{"id":5111,"date":"2026-02-17T18:36:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T18:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/?p=5111"},"modified":"2026-02-22T17:47:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T17:47:58","slug":"man-vs-machine-the-rise-of-ai-in-the-pr-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/man-vs-machine-the-rise-of-ai-in-the-pr-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Man vs. Machine: The Rise of AI in the PR World"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>By: Julia Sequeira<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After her morning cup of coffee, Julie&nbsp;Rusciolelli&nbsp;kicks off her day with a face-to-face client meeting. Throughout the day, she meets with&nbsp;numerous&nbsp;business heads and patrons both via Zoom meetings and over dinner or coffee. She consults with her team and leads their meetings every morning, where they discuss strategies for the company, its&nbsp;clients&nbsp;and what her staff have on their plate.&nbsp;She\u2019s&nbsp;in the midst of&nbsp;planning two big influencer events in Toronto.&nbsp;One is taking place in Eataly Yorkville, drawing people in with its Italian-themed food. She is building gift boxes and producing speaking notes for the second event of the week. After that, she has a 3 p.m. meeting with a client. This will be their first strategy call, which will include business strategy and consulting on the political landscape, depending on the client.&nbsp;She\u2019s&nbsp;following up with the four journalists who&nbsp;accompanied&nbsp;her on her 10-day press trip as they are each generating their own stories.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rusciolelli&nbsp;is the president and founder of Maverick Public Relations.&nbsp;She thinks&nbsp;relationships&nbsp;aren\u2019t&nbsp;possible to replicate via machine.&nbsp;She says PR is more than just writing press releases and producing video content.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Julie-1280x960.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5205\" srcset=\"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Julie-1280x960.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Julie-640x480.jpg 640w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Julie-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Julie-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Julie-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Julie-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Julie-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Julie-696x522.jpg 696w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Julie-1068x801.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Julie-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Julie Rusciolelli, the president and founder of Maverick Public Relations.| Courtesy\/Maverick PR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Global Communication Report: Does your organization currently use AI in any of the following areas of PR?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"flourish-embed flourish-chart\" data-src=\"visualisation\/26653411\"><script src=\"https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/resources\/embed.js\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/visualisation\/26653411\/thumbnail\" width=\"100%\" alt=\"chart visualization\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the annual&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/annenberg.usc.edu\/research\/center-public-relations\/global-communication-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Global Communication Report conducted by the USC Center for Public Relations<\/a>, in a sample of about 1000 respondents, 68 per cent say humans will remain essential for public relations to remain effective,&nbsp;and&nbsp;40 per cent say AI will increase misinformation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAll the influencers coming, are coming unpaid. So, this is based on our brand relationships that we have,\u201d she says. \u201cAI spit out an influencer list, and it was absolutely crap. So,&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;our relationships that&nbsp;we&#8217;ve&nbsp;built over time,&nbsp;AI&nbsp;and anything that we looked at&nbsp;didn&#8217;t&nbsp;come close to what we have.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEvery&nbsp;day is a little different from writing to strategy, to new business, to PowerPoints, you know, all of it,\u201d she says. \u201cThere&#8217;s a lot of phone work,&nbsp;there&#8217;s&nbsp;a lot of Zoom calls,&nbsp;there&#8217;s&nbsp;a lot&nbsp;of reading,&nbsp;there&#8217;s&nbsp;a ton of prep work.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For all of Maverick\u2019s PR events,&nbsp;Rusciolelli&nbsp;and her team work together in hand-picking and researching online personalities and influencers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cate&nbsp;Celo&nbsp;Alexander is a&nbsp;Doctor of Philosophy&nbsp;at the University of Toronto. Her thesis specialized in content creation, artificial intelligence, digital public&nbsp;history&nbsp;and digital humanities. Her most recent thesis,&nbsp;<em>\u2018It Feels So Reel\u2019: Animating Historical Portraits with Artificial Intelligence,&nbsp;<\/em>which is currently under review, focuses on how misinformation is spread through AI visualizations.