What PRs can learn from 2022’s Year in Tech

Technology never stands still, and as PR experts we’re privileged to have a front-row seat. Even with the ever-changing nature of the technology landscape, where ideas are rarely the same from one day to the next, 2022 certainly stood out as a wild ride. 

From the ‘Chip Wars’ between the US and China, to Elon Musk's Twitter acquisition, to generative AI flashpoints like ChatGPT, it was incredibly exciting to watch the industry expand to probe new possibilities and reach new audiences. 

We explored the PR fails, successes, and everything in between to see what we, as PRs, can learn from this tumultuous year in tech.

The year of Big Tech stock drops and layoffs 

 In 2022, global market turbulence changed the face of the industry. The long-term effects of the pandemic — coupled with global supply chain issues, a looming recession, and cost-of-living pressures strangling household disposable income — put the brakes on the exponential growth of the sector over the last few years.  

Working with start-ups, SMEs, and VCs, we had a great view of the way this rippled out across the sector, and worked with our clients to ensure that return on investment, a strong public image, and third-party media validation for sales efforts stayed front and centre.  

Venture Capital funding, once freely available to founders with risky but ambitious dreams, shrunk significantly this year. According to Crunchbase, Q3 2022 saw $81 billion in funding, which was less than half (47%) of what it was in 2021. Businesses riding the high of the last few years had to experience the lows as well – and the negative attention that comes with that. 

These layoffs, as you might expect, sent media outlets into a feeding frenzy. Twitter’s high-profile sackings and the histrionics of ‘crying CEO’ Brandon Wallake may have brought attention to the subject, but for many businesses, this has had a serious and detrimental effect on their reputation. Good communications is one way to soften the blow of hard news – something that Twitter and Mr. Wallake perhaps should have factored into their plans. 

In 2023, we expect to see more businesses focusing on streamlining their operations to extend their runway. PRs should take this opportunity to prove that they can provide added value to their client’s bottom line, while also showing the value of a positive perception in the media.  

The US and China’s ‘Chip Wars’ 

AI and machine learning technology has advanced rapidly over the last few years, requiring the construction of more graphics processing units (GPUs) and high-performance computing (HPC) centres than ever before. In 2022, however, fierce competition erupted between the U.S. and China over who controlled the production of vital semiconductor chips needed for these technologies.  

One of the largest chip manufacturers caught in the middle of this conflict has been the UK’s very own ARM – who have had a very bad PR year, narrated in great detail by the headlines of the national press. Its reputation was already tarnished by a failed $66bn sale from owner SoftBank to potential purchaser Nvidia, and then a public tussle between the UK Government, the London Stock Exchange, and the New York Stock Exchange on which market ARM should use to go public.  

As the UK’s foremost chip manufacturer, and a major employer in the sector, it has done ARM no favours with the government to be seen as the latest and greatest example of the UK losing its semiconductor industry to foreign interests, as Westminster blocks the sale of various manufacturers to Chinese investors in particular. 

To compound a damaging year for ARM’s reputation, its reluctant owner SoftBank then cut 20% of the company’s headcount, reneging on commitments to double the workforce that it made to the government during the initial acquisition in 2016, and further cooling relations between ARM and the Houses of Parliament. 

For PRs, ARM’s predicament is a great lesson in what happens when bad goes to worse. Crisis comms are a crucial part of the job, and an essential capability if companies want to prevent one or two bad stories from solidifying into a narrative. Once that happens, it can be very difficult to regain the trust and positive coverage they once enjoyed.   

Elon Musk's Twitter acquisition 

In 2022, Elon Musk's highly publicized acquisition of Twitter caused an uproar in the tech industry and is an infamous case study of what happens when you make huge business decisions without PR support or a solid communications plan.  

Analysts, investors, and advertisers alike had concerns over his proclamations about free speech – in particular, they worried that content moderation and data security would suffer under his new autocratic leadership of the tech company.  

The acquisition has effectively unified a number of fringe internet communities under one powerful and polarising figurehead. Initially, plenty of advertisers took flight, with Musk having a public (though very one-sided) argument with Apple’s Tim Cook, as companies reassessed whether or not Twitter was a platform with which they would like to be associated.  

