social media future Archives - Clairemont Communications

Artificial Intelligence (AI) sounds intimidating, I’ll admit. Whether it’s the fear of the unknown or overall lack of understanding, people often have varying opinions of AI that are best summarized in one way: awesome but scary.

**Exactly how scary is it?**

Many of us use AI on a daily basis without even realizing it. Take Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Samsung’s Bixby as examples. These voice-enabled bots have made it into our homes, phones and lives. Just by talking, we can ask these bots to play music, make telephone calls and even order our groceries for us.

With all things in life, there are advantages and drawbacks of AI. While there is speculation that Alexa, Siri and Bixby are always listening to us even when we don’t want them to be, they do make our lives much easier.

AI has already made its way into our personal lives, and it’s beginning to infiltrate numerous professional industries worldwide as well. AI has secured its spot within the retail and e-commerce industries, including Amazon and China’s Alibaba and JD.com, and it’s beginning to appear in banking and in healthcare.

What about AI in the PR industry?

It’s coming, and it’ll be here sooner than you think.

AI may seem daunting to the average PR professional, but don’t fret. AI will not take away jobs in the PR and communications industries; it will only make them easier. AI machines will complete monotonous tasks, such as filtering through data and providing us with any needed results.

Perhaps in the future, we can leave it to AI devices to research a list of potential media outlets for pitches in order to generate press coverage, or AI bots can compile coverage reports based on the media coverage. Instead of manually posting to event calendars, we can rely on a machine to do it. AI may also be able to inform us of the best social media strategies to utilize on an individual client basis based on aggregating data regarding levels of engagement.

The PR industry should welcome AI with arms wide open. It will save time, but these robotic devices may take awhile to perfect. The algorithms will likely not be error-free from the start and may make mistakes. PR professionals will always need to double check the work done by AI machines.

So, what is the perfect mix?

AI will be helpful, and it will streamline several processes within the industry. It is possible that in a few short years PR professionals will be working in collaboration with AI, especially in large companies. It may take a few more years for AI bots to become implemented into small scale agencies, however.

At the end of the day, we are people convincing people to explore our creative solutions with us. AI can’t do it all; human intuition and creativity are still essential components in the work in which that we specialize. PR requires hefty creativity, strategy and ingenuity as well as intuition to assess and create the delicate strategies to address pertinent issues. AI will never have the “gut feeling” through its numbers and algorithms that a seasoned PR professional provides.

Written by Clairemont Intern Anna Ostrowski, a senior at UNC.

Cover image from Unsplash.com

Guest post by our fabulous intern, Stephanie Zirker!

The millennials, often dubbed the “connected generation,” may be advanced, but they aren’t the end of the line. What will society coin our next generation, the ambassadors of new products being introduced daily? Being a millennial myself, I can say that we largely owe our “connectivity” to the companies that continue to design “the next new thing,” and without these newest gadgets, we would feel as if we were missing out on cutting edge trends in communication.

Consider Apple and its exclusive iPhone-to-iPhone capabilities that encourage buyers to turn to Apple technology in order to be part of the hippest tech culture. It’s hard to imagine that technology could somehow claim a bigger role in our daily lives. But a peek into the future reveals yet a closer level of integration between humans and devices – technologies with a fashionable flare.

What to Expect

Machinery can’t get much closer to our physical person than with the growing industry of “wearable technologies.” Before long, you won’t even have to move a muscle to see your updated Facebook feed or read urgent emails. For example, Google Glass combines vision technology with the Smartphone features many consumers expect, such as the ability to surf the internet or snap a photo.

But don’t stop with function. In our connected age, the term “wearable” signifies the undeniable relation between utility and appearance, media and communications that are inescapably part of our being. Temporary tattoos that can monitor pregnancy, a cocktail ring that tells you when the phone buried in your purse is ringing, even a hoodie sweater that can send text messages—these are the products that will become innate parts of the ever-evolving definition of “being connected.” Even Clairemont has gotten in on the action — or at least close to it — by working last year with 10 for Humanity to introduce the Tiger Eye Security Sensor, jewelry that is designed to help prevent violent crimes. Thus, wearable technology will continue to blur the line between technology as a tool and tech as a fashion.

The Ripple Effect for Business

The prosperity of the market for wearable technology will, however, depend on companies’ ability to appeal to customers’ fashion interests. On the flip side, style trends will become more digital, more industrial. As developers work to find a happy union between style and practicality, the question then becomes which features take precedence during design: look or utility.

For businesses, the wearable technology trend introduces the possibility to create a visual company profile through customizable products. Imagine a Smart hoodie designed for a specific organization and supplied to customers or employees. The new employee uniform could concurrently serve as the staff member’s means of communication.

The 21^st Century Legwarmer

This wave of wearable technology opens the gates for tech products to shape users’ individual images. With many producers jumping on the growing trend of fitness bands, the slickest and most chic models are among the most popular. The new market for smart jewelry that provides call alerts allows women stay connected (and cutely accessorized) throughout the day without a second thought.

Take a quick memory trip back to the ’80s, the decade with legwarmer fashion and a boombox music culture. While music boxes and the loud, brightly colored style trend are often lumped together because of a similar time frame, the two are not interrelated. That won’t be the case in 80 years. A look back from year 2101 at the fashions of the mid-21^st century will no doubt feature products that marry fashion with function: technology as the 21^st century legwarmer.