At Calysto, we’re always looking for new stories to tell. Our experience, built over nearly three decades of identifying and sharing PR and marketing stories, has allowed us to identify where opportunities lie to create a compelling narrative and how to get it in front of the right audiences.
Increasingly in today’s crowded market, that means looking beyond obvious hooks and digging into the content companies already have. White papers, blogs, customer case studies, webinars, presentations, research and executive newsletters can all contain nuggets of data, insights and customer challenges that could form the basis of a newsworthy PR story.
All this matters because finding a relevant story is becoming harder. Cision’s 2026 State of the Media Report found that 72% of journalists say fewer than a quarter of the pitches they receive are relevant. Brainstorming, commissioning research, monitoring competitor news and identifying industry themes are all worthwhile. But before you start from scratch, it’s worth asking what your existing content can tell you.
AI can help uncover patterns across your content, from recurring customer pain points and industry challenges to useful statistics. It can also help you identify gaps in existing evidence. The added secret sauce is how you treat those insights. AI can help you find a story, but it’s people who will identify whether that’s a genuine PR opportunity and, if so, how to use it to gain the attention of journalists, analysts and potential buyers.
Use AI to find the patterns
Start by asking AI to identify key themes around market direction and industry challenges. Data points and news also stories to create interest with journalists. Ask it to identify:
- Customer pain points: What are your target customers saying in the public domain? What questions are they asking? You can also leverage sales documentation and ask AI systems to find patterns in the pain points and questions your customers and prospective buyers are asking you.
- Messages that address industry challenges: Feed existing documents, white papers and web pages that are already “messaged” into AI chatbots (well-structured pages accessible to AI tools may provide more useful results) to identify areas where you could provide thought leadership or newsjack. Maybe you’ve covered topics around AI adoption and you have first-hand knowledge of customer challenges. You could, for example, use this to build a PR conversation around the best approach to implement AI-based technologies.
- Existing evidence: In the past we’ve talked about how third-party endorsed content can enhance the likelihood of a company being cited in AI search results. Ask AI to identify relevant stats, survey findings, customer data points and other evidence within existing material that could be used to support potential narratives.
- Gaps in data: Ask AI to identify where existing content could show how you are solving industry challenges. But apply human expertise and judgment to identify any additional research, customer polling or internal data that could augment a story. Talk to product SMEs about what’s needed to close those gaps and start building a narrative around key emerging themes. Finally, talk to journalists and other third-party industry contacts to understand what they see as relevant.
You can also ask AI chatbots to show how your messaging has changed over time, including old terminology, outdated claims, inconsistent or conflicting messaging and recurring themes. Addressing these before creating new PR messaging can help you build a more consistent story.
Where to begin?
You don’t need to give AI tools access to your entire site. Instead, gather material such as:
- white papers and eBooks
- blogs and articles
- customer case studies
- research reports
- press releases
- feature articles
- webinar transcripts
- presentation decks
- FAQs
- C-level articles and presentations
- existing surveys
Finally, include relevant industry news sites and publications when asking AI to identify themes around current industry pain points.
Breathe life into old content
The goal isn’t to turn an old white paper into a press release. It’s to extract new themes from existing material and look at them through the lens of current industry conversations.
You could potentially identify four or five stories from customer documentation, then amplify those insights to provide a new perspective on a current issue.
Don’t use AI to define strategy
AI can help you find patterns in data, but critical thinking is key to delivering successful PR. After all, journalists see hundreds of AI-generated pitches a day and most of them end up in the trash bin. The Cision report also explains that “Journalists are clear on what works: Relevant ideas, original research, credible data, expert access, and ready-to-use assets.”
PR experts use strategic skills and expertise to judge:
- If there is a genuine story.
- Whether the timing is right.
- If a message differentiates your company.
- If stories resonate with customer needs.
- If your company can back up claims.
- Which audiences care.
- The most appropriate channels for each story.
All of this requires human expertise and knowledge built through relationships with media representatives, analysts and others over time.
Use AI. Apply human expertise. Find the story.
AI can be a powerful tool for uncovering patterns, connections and opportunities that might otherwise be missed. Combined with critical thinking and industry expertise, it can help teams work more efficiently to uncover stories that may have been hiding in plain sight.
At Calysto, we use our extensive marketing and PR expertise to augment AI output, helping technology companies interrogate findings, identify the strongest narratives, challenge assumptions and turn relevant insights into stories that support their wider communications strategy. Contact us to find out more.
