{"id":4371218,"date":"2024-08-21T07:45:51","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T05:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/insight\/how-we-built-an-ai-powered-global-public-affairs-tool\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T13:36:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T11:36:14","slug":"how-we-built-an-ai-powered-global-public-affairs-tool","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/en-in\/insight\/how-we-built-an-ai-powered-global-public-affairs-tool\/","title":{"rendered":"How we built an AI-powered global public affairs tool"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\n\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tBack to all articles\t\t<\/span>\n\t\n<\/button>\n\t\tHow we built an AI-powered global public affairs tool\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/picture>\n\t\n\t<\/div>
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\n\t\tDavid Grover\t\t
\n\t\tData Architect\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tDate\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t21 August 2024\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n\t\n\t\tIt\u2019s no secret that organization-wide digital transformation<\/a> is a massive undertaking that is never truly complete.\u00a0

The most business-critical platforms and processes often get prioritized, while niche teams and specialized operations may be stuck with the status quo, even as the business transforms around them.\t<\/p><\/div>\n\n
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\n\t\t\n\t\tStuck in the spreadsheet age\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\tWe recently encountered a scenario like this while working with a Fortune 100 known for innovation. Although the company is responsible for developing world-changing technology and digital experiences, its Public Affairs team was still operating with manual, outdated, and inefficient processes.\u00a0

This team is tasked with sourcing and categorizing thousands of pieces of press from all of the business\u2019s geographies. And this international business is discussed in the media a lot<\/em>.\u00a0

From press releases to product announcements, the team then uses this data to shape responses to media coverage, or \u201cinitiatives.\u201d But stuck in spreadsheets, processes were messy, inconsistent, and difficult to manage.\u00a0

The team was working with more than 50 external vendors, spending upwards of $4 million annually to collect and categorize press data. And with dozens of sub-teams spanning the globe, the methods for collection and categorization varied team-to-team, resulting in inconsistent data and duplicated effort, among other challenges.\u00a0

To make matters worse, the Public Affairs team was drowning in spreadsheets. They relied on more than 10,000 spreadsheets of media data produced by external agencies, while also using approximately 300 separate spreadsheets just to manage all of the individual initiatives internally. With more than 600 employees in the Public Affairs organization, from analysts to C-Suite executives, there was no way to efficiently and holistically view or manage day-to-day operations across teams.\u00a0

Instead, one employee\u2019s full-time responsibility was managing and synthesizing these spreadsheets. Another director-level employee spent hours each Sunday producing a report for executives highlighting the organization’s top initiatives that week.\u00a0

Something needed to change.\u00a0\t<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t