Digital Public Relations, Artificial Intelligence Adoption, and Sustainable Socio-Economic Development in South-East Nigeria
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Abstract
This study was embarked on to assess the potentials and impact of digitization of public relations (PR) and adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools on promoting sustainable social and economic development in the South-East region of Nigeria. With the aim of establishing the level of awareness and prevalence of digital technology in PR practices, as well as the militating factors against adoption, the study generated primary data from a sample of 384 respondents. The respondents selected from the five states of South-East region were selected using multi-staged sampling techniques. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to achieve the objectives and answer the four research questions. Results from the use of descriptive statistics and inferential statistics of logistic regression shows that digitization of public relations practices and usage of AI tools have made significant impact on promoting sustainable development of the region. The odd ration that quantifies the relationship between digital PR and economic development at 5% significance level is about 9.5 times higher, and that of social developments, about 12.3 times higher. This simply implies that unit increase in digital PR efforts will create about 10 time, and 12 times more possibilities for promotion of economic and social development respectively in the region. The study hence, concluded that digitization of PR and usage of AI tools have high capacity to promote sustainable development if the professionals are well-equipped to key into all the necessary demands to overcome the obstacles. Therefore, the study recommended that leading the future of PR requires deliberate and concerted investment in AI literacy, making wise choice of tools as well as continuous monitoring of ethical practice.
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