Artificial Intelligence in Public Relations: Interview with Francesca Caon | AI Talks #21
- Marc Griffith
- Mar 3
- 7 min read
Summary Francesca Caon analyzes how artificial intelligence is transforming public relations, offering practical tools, concrete examples and ethical reflections. The discussion covers ROI, AI use for research and content creation, and the importance of human guidance to maintain authenticity and media relations. Key takeaways
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In this new installment of AI Talks, the AI News interview format exploring artificial intelligence, we speak with Francesca Caon, a journalist, author and founder of Caon Public Relations, an agency active in Milan for over 10 years.
The first question is one we ask all our guests: what is artificial intelligence?
To begin with, it’s not a threat; it’s an opportunity. It’s an enabling technology that’s redefining how we think, act, produce, and convey value. I would even call it a cognitive accelerator, because it allows us to expand our analytical capacity and reduce operational friction.
It’s obvious that artificial intelligence, being a machine, has no intentionality, no human intuition, no decision-making power. However, more than owning it or using it, we must be able to develop skills to use it with awareness.
How is artificial intelligence applied in the PR sector and how is it transforming it?
It’s transforming it radically. I’m reminded, riding the wave of current events a bit, of the Khaby Lame case, which is radically changing the entire ecosystem of content creators and the future in general. Creators will no longer be mere content producers, but will become real scalable industries. This $975 million contract under which a digital twin of Khaby Lame can be created, a true digital avatar that never tires, never sleeps, never ages, raises enormous questions, even at the ethical boundary: with an identity that is duplicated, made scalable, what remains of the human experience?
Surely we have seen enormous changes and evolutions. I started right away to decipher AI, to understand it, to study it, to bring it as a daily tool into my agency with my collaborators.
It should not replace human work. It’s a support to human work. To consider AI as a ghostwriter, especially in journalism, is a major mistake. For example, in Genoa a journalist was reported to the Order of Journalists for using too much AI. The wave should be ridden with awareness.
It helps us reduce operational friction. It greatly aids in the operativity and productivity of various activities. It’s a great help for researching trends and keywords from an SEO perspective; tools like Google AI Studio give us important assistance. Also in writing. Of course it must be guided. It always requires intuition and empathy, the human emotional intelligence that guides the machine.
We also recently developed software generated with AI that reduces the drawback of organic PR: ROI. With digital PR, it was easy to calculate return on investment; with organic PR, i.e., an organic publication in newspapers, it was harder. With this software we have detailed reporting that allows us to calculate ROI: how much we could have paid for a publication in a media outlet and how much, by bringing it in-house, we saved the company. So even on reporting it is a huge support.
Then reputational sensitivity, when discussing crisis management, remains tied to emotional intelligence, to human sensitivity. Reading the cultural context and the relationship phase, which for us is a fundamental piece, is what our work is built on. Our activity is based on human relationships, as the name itself says: public relations.
Beyond your internal system, which tools do you use daily for writing, multimedia generation or trend research?
For the SEO side, I’ve seen that Google AI Studio is the most performant, and it also has an algorithm that performs well for LinkedIn post writing.
NotebookLM we use to optimize the time we formerly devoted to slides. With PowerPoint we spent hours and hours, whereas now we can create beautiful slides in seconds, which need refinement and polishing, but it’s great for creativity and graphic work. For images and videos we use Seedream and Canva, and of course Nano Banana.
I use ChatGPT as an assistant and I also use an app to learn languages. Right now I’m learning Arabic. For two years, I have volunteered at a facility with many Arabic-speaking users, and I was missing this language, so I’m learning it through AI.
If we reach a point where we could connect our brains to something that would allow us to assimilate content, I would sign off on it. That step, which we still lack, would be an evolution for our training.
Humans, however, should not limit themselves; they must keep learning. Today I see many people who, using ChatGPT, may no longer be able to draft a text with their own hands. The brain must be exercised and trained.
