[00:00:00]

[00:00:50] Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the show. Great to have your ears tuning in again, or if you are a first time listener, great to have you here as well. And thank you for stopping by this morning or this afternoon, wherever you are. I hope you'll find this episode valuable and tune in again sometime. Another huge shout out to those of you who have rated or left a review of this show. I cannot tell you how grateful I am to see those comments. It is so wonderful to know this podcast is helping others to build their skills and knowledge. That's what it's about after all, right.

[00:01:32] And as always, if you have any feedback or ideas of topics to cover, please get in touch. I'm more than open to answering specific questions or if there's something that you're just really curious about, get in touch. So today's episode is all about ai, artificial intelligence. A couple of months ago, there was an explosion of posts on social media from people exploring ChatGPT.

[00:01:55] You probably saw a couple of them, like this post was actually written by ChatGPT, blah, blah, blah. The initial interest has died down a bit, I think so it might feel like I'm a bit behind the bandwagon here, but the truth is I wanted to explore this tool and others for myself before making any comments on the capabilities and restraints, especially for those of us in the comms profession.

[00:02:20] So I've been playing with some of these tools, attending some virtual events, live events, listening to other podcasts, putting a few of them into practice for myself, and I've now got a list of use cases for comms professionals or people who are just involved in communication somehow, that I think shows how useful AI can be to our profession.

[00:02:41] Interestingly, a few people I've spoken to about AI have been quite fearful of it, and to a degree that's understandable. If we don't know enough about something, we do tend to fear it. Also, we're seeing that a lot of the work these tools can produce sound threatening to our jobs as communication professionals, especially when it comes to things like copywriting.

[00:03:03] But you know what? Remember when the internet was new or email? Like I remember getting email for the first time mid nineties and getting in trouble at school in Word Pro class because we weren't meant to be sending emails to each other. And I did, and it showed up on somebody's screen as the teacher was walking past blah, blah, blah.

[00:03:21] But you know, that was a novelty to us then. And at the time, we could really only email each other internally, right? I mean, text messaging was new. Social media. I mean, that just exploded late nineties, early two thousands. There were plenty of skeptics then about how these things would never catch on, there was also plenty of fear about what these tools would mean for our jobs and our lives. And yet, like always in each situation we learned, we adapted and we discovered new ways of working with these tools to our advantage.

[00:03:54] They became part of what we do every day as comms pros and we've now, you know, not just learned to, to use them, but use them well and use them to our advantage as comms pros. AI is no different. Except for the fact that it also learns and adapts, right? But that's part of what makes it so interesting and what opens up so many positive possibilities and opportunities in business, healthcare, psychology, life in general.

[00:04:22] So how can we use these AI tools as a strategic tool for our communication rather than be fearful of it? I'm going to take you through some of the opportunities that I see, but first I think it's just worth a quick recap of the limitations so far. So number one is that the only copywriting jobs it's really going to replace, I think, are the people who do the kind of copywriting work on Fiverr.

[00:04:46] You know, the, the $5, Hey, can you write an email for me? Type of thing. It's the short, inconvenient, tedious comms that used to have to just throw a bit of money out to get them done. Right now, those tools like ChatGPT are good, but they're not advanced enough to layer in brand tone of voice or bring in the specific facts as you know them and so on.

[00:05:10] And if you listened to my episode on global trends, you'll remember that I reflected on a presentation I'd seen while I was at the World Conference in Toronto and one of the big points they made there was that AI still lacks common sense. So yes, ChatGPT can, you know, produce something for you, but your common sense will tell you whether or not that is appropriate for your needs.

[00:05:33] So if writing is a big part of your job, and for us comms pros, it always has been so, I wouldn't be worried, but I would be thinking about how you can use these tools to help. Because if you don't, that's when you risk becoming irrelevant. It's not your job that becomes irrelevant, it's you because you haven't kept up with what's going on.

[00:05:52] I mean, can you imagine if you were in PR back in the early nineties or mid nineties and you never got into social media? Yes, there's still a place for pitching to media, but unless you, you know, went with the times, went with social media, you wouldn't be working in PR right now, I would wager.

[00:06:09] So number two, these tools don't replace good old fashioned strategic thinking.

[00:06:14] You still need to do the work in developing the comms strategy and the plan. Now, you can certainly use these tools to get ideas for that and get you started, but you know your audience better than any tool ever can. So you'll have the strategic advantage. And number three is that these tools are still learning too.

[00:06:32] And while they're evolving so rapidly, they clearly still have a really long way to go. They're nowhere near what you can do as a strategic professional, right? So in short, in my view at least, there's nothing to be worried about except being left behind. It's really important to stay across these tools, look at ways to integrate them into your work so that you remain relevant.

