PR client RFPs asking for concrete AI details in agency workflow: Ruder Finn's CTO Tejas Totade

When Ruder Finn’s Tejas Totade meets with teams and clients, one question that gets asked often is: how do we use AI to move faster without losing our soul? While some clients remain cautiously optimistic, a wave of "notable brands" are now building AI directly into their RFPs, mandating that agencies demonstrate how they will embed AI into deliverables—from creative asset generation to workflow efficiency.

In a candid face-to-face interview with PRmoment India, editor-in-chief, Paarul Chand; Tejas Totade says that clients are seeking partners who can leverage narrative intelligence for targeted scenario planning. By shifting from traditional crisis "War Rooms" to AI-powered "Mission Control" systems, Totade argues that agencies can now predict crisis peaks and protect brand trust with a degree of precision that was previously unimaginable.

Read on.

PRmoment India: In your meetings with clients in India and globally, what are their top concerns about the use of PR in AI?

Tejas Totade: I think, its a spectrum. You have certain clients who are, "No, I don't want you guys to use AI at all with my work."  

Other clients are more cautiously optimistic saying, "You can use AI "for driving internal efficiency, but do not use AI for public facing messaging at all. And there are certain others who are very open to experimentation. And they are the ones who want to know how can we use AI to help enhance messaging, campaign development.

What a PR client wants from AI?

And we have received multiple RFPs at this point from very notable clients who have in the RFP, asked to describe how your agency is going to embed AI at different aspects of client deliverables and workflows to help not just efficiency, but also boost creativity, asset creation and content generation.

I think probably in a year or two (referring in use of AI in PR) , you will have more in that latter bracket, as opposed to the former one, because it's becoming table stakes. The hype cycles are getting shorter and shorter. It's becoming more and more necessary for these brands to embrace AI, as opposed to shut away from it.

PRmoment India: What is the biggest concern brands have about using AI?

Tejas Totade:  Brands are most concerned about their brand voice being almost mechanised in a way, or being translated into speak, which is not true to what they would normally use. So how do you build that brand brain with AI where the messaging is in lockstep with the brand's core values. I think that's the biggest concern which brands have in public facing messaging. 

Additionally a lot of the brands are opting for transparency when they put out these type of messages. So if you're generating something using, say, notebook LLM, which is a tool which is used to generate AI audio, brands will put a disclosure in the audiogram, saying that this is AI generated content.

PRmoment India: Moving on to the role of AI in predicting narratives, how reliable is it for crisis planning?

Tejas Totade: If someone tells you that, oh, I'm going to help prevent this from going viral, that person is probably not being honest. It's impossible in today's day and world to stop the message from going viral. This is because there are so many actors and there are so many agenda driven groups who will kind of make sure that it trends in a certain universe to a certain extent. 

What's in your control is to have your playbook be as dynamic as possible. I don't know if you're a fan of Marvel movies, but it's like you're kind of playing Dr Strange. And so you have all the scenarios outlined. And of course, there'll always be a curve ball, right?  No one has a crystal ball, but at least you'll get to a point where you're reasonably confident about what to communicate and how that communication is going to be received.

Impact of AI on the PR talent pipeline

PRmoment India: One of the biggest concerns for PR firms have been that the younger generation of professionals  understand how to use AI, but they don't have some of the core skills of PR. So are you  going to have no juniors around to build to mid or senior level because they don't have the skills? 

Tejas Totade:  I completely disagree with this. It's actually a great opportunity for young talent to be able to punch a hole through the time, space continuum, in a way, and turbocharge their journey to middle management.  They are coming in with skill sets, which honestly, when I started my career, it was a journey to get to that level. 

I don't think the soft skills are going to go away. It's all skewing to personalization, skewing to how you know your audience is. Its almost like a  KYC.  Because they are the ones who are listening to the kind of music that I don't listen to, shopping at stores which I haven't even heard of. And now you have platforms like Blinkit in India.  When I was  living in India, we would consider ourselves lucky if we got a Dominos' pizza in 30 minutes. If we didn't, we considered ourselves luckier as you then got a free pizza. 

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