Durga PrabhuArtificial Intelligence (AI) has been used by many sectors more and more as this technology is being made accessible. AR can be incorporated in almost all the fields and the technology is capable of making all the given tasks easier for the user. Artificial Intelligence learns and grows from its data and also from the past experiences. It has a good decision making abilities by employing and strategizing with the help of vast amount of data collected and the techniques which has been learnt.
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Adding up to all the things that Artificial Intelligence (AR) is capable of doing, Rita Men an Associate Professor for Public Relations has included PR (Public Relations) to this list. Rita Men developed a model in order to understand how the executives were communicating with their employees and were able to maintain their trust and were also able to build relationships, engage them and help improve their feeling of wellbeing during the pandemic.
This model was developed in collaboration with Public Relations Department Chair Marcia DiStaso. In order to do so, the team involved had to survey more than 1000 employees belonging to different industries. This was done in order to access executive leadership communication and determine how effective it was.
This model was used to examine various factors during the communication process. Some of these factors were leaders’ transparency, authenticity, empathy and optimism in communications. The model also studied how these factors were able to help reduce the employee’s feelings of uncertainty and to also give a boost to employee trust and engagement during the pandemic.
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Rita Men said that, “Companies are not always using AI effectively, which leads to negative effects. There are ways to make chatbots have a PR mindset. They are available 24/7 and are very responsive, so there are a lot of advantages and they can really reduce the human cost.”
She also added that when the chatbots sound like machines and do not answer, it hurts the feelings of the customer. However, there are possible ways to work with these chatbots and train them to be effective at communication by collaborating with IT people.
Rita men adds, “This world is changing every day. We have seen how much technology has affected the public relations industry and business environment.” While advising her students, she says, “I advise them to be themselves. Be authentic. Everyone else is taken. Have confidence in what they have learned, their strengths, their skill sets, their training, their background.”
Rita Men said that when the chatbots are found to be more sounding like humans, which included making the conversation more positive and more interactive by making use of humour and addressing the question, the chatbots helped to build relationship with the user.
Speaking about how having an effective conversation with the chatbots can improve the public perception of the company, Rita Men said that, when the businesses are “upfront with new technology, are more trendy, more competent, more agreeable, friendly, it can help a relationship and enhance a positive image in the eyes of stakeholders.”
Rita Men has been studying the use and the value that the social chatbots will be able to add to the public relations purposes. The businesses can use these social chatbots in order to build long term and more personalized relationships with their customers.