results for his clients.

In this FIR Interview, Shel and Neville talk with Bill about the current state of Wikipedia’s relationship with the PR industry, how AI affects Wikipedia, and a host of other topics of interest to communicators.

About our conversation partner

William Beutler is the founder and president of Beutler Ink, a digital agency specializing in “white hat” Wikipedia consulting for corporate and institutional clients. Since its launch in 2010, Beutler Ink has led successful Wikipedia engagements for hundreds of clients, including numerous firms in the Fortune 50.

Mr. Beutler is considered the foremost expert in public relations for Wikipedia, and is the author of an influential blog, The Wikipedian (www.thewikipedian.net). His commentary has been featured by The Economist, on C-SPAN, at SXSW, and in 2020 he contributed a chapter to the book “Wikipedia @ 20: Stories of an Incomplete Revolution” published by MIT Press.

Links from this episode

The next monthly, long-form episode of the “For Immediate Release” podcast will drop on Monday, March 25.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat most Thursdays at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email [email protected].

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. You can catch up with both co-hosts on Neville’s blog and Shel’s blog. Neville’s Asides blog is also available.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this podcast are Shel’s and Neville’s and do not reflect the views of their employers and/or clients.

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Volumes have been written in the last year about how to apply ChatGPT and other generative AI tools to the practice of public relations and organizational communication. In this midweek episode, we let ChatGPT speak for itself about how it can enhance communicators’ work — and whether communicators are at risk of being replaced by AI.

Shel is solo in this episode, so he interviews ChatGPT to ask about its processes for press releases and other PR writing and editing, its non-media and non-writing capabilities, ethical considerations, crisis communication functionality, and much more. Hear ChatGPT in her own words articulate the best approaches professional communicators can take to optimizing their work with an AI collaborator.

Links from this episode:

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, January 29.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email [email protected].

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. You can catch up with both co-hosts on Neville’s blog and Shel’s blog. Neville’s Asides blog is also available.

The post FIR Interviews: ChatGPT Speaks for Itself About Its PR Capabilities appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

The latest research report out of communication agency Edelman is rich with takeaways. The 2023 Corporate Communications Study follows a 2021 edition that explored the implications of the pandemic on the role of organizational communication. The report revealed that Chief Communication Officers (CCOs) now spend nearly 20 percent of their time counseling CEOs on issues unrelated to communication. That’s just one sign that the CCO’s stock has risen in organizations, with 91 percent of top communicators involved in crafting strategy before or during the decision-making process. Speaking to Axios, U.S. Corporate Practice Chair Radina Russell said, “These stats are indicative of (CCOs) informing decision making, having a seat at the table, and helping to steer the enterprise.”

Neville and Shel spoke with Russell in this FIR Interview about other findings from the report.

About our Conversation Partner

Radina Russell is US Corporate Practice Chair & General Manager, Atlanta Southeast Market, Edelman. Radina is a highly accomplished communications professional with over two decades of experience in financial and corporate communications, shareholder engagement, and ESG strategy. She currently serves as Chair of the U.S. Corporate Practice and market leader for Atlanta Southeast at Edelman, where she advises C-suites and boards on complex issues.

Throughout her career, Radina has played a leading role in some of the largest domestic and cross-border capital markets transactions, including Kraft Heinz and Restaurant Brands International. She is also a trusted advisor to executives on high-profile executive visibility, reputation management, thought leadership, and crisis management efforts.

Radina is passionate about DEI and ESG and is committed to increasing the number of racially and ethnically diverse directors on corporate boards. In 2020, she collaborated with Ursula Burns to establish the Board Diversity Action Alliance.

Radina’s accomplishments have earned her recognition in her profession and community. In 2021, The Network Journal and Morgan Stanley named her one of the 25 Influential Black Women in Business.

Prior to joining Edelman, Radina served on the Executive Committee and was head of the Atlanta office at Teneo. She also led the Global Shareholder Activism Defense and Capital Markets Advisory practice at Brunswick Group and was head of Corporate, Financial, and Consumer Communications for Macy’s Inc. Radina began her career in finance as a sell-side analyst at J.P. Morgan.

Radina is a native of Atlanta and holds a B.S. in Business Administration from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.B.A from Columbia Business School. She is also a co-founder and director of Harlem Girls Cheer, Inc., and serves on the board of the John A. Reisenbach Foundation.

Follow Radina on LinkedIn.

Links from This Interview

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Robert L. Dilenschneider has learned a lot about power and influence during his storied career. The former president and CEO of global PR firm Hill & Knowlton has led his own agency, The Dilenschneider Group, since 1991. The author of several books, Bob is about to launch his latest work, “The Ultimate Guide to Power and Influence: Everything You Need to Know,” which hits bookstores on July 25.