If I could go back, I would remove the expression artificial intelligence, I would call it…
What AI cannot do and when is it best to avoid it?
I would say when we think it could replace us. It can be an obstacle for the average professional, but not for the exceptional professional.
Many tools used by PR agencies — the Journalist's Agenda, Mediaddress (I believe it has reached 16,000 journalist contacts) — have expanded with space tied to AI: you can profile AI journalists of a given editorial segment and let AI disseminate a press release. But that is mediocre work for a public relations professional, because the real activity must be done manually: recall, establishing a bond of esteem, empathetic, human.
The relationship does not end at mere publication, but continues: asking how you are, checking in on the phone. The contacts I have built are a heritage tied to the esteem I’ve earned. And no machine will ever replace this.
Considering AI as a substitute for one’s own work is a big mistake. It should be seen as powerful and extraordinary support; not as a ghostwriter, but as an assistant.
How do clients perceive the use of artificial intelligence? Do they request it? Are they afraid? Do they think it could replace a PR agency?
Someone highly skilled comes to us, indeed, with all the news angles already selected by AI. But intuition is needed. We who talk daily with journalists know which news angles they want to cover, and often they differ from what AI selects and profiles.
News angles are also closely tied to market analysis content, sources, numerical data, statistics, reports. We can ask ChatGPT, but it will never have the intuition to understand that at that moment, for that journalist at outlet X, that content is needed. So we must guide it.
Clients are very receptive. They all use artificial intelligence, so we speak the same language. ChatGPT offers a very valid draft that nonetheless must be refined based on human intelligence.
In terms of employment, many entry-level positions are at risk. What skills should a young person who wants to work in the sector in an AI-driven world develop?
Listening skills, emotional intelligence and general culture. I base communication on the three U’s: humanity, humility and usefulness. Humanity as respect for the values and feelings of those who follow and listen to us. Humility because we never stop learning. Usefulness especially in journalism, because we must offer something useful to those who read us.
General culture today is increasingly considered less important. Perhaps one focuses on a particular field and forgets how valuable it is to discuss diverse topics. Emotional intelligence, instead, saves us from many problems. We also learn from experiences and travel. I invite young people to travel; it’s a formative experience that pushes you out of your comfort zone and encourages dialogue with diversity.
An Aneesh Raman analysis (LinkedIn) frames a growing trend…
Skills often labeled soft, but they define what it means to be human.
Yes. Everything else can be learned more easily. These things are harder to acquire, learn and develop. The sooner you start, the better.
Thinking about a study path or a technical skill, what would you advise learning?
There are many courses related to the tools mentioned, for operations and for concrete tasks like writing, profiling a journalist, the very structure of a publication.
For public relations, degrees are extremely useful from a theoretical standpoint, but I encourage starting to gain experience early, an internship at an agency, because it is in daily work that you learn, including that sensitivity. The field of journalists is delicate; there are details that must be intuitively understood only by seeing them every day.
Or choosing a mentor, as I did, who explained and taught me this work. The theoretical part is important, but even more so the practical, day by day.
People say AI will make us all equal and that it makes things simpler. In reality it increases cognitive thinking and intellect. To perform well you need this. It raises the quality bar, raises the thinking bar. Be careful to say that it makes things simpler; that is not true at all. It takes the intelligence I spoke of earlier to ride the AI wave in a conscious and qualified way.
The renowned philosopher opened Orbits - Dialogues with intelligence…
And to close: what is the false myth about artificial intelligence that annoys you the most and that you would debunk once and for all?
In the beginning, when there was less awareness, I had resources so opposed that they hindered the agency’s operational process and a model I wanted to apply from the start. They challenged me on ethics and I found it unacceptable, because it went against an operational model chosen by the entrepreneur.
So, let’s not consider AI a threat? It’s not a threat. As I said earlier, it’s an opportunity and a cognitive accelerator. Everything else we can say from an ethical standpoint relates to those who don’t use it, those who don’t know how to use it and those who see it for what it is not.