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cAI covers everything&nbsp;from like&nbsp;how autocorrect works and like spell check to, you know,&nbsp;being&nbsp; able&nbsp;to&nbsp;identify&nbsp;cancer cells. When&nbsp;we&#8217;re&nbsp;talking most of the time about AI, now&nbsp;we&#8217;re&nbsp;talking about generative AI,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>-Cate Cleo Alexander<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Rusciolelli&nbsp;says that as the industry is evolving, professionals are becoming caretakers of brands. When she first stepped into PR, she was faxing press releases to the Canadian Press; now technology has taken her and the whole industry in a different direction.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf you look at companies like Starbucks, they never advertised for the longest time. It was based on reputational management, giving&nbsp;a store&nbsp;experience. They&nbsp;weren&#8217;t&nbsp;there advertising their coffee. It was all word of mouth,\u201d she says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though\u00a0Rusciolelli\u00a0is the CEO and president of Maverick, being the leader of a PR agency\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0just managing; she\u00a0remains\u00a0hands-on and active.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI sit outside the corporate siloed walls.&nbsp;So,&nbsp;I sit outside as an agency consultant. And this is where companies tap us because we work with so many&nbsp;different brands. I can&nbsp;be in&nbsp;working with a finance company today, with a food company tomorrow and I can learn from the bank company and bring it to the food company. And that&#8217;s where PR people really shine. We can&nbsp;take learnings&nbsp;from all disparate companies and&nbsp;kind of find&nbsp;a common denominator. If&nbsp;I&#8217;m&nbsp;doing a plant closing for a chocolate factory,&nbsp;I&#8217;ve&nbsp;learned something from my banking client that I can bring in,\u201d she says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" src=\"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Copy-of-DSCF1993-1-1-edited-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Copy-of-DSCF1993-1-1-edited-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Copy-of-DSCF1993-1-1-edited-640x480.jpg 640w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Copy-of-DSCF1993-1-1-edited-1280x960.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Copy-of-DSCF1993-1-1-edited-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Copy-of-DSCF1993-1-1-edited-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Copy-of-DSCF1993-1-1-edited-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Copy-of-DSCF1993-1-1-edited-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Copy-of-DSCF1993-1-1-edited-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Copy-of-DSCF1993-1-1-edited-696x522.jpg 696w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Copy-of-DSCF1993-1-1-edited-1068x801.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Copy-of-DSCF1993-1-1-edited-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Cate Cleo Alexander is a Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto and specializes in artificial intelligence and digital humanities. | Courtesy\/Camille Intson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The chip&nbsp;of the iceberg: Intro to generative AI<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cGenerative AI usually is working&nbsp;off of&nbsp;a combination of machine learning, usually&nbsp;natural language processing, sometimes a little bit of computer vision. And&nbsp;so&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;helpful to break down exactly what it is&nbsp;we&#8217;re&nbsp;referring to,&nbsp;Generative AI. Another way that&nbsp;you&nbsp;can refer to it&nbsp;is&nbsp;predictive modeling. Really what, how&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;working is&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;a&nbsp;really sophisticated&nbsp;version of autocomplete on your phone where&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;predicting what is the most&nbsp;likely word&nbsp;to come next. What is the&nbsp;most likely way&nbsp;that this image would look,\u201d she says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"flourish-embed flourish-number-ticker\" data-src=\"visualisation\/26721215\"><script src=\"https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/resources\/embed.js\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/visualisation\/26721215\/thumbnail\" width=\"100%\" alt=\"number-ticker visualization\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\"><em>Data: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.digitalsilk.com\/digital-trends\/ai-statistics\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.digitalsilk.com\/digital-trends\/ai-statistics\/\">AI Statistics In 2025: Key Trends And Usage Data, Digital Silk<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her peer-reviewed abstract, \u2018<em>Bringing History to Life\u2019: Animating Historical Portraits with Artificial Intelligence<\/em>, focuses on how modernization in media by generative AI fetishizes whiteness as it processes non-Eurocentric&nbsp;features&nbsp;as primitive.