In this FIR Interview, co-host Shel Holtz speaks with Bob about the nature of power and influence and the various ways to acquire and use it. Of particular interest is Bob’s perspective on what power and influence are: tools that help you get things done.

About our conversation partner

Robert L. Dilenschneider formed The Dilenschneider Group in October, 1991. Headquartered in New York and Chicago, the Firm provides strategic advice and counsel to Fortune 500 companies and leading families and individuals around the world, with experience in fields ranging from mergers and acquisitions and crisis communications to marketing, government affairs, and international media.

Prior to forming his own firm, Mr. Dilenschneider served as president and chief executive officer of Hill and Knowlton, Inc. from 1986 to 1991, tripling that Firm’s revenues to nearly $200 million and delivering more than $30 million in profit. Mr. Dilenschneider was with that organization for nearly 25 years.

Mr. Dilenschneider started in public relations in 1967 in New York, shortly after receiving an M.A. in journalism from Ohio State University and a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame.

Experienced in a number of communications disciplines, Mr. Dilenschneider is frequently called upon by the media to provide commentary and strategic public relations insights on major news stories. He has counseled major corporations, professional groups, trade associations, and educational institutions and has assisted clients in dealings with regulatory agencies, labor unions, and consumer groups, among others.

In 2001 he established The Borromean Lecture at St. Charles Preparatory School of Columbus, Ohio. The annual event attracts a nationally renowned speaker to talk on the topic of morals and ethics in business and government.

In 2012 The Dilenschneider Group established the Civility in America Lecture Series, which features many of the nation’s leading thinkers from a wide variety of professions and provides a perspective on what must be done to restore civility in our Country.

Mr. Dilenschneider serves as a Trustee of the Institute of International Education and is a member of the North American Advisory Board of The Michael Smurfit School of University College Dublin. He serves as a judge for The Olin Award, a program of the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Economic Clubs of New York and Chicago, Mr. Dilenschneider has also served on numerous corporate boards.

A former member of the Board of Governors of the American Red Cross, Mr. Dilenschneider also served on the advisory board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Board of Governors of the New York Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and The Bretton Woods Committee. He is a former member of the U.S. Japan Business Council and the Florida Council of 100.

In 2001, he received an honorary Doctorate of Public Service degree from Muskingum College, and in 2012 he received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of New Haven.

Mr. Dilenschneider is a Knight of Malta.

Mr. Dilenschneider has been called the “Dean of American Public Relations Executives” and is widely published, having authored 14 books, including A Briefing for Leaders, On Power, The Critical 14 Years of Your Professional Life, Moses: C.E.O, The Critical 2nd Phase of your Professional Life, 50 Plus!—Critical Career Decisions for the Rest of Your Life, A Time for Heroes, Power and Influence: The Rules Have Changed, and most recently The AMA Handbook of Public Relations. His new book, Decisions, will be published by Kensington Press in Fall 2018.

He has lectured before scores of professional organizations and colleges, including the University of Notre Dame, Ohio State University, New York University, and The Harvard Business School.

About “The Ultimate Guide to Power and Influence”

Respected consultant Robert L. Dilenschneider explains how technology and globalization have revolutionized the ways to both build and keep success—and tells readers that to accomplish your goals, you must not only gain power but also apply it with proper wisdom.

The Ultimate Guide to Power & Influence arms its readers with intellectual, technical, and moral weapons—tools you need to get and stay ahead in the increasingly competitive and ever-evolving business world. Acquiring both power and influence is crucial to advancing not only your personal interests but also a more prosperous society at large.

Drawing from current-day lessons and the wisdom of hundreds of drivers of change in all fields of business, The Ultimate Guide to Power & Influence is Robert Dilenschneider’s latest guide to harnessing the universal principles for success. It provides anecdotes and insights on a wide range of keys to success, including how to seize opportunity amid crisis, manage your network, communicate effectively, and take full advantage of social media to bolster your image.

A leader in the sphere of public relations and the founder of The Dilenschneider Group, which provides strategic advice to Fortune 500 companies and leading figures around the world—with experience in everything from mergers and acquisitions to government affairs and international media—Robert Dilenschneider writes with experience and authority to help readers acquire and amplify their power.

For graduate students to corporate professionals alike, The Ultimate Guide to Power & Influence is an essential guide to charting the ever-changing waters of the business world with imagination, competence, and grace.

Amazon U.S. Link | Amazon Canada Link | Amazon UK Link

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