For Immediate Release

Big Four consulting firm Deloitte submitted two costly reports to two governments on opposite sides of the globe, each containing fake resources generated by AI. Deloitte isn't alone. A study published on the website of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) not only included AI-hallucinated citations but also purported to reach the exact opposite conclusion from the real scientists' research. In this short midweek episode, Neville and Shel reiterate the importance of a competent human in the loop to verify every fact produced in any output that leverages generative AI.Continue Reading → The post FIR #491: Deloitte’s AI Verification Failures appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Studies purport to identify the sources of information that generative AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude draw on to provide overviews in response to search prompts. The information seems compelling, but different studies produce different results. Complicating matters is the fact that the kinds of sources AI uses one month aren't necessarily the same the next month. In this short midweek episode, Neville and Shel look at a couple of these reports and the challenges communicators face relying on them to help guide their content marketing placements.Continue Reading → The post FIR #490: What Does AI Read? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

In the long-form episode for November 2025, Shel and Neville riff on a post by Robert Rose of the Content Marketing Institute, who identifies "idea inflation" as a growing problem on multiple levels. Idea inflation occurs when leaders prompt an AI model to generate 20 ideas for thought leadership posts, then send them to the communications team to convert them into ready-to-publish content. Also in this episode: A growing number of companies are moving branding under the communications umbrella, detouring around Marketing and the CMO. It's all about safeguarding reputation. Quantum computing has been a topic of conversation in tech circles for years. Now, its arrival as a commercially viable product is imminent. Communicators need to prepare. AI's ability to generate software code from a plain-language prompt has put the power to create apps in the hands of almost anyone. There are communication implications. Share some photos of yourself with an AI model, or companies that provide this as a service, and you

For the second year in a row, Coca-Cola turned to artificial intelligence to produce its global holiday campaign. The new ad replaces people with snow scenes, animals, and those iconic red trucks, aiming for warmth through technology. The response? A mix of admiration for the technical feat and criticism for what some called a “soulless,” “nostalgia-free” production. Shel and Neville break down the ad’s reception and what it tells us about audience expectations, creative integrity, and the communication challenges that come with AI-driven content. Despite Coke’s efforts to industrialize creativity — working with two AI studios, 100 contributors, and more than 70,000 generated clips — the final product sparked as much skepticism as wonder. Continue Reading → The post FIR #488: Did a Soda Pop Make AI Slop? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

What happens when the AI conversation turns from a quiet side road into a crowded superhighway? Recently, Martin Waxman -- digital strategist and LinkedIn Learning instructor -- pressed pause on the churn to make room for curiosity, quality, and quiet. He’s not quitting; he’s recalibrating: publishing less often, thinking more deeply, and reminding us not to let AI do the thinking we should be doing ourselves. For communicators, that raises bigger questions: When do we slow down? How do we trade volume for value? And what does “good enough” look like when our audiences are drowning in near-identical insights? Neville and Shel dive into this topic in today’s short, midweek episode of “For Immediate Release.” Continue Reading → The post FIR #487: Beyond the Churn — Slower Publishing, Deeper Thinking, Better Outcomes appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Sentiment analysis has become a default metric for communicators. If sentiment is positive, trust must be high. But if your company's words are diverging from its actions, trust could be eroding while sentiment remains constant. You won't know until it's too late. The new metric to consider is "trust velocity." Neville and Shel unpack it in this monthly long-form episode for October 2025. Also in this episode: Is rage bait a valid marketing tactic? Lloyd Bank's CEO and executive team are learning AI to reimagine the future of banking with generative AI A McKinsey report recommends that public affairs teams begin to factor geopolitical issues into their thinking When conduct, culture, and context collide: Three crisis case studies reviewed German firm launches ad campaign after its lift is used in the Louvre heist In his Tech Report, Dan York reports on AI browsers and Mastodon's approach to BlueSky-like starter packs, but in a consent-based manner.Continue Reading → The post FIR #486: Measuring Sentim

Things change fast in the digital world. On the other hand, business tactics can be slow to adapt. Crafting content with the intent of "going viral" has been part of the communication playbook for more than a decade. There was never a guaranteed approach to catching this lightning in a bottle, but that didn't stop marketers and PR practitioners from trying. That effort is increasingly futile, as the social media companies that host the content have altered their algorithms, and people are paying attention to different things these days. This has led several marketing influencers to suggest that it's time to move on from the attempt to produce content specifically in the hopes that it will go viral. Neville and Shel share some data points and debate whether going viral should remain a communication goal in this short midweek episode.Continue Reading → The post FIR #485: Is It Time to Stop Trying to “Go Viral”? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Hollywood erupted in debate and discourse when a company unveiled a completely AI actress, Tilly Norwood. The public relations industry may be having its own Tilly Norwood moment with the introduction of Olivia Brown, a 100% AI PR agent that will handle all the steps of producing, distributing, and following up on a press release. Is this PR's future, or just part of it? Neville and Shel engage in their own debate in this short midweek FIR episode.Continue Reading → The post FIR #484: Is Olivia Brown the Tilly Norwood of PR? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Kenvue's stock tumbled when U.S. President Donald Trump, with Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., standing behind him, declared that its product, Tylenol, leads to autism in children when taken by mothers during pregnancy. As social channels were flooded with misinformation supporting the evidenceless claim, it's easy to imagine the stock continuing to slide, mirroring the trajectory launched by attacks on Bud Light. Remarkably, the stock recovered after one day, thanks largely to Tylenol's savvy and almost perfect response to the crisis. Tylenol isn't the first brand to find itself in President Trump's crosshairs. It is unlikely to be the last. In this short, midweek episode, Neville and Shel explore what the company got right, and what other companies can do to prepare for their turn in the glare of the presidential spotlight.Continue Reading → The post FIR #483: How Tylenol Handled a High-Profile Falsehood appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

We've all heard of AI slop by now. "Workslop" is the latest play on that term, referring to low-quality, AI-generated content in the workplace that looks professional but lacks real substance. This empty, AI-produced material often creates more work for colleagues, wasting time and hindering productivity. In the longform FIR episode for September, Neville and Shel explore the sources of workslop, how big a problem it really is, and what can be done to overcome it. Also in this episode: Chris Heuer, one of the founders of the Social Media Club, is at work on a manifesto for the "H Corporation," organizations that are human-centered. A recent online discussion set the stage for Chris's work, which he has summarized in a post. Three seemingly disparate studies point to the evolution of the internal communication role. Researchers at Amazon have proposed a framework that can make it as easy as typing a prompt to identify a very specific audience for targeted communication. Communicators everywhere continue to pr