Strategic Communication and Artificial Intelligence: Reviewing Emerging Innovations and Future Directions

This review examines the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) as a novel

technology for strategic communication. This study includes a survey of pertinent

literature that highlights innovative communication linked to AI applications in

public relations, marketing and branding, political communication, and customer

relations with the goal of enlightening both research and practice. Emerald Insight

and Google Scholar, two essential online databases, were used to retrieve and

analyse information from peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters (n = 17)

published between 2017 and 2022. Based on the main inquiries raised by the

research, significant themes were discovered and critically explored. Political

communication with AI, AI-focused public relations and marketing approach, and

conversational AI assistants were the major themes in the research on strategic

communication and AI integration. These studies were primarily the outcome of

quantitative and mixed-method techniques used in a western environment. This

review satisfies the need for research on AI and strategic communication that

makes inferences applicable to the context in Ghana. The study's conclusion

outlines a research agenda for the future, emphasising the need for research on

particular topics like integration of AI voice assistants in relationship marketing

domains, adoption of wearable technology and its relevance to customers' health

consciousness as well as privacy concerns of emerging innovation. Future studies

should also focus on developing more evidence-based AI suggestions for strategic

communication practitioners, as well as a thorough methodological and theoretical

discussion of how to further close the gap between research and practice in the

African setting.