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI&nbsp;looked at the ways that AI is being used to manipulate historical portraits,\u201d&nbsp;Alexander&nbsp;says. \u201cWhat&#8217;s&nbsp;interesting about this level of AI intervention is that&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;very insidious and&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;hard to recognize this on how&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;advertised by the YouTube channel that made this. It is just&nbsp;AI&nbsp;enhancement. You see this a lot in how history is being represented online.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A potential fear&nbsp;with&nbsp;the growth of AI is job security.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.weforum.org\/publications\/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">According to The Future of Jobs Report 2025<\/a>&nbsp;by&nbsp;the World Economic Forum, 86 per cent of employers expect AI and information-processing technologies to transform their business by 2030. Additionally, 40 per cent of&nbsp;employers&nbsp;expect to reduce staff due to AI automation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She says AI is trained to detect what is more appealing,\u00a0similar\u00a0to\u00a0an algorithm.\u00a0This is done through text but also through\u00a0imagery\u00a0and\u00a0is one of the ways it can contribute to disinformation.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe way that&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;done the&nbsp;smoothing and this pulling&nbsp;and the way that&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;pulling these&nbsp;images to be more&nbsp;adjacent to&nbsp;contemporary gender standards&nbsp;and also&nbsp;fetishization of&nbsp;Whiteness.&nbsp;That&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;encoding these specific ways of how we understand beauty. Part&nbsp;of why&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;doing that is because the training Data is coming&nbsp;off of&nbsp;modern portraiture,\u201d she says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But this begs the question: If this is being done with historical images, who is to say it isn\u2019t being done with modern information?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Darian Kovacs is the founder of Jelly Digital Marketing and PR Agency. He is also the founder and a mentor at Jelly Academy, a&nbsp;PR&nbsp;and Digital Marketing school, where his teaching specializes in Public Relations and social media.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201dSo&nbsp;the one&nbsp;perk&nbsp;has been all these reporters and content creators all now have access to really, really,&nbsp;really good&nbsp;personal assistants at their fingertips all the time.&nbsp;But the, you know, the negative side is like, when people start using it for, like creating content from scratch versus, using it to like&nbsp;edit&nbsp;their existing content or&nbsp;supplement&nbsp;their existing content with better research,\u201d he says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Private vs. Government Communications<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-image uagb-block-36289934 wp-block-uagb-image--layout-default wp-block-uagb-image--effect-static wp-block-uagb-image--align-none\"><figure class=\"wp-block-uagb-image__figure\"><img decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/cindy-edited-1280x960.jpg ,https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/cindy-scaled.jpg 780w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/cindy-scaled.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 150px\" src=\"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/cindy-edited-1280x960.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"uag-image-5207\" width=\"1280\" height=\"960\" title=\"cindy\" loading=\"lazy\" role=\"img\"\/><figcaption class=\"uagb-image-caption\">Cindy Giang is a communication specialist for the Department of National Defence and is a recent graduate of Humber Polytechnic&#8217;s Bachelor of Public Relations program.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Cindy Giang is a stakeholder engagement and communications analyst for Future Fighter Lead-in Training (FFILT), a program within the federal government\u2019s Department of National&nbsp;Defence. She is a graduate of Humber Polytechnic\u2019s Bachelor of Public Relations program. In her position, she deals with public affairs and is working with others to build the foundation of the whole program.