How Pristine Initiative uses AI without outsourcing the story
Cathy J. Hood, CEO and founder of Los Angeles-based Pristine Initiative, leads a public relations, communications and public affairs firm. The conversation looks at how the firm uses AI for research and media monitoring, while keeping press releases and pitches human-written as clients begin to discover firms through AI.
Use AI to speed up research, monitoring and visibility analysis, but keep human judgment and original storytelling at the center of public relations. The goal is not to use the most AI, but to know where it helps and where it falls short.
What’s the quick origin story of your business, and what makes what you do genuinely different from the other options your customers are looking at?
Recognition is harder to earn than ever. As newsrooms shrink, gatekeepers become more selective, and competition for attention crowds the market, exceptional people and brands are often overlooked and go unnoticed. Out of frustration, award-winning communications strategist Cathy J. Hood founded Pristine Initiative (Pi) to help clients break through.
Unlike traditional agencies, Pi is a culture-driven PR firm that prioritizes and creates meaningful moments that drive public awareness, credibility, third-party validation, and lasting influence. Creators, entrepreneurs, experts, brands, and organizations across the world come to us seeking more than publicity. They want to be discovered, trusted, and found across today’s media landscape, from news outlets, social media to AI-powered search engines.
Where does most of your new business come from today, and where do you wish it came from?
Most of our business comes through referrals, word of mouth, and the relationships we’ve built over the past 7 years since we started. As clients see results, they have become our best advocates. From introducing us to their network to creating a ripple effect of new opportunities, Pi purely grown through trust, reputation, and proven results.
As we embrace the era of AI, we want Pi to be one of the first firms people discover when searching for public relations online. Just as clients have traditionally found us through recommendations by people, we also welcome the opportunity to generate qualified new business leads through AI.
What’s one thing you’ve actually handed over to AI in the last year, and one thing you tried it on and went back to doing the human way?
One thing we’ve embraced AI for is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), research, and media monitoring. It has helped us save significant time by tracking client visibility, identifying trends, monitoring conversations, media mentions, and understanding overall how people engage and discover information online.
One thing we tried and returned to the human way was writing press releases and media pitches. While AI can be a useful starting point, we found the output often sounded generic, overly wordy, and similar to what everyone else was producing. In public relations, standing out matters!
The best stories and newsworthy moments are rooted in authenticity, originality, and lived experience. While we leverage AI to improve efficiency, we don’t rely on it to tell our clients’ stories. The messaging we share with the world comes from us, humans writing for humans. AI can support the process, but it can’t replace the perspective, creativity, and genuine connection that make a story resonate and inspire action.
Have you noticed a change in how customers find you or what they already know before they reach out? Is anyone arriving through AI assistants like ChatGPT yet?
Yes! Before people reach out, they have already reviewed our website, social media, and are aware of who we are and what we represent. While most of our business still comes from referrals, we’re starting to see the early impact of AI-driven discovery and expect it to play a major role in how we get clients. People and brands are turning to AI for guidance and recommendations. We want Pi to be one of the firms they discover and trust in that process of discovery.
If you were advising someone in your industry on all of this for the next 12 months, what would you tell them to actually do, and what would you tell them to ignore?
The PR industry is undergoing a profound evolution driven by AI. The firms that lead this shift will define the next era of public relations. For so long, our industry has been highly manual, from research and monitoring to messaging development and grassroots engagement. Today, AI can help businesses to work faster, uncover opportunities more efficiently, and better understand how information is discovered and shared.
My advise is simple: invest in learning how to use AI to your advantage. Take a workshop, enroll in a fellowship program, or surround yourself with people who are actively exploring and implementing AI tools. Technology is evolving and will forever evolve. Understanding how to leverage it effectively will become your greatest advantage.
However, do not lose sight of what makes great public relations work. AI may accelerate the process but it cannot replace human judgement, creativity, and authentic storytelling. The firms that will thrive over the next 12 months won’t be the ones that use the most AI. They’ll be the ones that know when to use AI and when the human touch matters most!
Thank you to Cathy J. Hood and the team at Pristine Initiative, LLC for sharing what actually worked with Leaders Perception readers.
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