Will Artificial Intelligence Replace Public Relations Professionals, or Make Them More Strategic? A Critical Conceptual Review of AI Adoption in Sub-National Nigerian Public Relations Practice, with Reference to Akwa Ibom State

                @article{CRSIJ26000325,
                  author = {Oyokunyi Otu Ita, Christiana Pam, Dr Kwita Adomi},
                  title = {Will Artificial Intelligence Replace Public Relations Professionals, or Make Them More Strategic? A Critical Conceptual Review of AI Adoption in Sub-National Nigerian Public Relations Practice, with Reference to Akwa Ibom State},
                  journal = {Cosmo Research and Science International Journal},
                  year = {2026},
                  volume = {2},
                  number = {1},
                  pages = {720-725},
                  issn = {3108-1584},
                  url = {https://cosmorsij.com/published/CRSIJ26000325.pdf},
                  abstract = {This paper critically reviews the ongoing debate over whether artificial intelligence (AI) will displace public relations (PR) professionals or elevate them into more strategic roles, using sub-national Nigerian PR practice — illustrated with reference to Akwa Ibom State — as an analytical lens. Rather than reporting primary survey data, the paper synthesizes the substitution and augmentation theses in AI–communication scholarship with the Technology Acceptance Model (Davis, 1989) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology to develop a structural account of why AI adoption in infrastructural constrained, sub-national settings is likely to stall at clerical rather than strategic use. The paper argues that the central risk facing such contexts is not job displacement but strategic stagnation: practitioners may use generative AI tools for routine drafting while structural deficits — unreliable power and broadband, absent institutional training, and the lack of licensed analytical software — foreclose access to AI-enabled predictive analytics and crisis simulation. The paper concludes with a capacity-building framework and a set of empirically testable propositions intended to guide future field research on AI adoption among PR practitioners in comparable developing-economy settings.},
                  keywords = {artificial intelligence; public relations; strategic communication; Technology Acceptance Model; UTAUT; digital divide; Nigeria},
                  month = {July}
        }