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The federal&nbsp;government\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/government\/system\/digital-government\/digital-government-innovations\/responsible-use-ai\/guide-use-generative-ai.html#toc-4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">guide on the use of generative artificial intelligence<\/a>&nbsp;says it is recommended to use risk evaluation before using AI. For example, high-risk situations should be preceded by thought before the use of AI, but there is no official restriction on the use within the guide.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI feel like&nbsp;AI at this current present is&nbsp;kind of like&nbsp;more of a tool.&nbsp;So&nbsp;if you were to put in something,&nbsp;they&#8217;re&nbsp;going to&nbsp;spit out that exact thing,\u201d&nbsp;Giang&nbsp;says.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She says that AI is lacking&nbsp;humanness&nbsp;in its production. It gives&nbsp;you the information you need&nbsp;but still&nbsp;sounds&nbsp;robotic.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Giang says that PR within the federal government has more guidelines when it comes to how they publish media and present themselves to the public. She says the use of AI templates&nbsp;help&nbsp;her curate a desired tone.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe have a directive, a policy on how we can use artificial intelligence,\u201d she says. \u201cAI is&nbsp;still&nbsp;relatively new. And&nbsp;we&#8217;re&nbsp;trying to&nbsp;put more of a&nbsp;guidance on how we can use it.&nbsp;So,&nbsp;we&nbsp;don&#8217;t&nbsp;leak.&nbsp;So,&nbsp;we&nbsp;don&#8217;t&nbsp;put the nation in jeopardy or leak sensitive information by accident.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The federal&nbsp;government\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tbs-sct.canada.ca\/pol\/doc-eng.aspx?id=32592\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Directive on Automated Decision-Making<\/a>&nbsp;explains that&nbsp;\u201cThe&nbsp;Government of Canada is increasingly looking to use artificial intelligence to make or support administrative decisions to improve service delivery.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-cover\"><span aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-cover__background has-background-dim\"><\/span><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"853\" class=\"wp-block-cover__image-background wp-image-5198\" alt=\"Darian Kovaca is founder of the Vancouver based PR, Jelly Digital Marketing &amp; PR and digital marketing school, Jelly Academy.\" src=\"http:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs-1280x853.jpg\" data-object-fit=\"cover\" srcset=\"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs-1280x853.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs-640x427.jpg 640w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs-696x464.jpg 696w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs-1068x712.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><div class=\"wp-block-cover__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-cover-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-large-font-size\">Darian Kovaca is the founder of the Vancouver-based PR, Courtesy\/Jelly Digital Marketing &amp; PR and digital marketing school, Jelly Academy. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBut I think,&nbsp;you know, as leadership, you need to&nbsp;kind of set&nbsp;the tone and the bar to be like,&nbsp;Hey, how far can we go? Are you using it to create stuff from scratch?&nbsp;Are you&nbsp;actually using&nbsp;it as a support tool?&nbsp;Does everyone now have their own personal assistant?\u201d Kovacs says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Humans can be personal assistants and editors, as can&nbsp;AI&nbsp;but it&nbsp;can\u2019t&nbsp;build relationships,&nbsp;connections&nbsp;and brands.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBut at the same&nbsp;time&nbsp;,&nbsp;AI is still not fully there yet. Like, we still need personal assistants. We still need editors. We still need all these checks and balances.&nbsp;So&nbsp;the biggest question we always get at these AI events is like, well, is it taking away jobs? If anything, it amplifies people&#8217;s ability and expectations around production, but it has not taken away jobs yet,\u201d Kovacs says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He regularly gives talks on how generative AI is only usable when humans provide it with information.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Darian recently&nbsp;MCed&nbsp;TESS 2025, an&nbsp;eCampusOntario&nbsp;conference, where he addressed this using&nbsp;what he calls&nbsp;\u201cDI\u201d, Darian Intelligence.&nbsp;His DI is doing what machines&nbsp;can\u2019t&nbsp;\u2013 bring&nbsp;a personal touch&nbsp;to his work.&nbsp;In&nbsp;this case,&nbsp;he&nbsp;brought in&nbsp;Pepsi to the Coca-Cola-only event and&nbsp;offering&nbsp;vitamin D pills for those who need uplifting.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&nbsp;shows&nbsp;that this industry&nbsp;isn\u2019t&nbsp;just emailing and writing press releases.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cWithout a person,&nbsp;the use of AI is&nbsp;pretty much&nbsp;useless..