Listed: The Top PR companies specialising in Conversational AI

Ewan MacLeod

09 Aug 2024 — 3 min read

Obligatory ChatGPT/DALLE generated image

How good is your PR company when it comes to Conversational AI?

Well, I'm going to attempt to give you one metric to help.

I hope this will be useful reading for any C-Level executives working in the industry. It's a market sample size of one – that is, my listing below is based only on my experience. Nothing else.

But, I would hope this in itself is instructive and illustrative.

If you want to skip to the PR listing, just scroll down.

First, the background

There is a fabulous service available to the media from ResponseSource. Every British PR company will know about this. Whilst I think I'm right in saying that it's a very British service, I have regularly received PR responses from international and US-based agencies.

Members of the media can send a request through ResponseSource. They select a category (e.g. Consumer Technology) and then send write a summary together with deadline details. This is then distributed to PR companies who have subscribed (for a fee) to receive these media requests.

I recently used ResponseSource to make a request to interview senior executives from vendors working in the Conversational AI space.

Did your PR company get the request and respond? You can find out as I've listed the ones who did below.

It's just one metric

I should highlight once more that this is hardly a scientific approach to measuring the effectiveness of public relations agencies. It's just one metric. Some PRs might not subscribe to ResponseSource. Some PRs might have missed my message. Some PRs might have ignored my request on the basis that their clients prefer mainstream media coverage. Crucially, some PRs will not have replied because they aren't currently representing Conversational AI clients.

I was speaking last week to the CEO of a leading Conversational AI vendor and I described this activity. He wasn't impressed that his PR company didn't reply. I don't think they even got the message as I think they're American and I'm assuming they're not an active ResponseSource subscriber.

But, crucially, the PR company of their #1 competitor did reply, in about 15 minutes.

Ouch.

One of the most difficult aspects when you're hunting for Tech Public Relationships services is finding agencies who have some sort of experience or awareness of your particular category of services.

Having Conversational AI domain experience doesn't necessarily mean they're better. But it does mean their teams have some awareness of the marketplace.

The PR agencies who replied

So with all this said, here are the companies that replied to my request, indicating they:

a) obviously have a Conversational AI client
b) are active in the Conversational AI space
and c) have existing Conversational AI credentials:

The list, in alphabetical order:

I'm actively engaged in various dialogues with each of these exploring how I can feature their clients.

I should highlight that I don't just deal with agencies – whilst it's a great shortcut, I also make use of direct dialog especially through the likes of LinkedIn. This post I wrote about Incio AI and their client bpo Collections is a good example – I discovered it through the Incio AI CEO's LinkedIn post.

Now then, I recognise that this is not a comprehensive list of tech agencies - not by any means. Having been a blogger since 2006 with the likes of Mobile Industry Review and then more recently from about 2014, FinTech Profile, I can tell you that some great Tech PR agencies aren't in the above list.

Help me build a definitive list

If your agency isn't listed, but you'd welcome enquiries from Conversational AI vendors, please comment below or send me a note and I'll add you to my PR agency list. I haven't made it yet, but I will publish it shortly and will refer to this when vendors ask for agency suggestions.

Equally, if you've got a suggestion for an agency I should add to the list, please either comment below or send me a note.

(You need to register - it's free - to comment).