[00:06:55] Which brings us to how we can integrate these tools into our communication practices. I'm going to share with you six ways I'm finding them useful and helping with not only boosting my productivity, but reducing time wasted on more tedious tasks. I'll put the links to the tools I mentioned in the show notes, and I'd love to hear how you are using AI as well in your communication profession.

[00:07:18] Okay, let's get stuck into it. The first way you can use to your advantage is to enable you to produce more, copy more quickly. This doesn't mean you stop writing altogether. Absolutely not. As I said, AI is not that smart yet. It doesn't layer on tone of voice. It doesn't have the facts unique to your business or your client.

[00:07:38] But what it can do is take copy you already have and replicate it in other ways. So, for example, take a blog post or a media release you've written, paste it into ChatGPT and ask it to give you three short social media posts. You can be really specific and say, for example, uh, three short posts for LinkedIn or Instagram. You could also take that media release and ask ChatGPT to turn it into speaking points, or, you know, condense it to five dot points that you can use in an email or on an intranet article, for example.

[00:08:12] I've also heard of people taking a really great email they've written, like a customer service email, and asking ChatGPT to produce two more emails like it, but with a different tone or a different product, for example. So you're still being strategic, you're still writing and coming up with the ideas, but with a tool like ChatGPT, you can produce more and achieve more in less time, which is amazing.

[00:08:36] I've been playing with it by putting in a transcript of a podcast like this one, and asking it to produce three blog posts. And you know, look, they're not great by any means. They don't have my tone of voice, but they're definitely a starting point. So again, just think about how you might be able to use these to save you some time.

[00:08:58] Now, that brings me to my next point. These tools can actually empower your clients to get started. So whether that's your internal clients, if you're an in-house comms pro, or whether you're an agency or a freelancer. Starting with a blank page is often the hardest part of getting started, both for ourselves and our clients.

[00:09:16] So when writer's block is hitting the brain, get onto ChatGPT, ask it for some prompts. It's also a great way for resource-poor comms teams to empower your in-house clients to get started. So, for example, a team leader who needs to write an email to their team but doesn't know where to start, they could start with ChatGPT, and then give it the co, give the copy their own flare, then hand it over to you to look at and offer strategic input.

[00:09:45] So in this way, you actually start to position yourself as the advisor, not the copywriter, which is a good thing. Trust me. You want to elevate yourself above tactics to being somebody who's respected as a, an advisor and a strategic thinker. But it also means that team leaders or project managers, whoever can start to build their own skills in using these tools and in refining their writing, it frees you up to do more of the strategic work.

[00:10:12] Um, so for example, I just had a client recently, um, tell me that she'd used ChatGPT to get started on a tricky email she had to write to a stakeholder. She really struggles to write without any prompt. You know, often we write something up for her knowing it won't be right because she struggles to articulate what she wants.

[00:10:30] So, And then she'll tell us, yeah, that's not right. What I want is blah, blah, blah. Great. It's because she can't start with a blank page. We have to give her something to get her thoughts out, enable, enable her to articulate it. So ChatGPT has been a tool that is excellent for her because even if it spits out something that she doesn't want, it helps her to get clear on what she does want.

[00:10:51] I've also started hearing of some companies that are blocking tools like ChatGPT though. So primarily because of um, I guess concerns over cybersecurity risks, which is fair, particularly in this environment where we're seeing a lot of hacking. So you may need to check with your IT department before you start encouraging your internal clients to use that.

[00:11:13] Okay. The next way that you could be using AI is to save yourself video and sound editing time. One of my favorite tools right now is called Munch. It takes long form video and compares what you've said in that video to words that are trending online, which is pretty cool. Then it chops it all up into bite-sized snippets, and you can choose how long you want those to be, whether that's for LinkedIn or Instagram stories.

[00:11:40] Whatever, but it does that based on those trending words and then it drafts a caption and some hashtags, um, that you can start using. It also gives you the option to have that video just raw. So if you don't wanna chop it up for a different platform and you just want it in its original form, format, however you filmed it, perfect, it'll do that as well. I have been using it for video snippets for this podcast, so I'll record my podcast, then drop the video file into Munch. I usually ask it for Instagram story output, but I'll also download the snippets in their original files or size as well, so I can put them into my template for LinkedIn and Instagram posts as opposed to stories.

[00:12:23] So, The output is pretty good. I've set the parameters at 40 seconds, either side of the snippet they choose, so I can sort of extend or, you know, go backwards a little bit depending. Look, the captions aren't great because they're not in my tone of voice and they just basically replicate what I said in the video.

