'Skills that you need to become and stay successful in an AI-powered, hyper-tech world'

Paroma Roy Chowdhury, Advisor, Outreach and Crisis, Office of Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Vice Chancellor, Ashoka University, and one of the jury members of this year’s awards delivered a keynote address on ‘Skills that you need to become and stay successful in an AI-powered, hyper-tech world’ at the 6 edition of e4m PR & Corp Comm 40 under 40 Summit.

Paroma set the context by discussing the vastly altered scenario of media fragmentation and things like deep fakes, advent of technology, shrinking budgets, and other dramatic shifts in the industry. But at the same time, she firmly said that despite the transformation, skills remain constant and believed that a good communicator is always a good communicator regardless of the time and the context.

Moving forward, Chowdhury elaborated on the universal principle of success in an AI-powered hyper-tech world, stating, “As a good communicator, you must have good content.” Furthermore, she also shared the 4C’s that every communicator should follow to curate good content. “First is clarity. People must understand your clients, your partners, your teammates and the external teams. Business communication has to be clear and precise first and foremost,” she explained.

According to her, the next C is consistency. “Be consistent about your messaging. You cannot have one brilliant podcast and do nothing for the next three months,” she asserted. And the third C, the one most important in today's world, is credibility. "What makes you different from somebody who forwards WhatsApp all day is your source, and that must be credible,” she highlighted. Lastly, she stated ‘confidence’ as the fourth C of writing and presenting good content.

She also underscored the importance of reading for a PR professional and firmly mentioned, “If you're PR folk and you're not reading, you have no business being in that job.

Moving ahead, she discussed the opportunities, challenges, and drawbacks that AI and emerging technologies are presenting in the industry. She thoroughly guided the audience on how artificial intelligence is breaking new ground and teaching everyone how to ask the right questions and how to formulate effective prompts.

“The answers are all there; AI is not giving you the answer. It's merely organising the information for us, and if you are blindly using that to do your work, you're going to be caught out. AI is not your friend; it's your enemy. So, understand the technology, then absorb it, and then harness it to your benefit, she elucidated, guiding the professionals to leverage AI smartly and responsibly.

Lastly, she emphasised the importance of developing empathy and networking skills for PR and communications professionals. In her final remarks, she stated, "Good content, staying informed, using technology, being empathetic, and having a strong network are the key principles for achieving success. And I think these are universal principles which stay with you regardless of how much the context is changing.”