In this episode of AI Loves PR, Anne Green, CEO, G&S Business Communications, and Mark McClennan, General Manager, C+C, discuss the ethical groundwork that must come with an AI workforce transformation.
Green and McClennan are co-chairs of the PR Council’s Ethics and Standards task force and guided the development of Ethical Guidelines for Generative AI in 2023, an update in 2024, and the Ethical Guidelines for PR in the Digital Age in 2025. Green notes, “The guidelines themselves are so critical because of the conversations they engender. Ethics help by prompting us to stop, pause, and examine the structures we’re working within. We need to ask, what are our values and what behaviors align with who we are as people and as a business?”
For McClennan, the point in the guidelines that resonates with him most is tied to the PRC’s Code of Ethics, that clients and the public are best served when relationships with spokespeople, bloggers, partners, and allies are open and transparent. “Transparency is absolutely critical right now when it comes to AI.”
Green described her approach to internal communication as weaving a tapestry: ethics, AI, DEI, management, and client service are all threads she continually ties together to help staff see the bigger picture. “I want elite communications inside and outside the organization,” she said, stressing the need for clarity, consistency, and multichannel messaging within fast-moving agency environments.
McClennan added that ethics shouldn’t be a top-down message alone. At his agency and in his ethics classes he encourages regular discussions around real-world ethical missteps to build a culture of awareness. “It has to be multi-voice,” he emphasized. “If it’s always Anne or me, people start tuning it out. But when peers and supervisors talk about it, it sticks.”
On the topic of ethical concerns around AI, McClennan flags a growing concern from younger professionals: “They’re asking about the environmental cost: the infrastructure, the energy draw of these large language models.” Anne highlighted that some of their largest clients are struggling to adapt to the security implications of AI. As cyber threats escalate, she noted, AI is making phishing and fraud attempts more scalable and convincing. This heightened risk landscape is forcing clients to rethink contracts, insurance coverage, and internal policies. In many cases, internal restrictions prevent clients from fully using AI themselves, making agency partners even more critical.
While no one can fully predict how AI will reshape the communications landscape, staying passive isn’t an option. As Green and McClennan both emphasized, the future of work will demand continuous upskilling, open conversations, and a strong ethical foundation.