&nbsp;Right?&nbsp;That&#8217;s a constant fear, in the media industries, that AI could potentially take away jobs. However, they lack the ability to create content without prompt or without foundation,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>-Darian Kovacs<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Sleeping with the enemy<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Though it has been&nbsp;established&nbsp;that AI&nbsp;doesn\u2019t&nbsp;offer the same plethora of resources as a PR pro, there is still the fear of brands outsourcing AI platforms as a subpar substitute.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In October, WPP Media, formerly known as&nbsp;MGroup, launched its new edition of its AI marketing platform,&nbsp;WPP Open Pro, which is a fully AI company that allows brands to do the jobs of public relations,&nbsp;marketing&nbsp;and advertising on their own. The company says that the AI model increases content volume by 33 times, resulting in a team of four working&nbsp;90 days&nbsp;less in a year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rusciolelli&nbsp;says the key to job security may be to collaborate with generative artificial intelligence.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSo,&nbsp;let&#8217;s&nbsp;get off fighting it and&nbsp;let&#8217;s&nbsp;get in love with it, let&#8217;s&nbsp;get in bed with it, but&nbsp;let&#8217;s&nbsp;work with it and make me even better as a PR professional. So&nbsp;that&#8217;s&nbsp;out of the&nbsp;gate. Someone that prides themselves as a great creative writer and strategic thinker, which I think I am. I go to AI as my research assistant,\u201d she says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rusciolelli&nbsp;says that she has seen people racing to find the best writing tools&nbsp;as a result of&nbsp;the proliferation of AI in the past three years. As of right now, she sees how quickly the technology is changing, especially in the past year and a half, but she knows the industry in a way that only a human can.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;ve&nbsp;been a public relations professional for 36 years. This has been my life,\u201d she says.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cI&nbsp;don&#8217;t&nbsp;know anything outside of public relations, so damn if you will. AI is not taking my job.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>-Julie Rusciolelli<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By: Julia Sequeira After her morning cup of coffee, Julie&nbsp;Rusciolelli&nbsp;kicks off her day with a face-to-face client meeting. Throughout the day, she meets with&nbsp;numerous&nbsp;business heads and patrons both via Zoom meetings and over dinner or coffee. She consults with her team and leads their meetings every morning, where they discuss strategies for the company, its&nbsp;clients&nbsp;and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":5198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[353,1,359],"tags":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs.jpg",2000,1333,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs-160x160.jpg",160,160,true],"medium":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs-640x427.jpg",640,427,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs-768x512.jpg",696,464,true],"large":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs-1280x853.jpg",696,464,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs.jpg",2000,1333,false],"td_150x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs-150x100.jpg",150,100,true],"td_218x150":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs-218x150.jpg",218,150,true],"td_300x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"td_324x400":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs-324x400.jpg",324,400,true],"td_485x360":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs-485x360.jpg",485,360,true],"td_696x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs-696x464.jpg",696,464,true],"td_1068x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs-1068x712.jpg",1068,712,true],"td_1920x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Darian-Kovacs-1920x1280.jpg",1920,1280,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"juliasequeira","author_link":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/author\/juliasequeira\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By: Julia Sequeira After her morning cup of coffee, Julie&nbsp;Rusciolelli&nbsp;kicks off her day with a face-to-face client meeting. Throughout the day, she meets with&nbsp;numerous&nbsp;business heads and patrons both via Zoom meetings and over dinner or coffee. She consults with her team and leads their meetings every morning, where they discuss strategies for the company, its&nbsp;clients&nbsp;and&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5111"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5111"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5213,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5111\/revisions\/5213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}