However, despite lingering questions about Twitter’s content moderation policy, it appears that investors and advertisers have had their scepticism put to rest, at least in part, with many important advertisers returning to the fold. How that may change following the serious data breach announced in January 2023, where more than 200 million Twitter users’ email addresses were allegedly leaked by hackers, remains to be seen – as reports of cyberattacks can have some of the most damaging effects on companies’ images. 

This case study underlines the importance of planning ahead and developing long-term communications plans. If a company is acquired and clouds are gathering on the horizon, as PRs, we shouldn’t be thinking about whether we’re dry right now, we should already be putting up our umbrellas. 
 

The UK's Online Safety Bill 

Social media companies, perhaps more than any other technology business, rely on public perception for their adoption. The buyer persona for these platforms is, at least for the larger organisations, quite literally anyone. 

To that end, commitments to content moderation are not abstract declarations but concrete priorities. Users need to know that they will be safe on this platform – and this goes double for their children. 

The Online Safety Bill, an attempt to force Big Tech companies to take more responsibility for children and adults' safety on their online platforms, spent 2022 spinning its wheels, having gone through endless amendments as it was put off time and time again.  

It was supposed to be passed through the House of Commons and the House of Lords by July, but the government instead decided to use that time to remove Prime Minister Boris Johnson. 

While ministers reworked parts of the bill, there was some disagreement among Conservative MPs about whether it would limit free speech online. The goal of the legislation is to protect kids from seeing dangerous content online and also block material that promotes self-harm or hate — which, as expected, has made this an increasingly radioactive topic. 

In order to secure positive coverage and influence public perception, tech businesses must not just say that they take content moderation seriously, they must show it too – and that’s where PR comes in. We make sure that companies can relay their good work outside of the organisation in terms that their users will understand. 
 

Generative AI makes headlines 

In tech publications across the world, terms like ‘DALL-E 2’, ‘ChatGPT’, ‘Midjourney’, and ‘generative AI’ have been splashed across the headlines. But what is generative AI? And why has it made such a storm? 

Generative AI is a cutting-edge segment of AI that allows computers to generate content like images and artwork, poetry, music files, video clips, dialogue exchanges, and even code with only a simple input or instruction from a human.  

Through their training on millions upon millions of datasets produced by humans, such as documents, internet forums, artwork, and movies, these AI tools have learned how to reproduce this content into different formats on request.  

Although this technology has existed for several years, it was only in 2022 that companies like OpenAI and Meta felt confident enough to release full public trials for some of their most promising generative AI models, without the end-user ever having to have heard the term ‘API’. Their ease of use, verbosity and artistic skill, and equally grave copyright and accuracy concerns all combined to make this subject an overnight celebrity. 

The copyright and misinformation controversy will only escalate in the coming year as artists question how an AI company can take their work and use it to train their proprietary systems, and as AI-generated content floods the internet faster than it can be checked. 

The use cases (copywriting, stock images, voice transcription, real-time translation) are evolving, but marketing content is clearly the first avenue for generative AI. In PR, it’s always worth thinking about how we can automate manual processes and spend more time on the tasks that provide added value to our clients.
 

What comes next? Looking ahead to 2023

A tough year by all standards, 2022 demonstrated the value of good PR. Companies can’t control the external circumstances that impact their business, but they can control how they react, and influence how they’re perceived by investors, customers, and the general public. 

Wresting back control of spiralling narratives and building relationships with key media publications and reporters is no less than vital for any business concerned with laying the groundwork for future growth. It’s far better to be on the inside, discussing a company’s challenges and successes with journalists face-to-face, than to be on the outside looking in. 

Having spent more than 11 years working in B2B tech — with clients all the way from high-profile corporate consultancies to ambitious start-ups — Resonance is a team of technology, business, and communications experts, made up of computer scientists, PR professionals, content writers, and inbound marketing specialists.  

If you’d like to see how we can help your business grow its inbound business pipeline or build its reputation in target media, get in touch today.