Should PR firms be using DeepSeek?

The launch of DeepSeek went insane and in just days has topped the free App store apps, knocking $600 billion off top US tech companies invested in AI. But how will PRs use this latest AI development?

The first thing to notice when “messaging” DeepSeek is that the look of the AI is very similar to ChatGPT. You simply type in your question and it thinks about an answer at about the same speed as the original AI client. Some marketing professionals like AI for starting off a press release draft. I’ve found it writes an initial draft in a similar style to ChatGPT, though it doesn’t delve quite so granular in terms of completing that draft with email addresses and other things that a human is needed for.

Another powerful tool from an AI client is finding press contacts for you without you having to use Cision or Roxhill. When you type in “write a press list of PR journalists”, DeepSeek comes up with a good top 10—John Harrington and Steve Barrett from PRWeek and PRWeek US are on the list. ChatGPT provides a list of 10 people but it’s actually a lot less compelling, including people from Business Insider who are less likely to be PR contacts.

AI can help with brainstorming article ideas. Asking ChatGPT “brainstorm ideas for bylines to go in PRWeek” created a list of 15 different topics from ‘The evolution of PR in the digital age’ to ‘Green PR: how to align your brand with sustainability without greenwashing’. Trying the same search on DeepSeek makes the app fall over: ‘the server is busy’, it says, as it stops without an answer. One point for ChatGPT.

But what about brainstorming campaign ideas? Typing in “brainstorm creative ideas for a Greggs launch” gave results from both AIs. ChatGPT, while much faster, only came up with two ideas, one being a National Sausage Roll Day, which I think would bore most agencies and their in-house teams. However, DeepSeek fed back 12 ideas, all divided by ‘concept, execution, tagline’. The wider ideas were better, too, and with so many ideas there’s a lot to choose from. One point for DeepSeek.

So, given concerns on China and privacy (Tiananmen Square yields no results), should PRs be using DeepSeek?

The better-quality press contacts it produced than ChatGPT, along with its wider brainstorm ideas, shows how powerful the newest AI on the block is. However, its fragility shows that humans are still needed to decipher if the information provided is actually helpful. DeepSeek is impressive and could well become an essential app for PR people. Let the AI wars well and truly start now!

Peter Bowles is co-CEO of Dynamo PR