Honeyjar provides AI tools to improve PR and communication in any company

Can Artificial Intelligence Really Improve Public Relations?

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Journalists, entrepreneurs, and even some PR professionals will tell you that PR is broken (buy me a drink sometime and I'll curse you). But can AI really make things better?

Honeyjar, which will be at TechCrunch Disrupt this week as part of the Startup Battlefield 200, wants to use artificial intelligence to make the expertise and judgment of the best PR professionals available to everyone, including founders who don't know where to start.

The startup's founders, CEO Michelle Musk and Chief Communications Officer Nadia Jamshidi, certainly fit the bill when it comes to PR expertise. They've both spent decades in the field, doing internal communications and working in agencies. Musk most recently served as senior vice president of marketing and communications for Ev Williams' venture capital firm, Obvious Ventures.

As Musk described the challenges of "helping with the whys and whens of the coms and marketing for 110 portfolio companies" (the startups his company had invested in), I flashed back to my brief stint leading marketing at an early-stage VC firm, where founders were constantly asking for help getting into TechCrunch. So I wasn't surprised that Musk asked himself, "Is there a way to turn senior-level expertise into artificial intelligence [way] that actually helps users do things in the active, skilled way that we do?"

Honeyjar is his answer to this question. It automates processes like writing announcements, finding the best journalists to pitch to, and identifying the most promising speaking opportunities. But Jamshidi told me in a follow-up email that Honeyjar's vision goes beyond press coverage and beyond specific AI tools.

"Hunijar can find reporters, build media lists, scan news and social networks, track coverage and uncover opportunities," he said. “These capabilities are important, but they're only part of what we're building. The bigger idea is to bring together the entire communications workflow: signals, context, strategy, judgment, timing, and execution.

And it's not just for founders. Musk said he found "millions and millions of anonymous communicators responsible for the work of the comms."

"They don't have the title, but they are marketers, investors, writers, creators, school principals, sports team leaders," he added. “It's incredibly horizontal, it requires strategic linkages. "It's always rejected, but problems often don't get solved."

Hanijar also does not try to replace public relations specialists. Musk said that he and Jamshidi built the tool they wanted to use. He argued that Honeyjar can make PR firms and internal communications teams more effective, while allowing PR professionals to "do it. The third client without any scaling costs."

When Honeyjar opened its waiting list, it received 10,000 signups in the first 24 hours, Musk said. Beta testers include Nextdoor, tech startup Coco Robotics, Bloomberg Beta Investor, and agencies Mission North and Full Picture.

This sounds promising for companies looking to get more attention, but it can be a nightmare for journalists. We receive more suggestions than we can respond to, many of which have already been written by AI chatbots.

When I raised my fears about becoming more immersed in PR, Musk noted that while Honeyjar can draft an email or a social media post in the customer's voice, the customer must actually hit send or publish.

"We never want a world where humans are out of the loop," he said.

And this is also where judgment is key. Musk said he and Jamshidi tried to "infuse and encode Hanijar with our wisdom." Through a broader initiative called Comms Lab, they now also train the product as judged by other PR professionals.

Jamshidi added: For us, judging is knowing what to do, what not to do, when to act and how to adapt to the situation. "It comes from understanding a company's goals and priorities, what's happening inside and outside the organization, and knowing what to say, to whom, where, and when."

In some cases, Musk said, Hanijar might even tell the founder they're not ready for coverage.

"We always hear from reporters who want better pitches. You want to hear directly from the experts." "We actually see a future where there's more authentic content in your inbox from sources you actually want to hear from," he said.

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Anthony is the weekend editor for TechCrunch. He previously worked as a technology reporter at Adweek, senior editor at VentureBeat, local government reporter at Hollister Free Lance, and VP of content at a VC firm. He lives in New York City.

You can contact or confirm Anthony by emailing him at [email protected].

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