Artificial Intelligence in Strategic Communication and Public Relations: A Review of Automation, Personalization, and Ethics

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has increasingly become a transformative force in strategic communication and public relations (PR), reshaping how organizations engage stakeholders, manage reputation, and deliver targeted messaging. This review study examines the role of AI in enhancing automation, personalization, and ethical governance within strategic communication and PR practices. It synthesizes existing literature to explore how AI-driven tools such as chatbots, predictive analytics, natural language processing, and generative content systems are being integrated into communication workflows to improve efficiency, responsiveness, and audience targeting. The study finds that automation enabled by AI has significantly streamlined routine communication tasks, including media monitoring, press release distribution, and customer engagement, thereby allowing PR professionals to focus more on strategic decision-making. Furthermore, AI-powered personalization has enhanced audience segmentation and message tailoring, enabling organizations to deliver highly relevant content based on user behavior, preferences, and digital footprints. This has contributed to improved engagement rates and stronger stakeholder relationships across digital platforms. However, the review also highlights critical ethical concerns associated with AI adoption in strategic communication. These include issues of data privacy, algorithmic bias, misinformation, lack of transparency in automated decision-making, and the potential erosion of human accountability in communication processes. The study emphasizes the need for robust ethical frameworks and regulatory oversight to ensure responsible AI deployment in PR practices. Overall, the study concludes that while AI offers significant opportunities to advance strategic communication through efficiency and precision, its integration must be carefully balanced with ethical considerations to safeguard trust, authenticity, and public interest in the evolving digital communication landscape.