Jan 9, 2024

AI and ESG at the top of the agenda

The Marketing, Communications and Public Relations sector has the capacity to grow, adapt and invest. In a constantly changing business environment, it is adopting new technologies, skills and creating conditions to improve well-being, diversity, equality and ethics.

All this in a context of widespread geopolitical crises and economic uncertainty. Tackling AI, disinformation and the climate, while stimulating creative and talented teams, is no easy task. But it is a decisive task for improving the customer experience.

Improving the customer experience, especially in B2B – SayU Consulting’s specialization – and helping organizations acquire new customers are among the main challenges. And the first is directly related to the second: improving the customer experience also means improving the journey of companies and organizations in the sector.

And here lies another of the big challenges: talent and its retention, reinforcing the role that experienced professionals play in the sector and the difference they can make in improving the experience and pursuing customer goals.

And it is in this pool of challenges that they seek to anticipate trends and look at what the main prospects will be.

For example, the ICCO World Public Relations Report reveals that companies in this sector will prioritize investment in ESG and give priority to mastering AI tools.

When asked about the top three technologies of the future, 86% of respondents put AI in their top three, compared to 40% in 2022. Data science is pushed down to second at 41% (42% in 2022). The top skill for the future is ‘mastery of AI tools’ with 45% ranking this in their top three, a new option for this year rising above strategic consulting, 42%.

55% of those surveyed expect to use the new technologies to make their organizations work more efficiently. 47% will use them to build online communities and 38% for greater employee involvement.

Investment in environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) is the area expected to see the most investment (49%), with ‘influencer communication’ and ‘strategic consulting’ completing the top three for the second year running.

‘Sustainability and the environment’ will once again be the social cause to which companies will give priority (69%). As far as challenges are concerned, 42% of the answers are “macroeconomic conditions” along with “customers unwilling to allocate adequate resources”

Even so, 96% of companies in the sector expect to grow over the next five years and foresee an increase in the profitability of their organizations. Profitability that comes from the growth of the clients’ business, to which the sector’s contribution will be decisive.

Tags: AI, ESG, public relations
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