[00:12:41] But again, they're a starting point and they give you some really good hashtag ideas as well. So, while I still have to do a little editing, I cannot tell you how much time this tool has saved me. I used to open the video in Descript, wait for it to, you know, Descript it, edit the transcript, trawl through to a few snippets I thought were worth sharing, then muddle my way through cutting out just those sections I wanted. then I'd have to get the caption showing, then download it. Like honestly, it was a process and I love this tool. Yes, it's not perfect, but it is a massive time saver for me. Tools like these are going to become more and more common and they will save time-poor comms people so many hours.

[00:13:26] So I highly recommend that you have a play.

[00:13:31] The next idea is to use AI to get those podcast show notes and comms done in a flash. So if you are producing podcasts or videos, you're going to love this tool. It's called Swell AI. So you put your video or your podcast recording into it, then it spits out not just a transcript, but ideas for podcast episode titles, short summaries, show notes, social media posts and articles. It gives you a few options for each, which is pretty rad because then you can have a series of content all promoting your video or podcast. It also produces the social content for different platforms, so it will give you copy for Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube and email, which is great because it's all within the required word counts as well.

[00:14:21] The other thing it does, which is quite handy for some people, is it produces timestamps. So you can, for example, put into the caption of the video or show notes at what point in the show you or whoever you're interviewing is talking about a particular topic. That's really useful for your audience members who are time poor, and just want to jump ahead to a specific piece of information.

[00:14:47] Now again, it's not perfect. There's no way I would just copy and paste the content directly from that into my platforms and post it. It still needs tweaking, but again, for the time-poor comms folk out there who need to offload some of this more tedious work, this can be a really handy tool to not only get stuff done more quickly, but potentially produce even more.

[00:15:12] So that's Swell AI, and again, I'll put the link in the show notes. The next way comms pros, like you and me, can use ChatGPT in your work is to brainstorm ideas. So this is great if you want to get more creative with your writing or your comms tactics. So open up ChatGPT, and just start asking it questions.

[00:15:31] So for example, you could ask questions like, what is a metaphor for a business that's changing its strategic direction?

[00:15:39] What are some good icebreakers for a workshop? What are some keynote speaker topics for this theme? Or what are some questions to ask a panel on this topic? Again, won't be perfect, but the responses will be a great starting point and allow you to get those creative juices flowing. So I tried this just the other day and I asked ChatGPT to give me a metaphor for a business that's changing its strategic direction, and here's what it came back with:

[00:16:07] a metaphor for a business changing its strategic direction could be a ship is changing its course. Just like a ship adjusting its sail and rudder to navigate through changing waters or reach a new destination, a business may alter its strategic direction to adapt to evolving market conditions, seas new opportunities, or address emerging challenges.

[00:16:26] So a bit wordy, but it does the trick. So if you're struggling for some of those more creative ideas to support your comms, definitely give ChatGPT a go for some brainstorming.

[00:16:38] Now another idea is to use AI to help simplify the complex. If you work in a sector that inherently uses complex ideas or data, you could use a tool like ChatGPT to help distill that information into something more palatable.

[00:16:55] So, for example, copy in a journal article and ask it to recreate it as a more simple, plain English blog, blog post, or ask it to pull out the five key ideas or findings from a research report or article. You'll still need to cast your eyes over it, apply your tone of voice, and potentially fact check it.

[00:17:14] But again, it's a great way to get started very quickly. And you can be really direct. So for example, ask ChatGPT to give a simple explanation of a complex idea. So for the purposes of this podcast, again, I had a play and I asked ChatGPT to give me a simple plain English explanation of the Big Bang Theory, and it came back with an explanation that was about six paragraphs long.

[00:17:38] So it was long, but the language was simple and easy to understand. So, Then I asked it to make it shorter, and it came back with a one paragraph explanation. Here's what it said: the Big Bang theory says that the universe started from a tiny, hot and dense point about 13.8 billion years ago. It rapidly expanded and cooled down forming galaxy stars and planets.

[00:18:01] Evidence like the redshift Galaxies and cosmic microwave background radiation supports this theory. However, we don't know what caused the initial state or what happened before it.

[00:18:11] So it's still using jargon like Redshift and Cosmic Microwave background. I have no idea what that is, but it's done the job of getting it down to one paragraph.

[00:18:20] Again, massive time saver, but as the comms person, you still need to know enough to know if it's accurate and know your audience well enough to know if what the tool produces will actually resonate with them. But again, just a starting point, which in itself can save a heap of time. I can definitely see a use case for this in health science or technology sectors where you need to distill that really technical jargon into something people can actually understand.

