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We use AI on daily basis at Definition. We’ve seen first-hand what occurs when it’s used nicely, and when it’s used badly. If you happen to work in PR, you’ve most likely additionally seen the detrimental impacts of AI-generated “slop”.
Journalists are receiving extra AI-written pitches, and even AI-generated spokespeople are making it into the headlines (bear in mind when The Telegraph revealed the fabricated story in regards to the household who can’t afford 5 holidays, which was accused of being AI-generated?)
We’ve now received AI musicians, AI influencers, and even AI Foreign Affairs correspondents. The premise of AI fatigue seeping into most people’s psyche is turning into more and more practical.
So, how can we use AI to assist us do our jobs extra effectively and ship high-quality, authentic content material to journalists? Let’s begin initially.
What even is AI slop?
“AI slop” was coined within the 2020s to explain poor-quality AI-generated photographs and movies – one which springs to thoughts is the AI clip of Will Smith consuming spaghetti.
Merriam-Webster topped “slop” phrase of the yr in 2025, defining it as “digital content material of low high quality that’s produced often in amount via synthetic intelligence.”
In PR and comms, AI slop exhibits up as:
- A generic, easy press launch that doesn’t even have any information in it
- Thought leadership articles that say a complete lot of nothing – no proof, no authentic claims, no standpoint
- A mass mailer pitch that lands within the inbox of a journalist whose beat is the other of the subject
Why AI slop is an issue (past the plain)
For journalists
They’re already drowning in low-value, irrelevant, or just nonsensical releases on daily basis that they should sift by way of. AI slop additional clogs their inboxes, damages belief, and makes it tougher for the true, genuine tales to chop by way of.
Mary Downer, Cash Reporter at The Occasions, advised me: “With AI being so prevalent, we query whether or not releases we obtain have been AI-generated on an nearly each day foundation. Even when it’s simply the textual content, after I assume one thing has been created by AI, it undermines my belief in the whole launch.
“That is significantly a difficulty for releases that provide case research or statistics. Information organisations all over the place are on excessive alert towards faux or fraudulent case research, so as soon as that belief is undermined, the whole launch or marketing campaign is undermined too.”
For shoppers
If an clearly AI-generated topic line stops a journalist from even opening your electronic mail, that’s wasted funds and a missed alternative. Worse, it chips away on the model you’re alleged to be constructing.
Ben Rowe, our Senior Media Relations Advisor, says, “Whereas content material and soundbites will be drafted in mere seconds utilizing AI, there’s a vital threat that an already aggressive PR panorama will turn out to be much more homogenous with widespread AI utilization.
“AI will be actually useful in relation to refining content material, strengthening factors and guaranteeing a constant tone of voice, however counting on it to churn out content material from scratch is more likely to solely add noise slightly than present nuanced, on-brand and genuinely attention-grabbing views.”
For the occupation
AI itself isn’t the issue; it’s how we use it. Saying “everybody’s utilizing AI” doesn’t excuse poor requirements. Dangerous AI use gained’t solely damage your pitch, however everybody else who’s making an attempt to land a narrative, too.
Principally, don’t spoil it for the remainder of us.
What AI is sweet for in PR
AI is best and helpful in help duties:
- Transcribing conferences and extracting key takeaways
- Analysing big information units
- Summarising lengthy analysis paperwork
- Constructing outlines for a report (NOT a primary draft)
- Narrowing a listing of concepts and giving different angles to discover
These duties that after took hours now take minutes, leaving extra time for inventive ideation and strategic considering.
When people needs to be concerned
AI in comms is best when it helps, not replaces, human experience.
Technique and storytelling
Our brains do something AI still can’t: We feel things. We learn a room. We deliver further context, making tales inherently private and compelling to journalists.
Trials, challenges, elation, success, failures, making an attempt once more. They’re all human feelings that resonate, and we like studying about it. A few of the greatest PR work goes past stats to convey emotions, stakes, and affect. Tuning into that is essential.
Judgment and context
AI can’t react to essentially the most up-to-date information and tales except you spoon-feed it with an in depth temporary and loads of context, at which level you could possibly have drafted some feedback of your individual. AI could possibly plan a easy technique with minimal prompting, however it could possibly’t anticipate shoppers’ needs or ideate inventive, authentic approaches the best way our brains can.
Lived expertise
AI can produce one thing that appears to be like like a narrative, however it could possibly’t exchange lived expertise. Individuals are nonetheless essentially the most highly effective content material asset we’ve got. A shopper’s story – advised with honesty and vulnerability – will all the time outperform one thing made up by AI. Nice content material comes from actual conversations, not prompts.
Find out how to cease the slop
1. Human-first, human-last
Each piece of AI-generated content material ought to begin with a human temporary and finish with a human evaluate. If you happen to wouldn’t put your title on it, don’t ship it.
2. Elevate your requirements
Don’t decrease your requirements as a result of AI makes it simple to provide extra. Elevate your requirements as a result of AI frees up extra of your time to make issues higher. Research present AI might erode our critical thinking. Don’t let that occur to you.
Use AI to deal with the tedious bits, so you possibly can spend extra time considering strategically, crafting compelling narratives, and making judgment calls that solely people could make.
3. Practice your group
Be taught how to prompt AI, experiment and train your teams.
At Definition, we’ve got our personal proprietary instrument, Definition AI, that mixes the perfect AI instruments right into a single platform whereas sustaining the privateness of the information and knowledge we put into it. One factor I like about it’s the collaboration characteristic.
When somebody creates a helpful immediate, they will invite group members to view the move (the AI chat) and experiment with it. A number of folks can work in the identical move concurrently – collaborating in actual time, producing and enhancing content material collectively. By sharing prompts and flows throughout groups, we’re in a position to minimise “slop” and velocity up our processes.
Don’t use AI to:
- Fabricate quotes or case research
- Exchange an interview or first-hand reporting
- “Autopilot” electronic mail pitching or mass content material manufacturing with out evaluate
AI is a strong ally, nevertheless it’s not a shortcut for high quality and authenticity. That’s why the businesses that thrive might be people who use AI to amplify tales and human experience, not exchange them.
Written by Anna Kiff, Comms Advisor at Definition.
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