[00:18:48] So if you are in those sectors and you haven't had a play yet, give it a shot.

[00:18:52] One final quick idea to share is to use AI to help with your SEO. So search engine optimisation. This is really important, obviously, for your websites, but also increasingly for social media.

[00:19:05] You might have a great blog article or news item on your website, and you want to amp up the SEO so you can put that content into ChatGPT and ask it to give you a title that promotes SEO or to rewrite it completely to support more SEO if you want to. Now again, I had a play with this and I typed in a made up statistic.

[00:19:27] It was: 50% of all Australians are women, but only 10% of senior leadership positions are held by women. So I made that stat up. I don't know what it actually is. Then I asked it to rewrite this into a statement that's great for SEO. Here's what it came back with: Unlocking gender equality: exploring the disparity between female representation in Australia's population and senior leadership positions.

[00:19:51] Now I'm not hugely enamored with that. I think it's using too many long words, et cetera, but it does give me an idea of how to rewrite it, which again, is good for me to, as a starting point. I also took a blog post I wrote on this topic a few weeks ago and put it into ChatGPT, and asked it to rewrite it to optimise SEO.

[00:20:10] And the result is what you see in the blog now, which I'll link you to in the show notes and interested in your feedback on that. For me, I found it came back as quite robotic. It definitely wasn't my tone of voice. Um, but yeah, I encourage you to read it and let me know what you think.

[00:20:26] There's one other tool here I want to mention, uh, which I just recently found out about, and that is Tango.

[00:20:33] And it's an AI tool that helps you document processes. So as a business owner, I've got new people coming on board. I need to be able to document processes for them to follow. And normally in, you know, my old life, that would take quite a long time. You know, taking screenshots at every step I go, writing up copy, pasting, screenshots, all that sort of stuff.

[00:20:52] This tool kind of does all of that for you. So you start, it starts recording what's on your screen, and then you just go about doing the process and it's recording. Click on this, then go over here and click on this, blah, blah, blah, which huge time saver. I'm trialing it right now because I have a new team member starting.

[00:21:13] I'll let you know how it goes. But again, anything that can make life easier and reduce the amount of time spent on that kind of work, I am all for it.

[00:21:22] Okay, time for our episode recap. So if you're tuned out for a bit, come back to us and listen in.

[00:21:28] The six ideas I shared today about how to use AI to support your communication practice are, number one, using a copywriting tool like ChatGPT to produce more, copy, more quickly, build on the strategy and the work you've already done.

[00:21:43] But then tools like this can replicate your work and produce even more options for you. Number two, give your internal stakeholders and clients permission to use these tools to get started. By empowering them to use a tool like ChatGPT it means they aren't starting with a blank page, and you can offer strategic advice rather than just a copywriting service.

[00:22:04] It positions you as an advisor and helps support people in resource-poor organisations.

[00:22:10] Number three, use a tool like Munch to help save you hours in video editing time, particularly if you are reproducing snippets of a video for social media channels or a website. Number four, use something like swell.ai to help take your recordings and generate a whole bunch of different styles of copy for different channels, like blog posts, website articles, podcast show notes, social media posts, et cetera.

[00:22:35] Again, saving you a stack of time.

[00:22:38] Number five, use AI to help you simplify complex ideas or data. Pop that journal article, extract or data or idea into ChatGPT, and ask it to explain the ideas in simple, plain language and see what happens.

[00:22:54] Finally use AI to help boost the SEO of your content. Take what you've written and ask it to rewrite it to optimise SEO. You don't have to use all of it or any of it, but it could give you some ideas as to how you can write to improve SEO if that's your goal.

[00:23:11] Now again, all of these tools are just starting points.

[00:23:14] They don't replace your skills and knowledge, your strategic thinking or your common sense. But they can help you reduce the amount of time you spend on tedious tasks like video editing for socials, and can get the creative juices flowing by just getting something on a page to get you started. There's plenty more uses out there for these tools, and as more of them become available, the real challenge won't be AI taking your jobs, it will be choosing the tools that are best suited for you and your team and keeping up to date with the constant updates. Like all tech, it's constantly evolving, so stay up to date. I recommend finding a few social media accounts to follow that share this type of information. Keep your eyes on the news and also just keep playing with these tools to they become available now.

[00:24:00] As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic or any other topic about comms or business. So please get in touch. I'm more than happy for a chat. In the meantime, stay safe. Have a great week, and I will see you back here next week for another episode of Less Chatter More Matter. Bye for now.