To write a press release with AI, gather every fact first (what is happening, when, where, who is involved, the figures and an approved quote), give the tool only those facts with a clear structure to follow, and tell it to leave out anything not in your brief. Then edit the draft line by line against your source documents, have the quoted person approve their words, and check legal and disclosure points before anything goes to a journalist. Used this way, AI saves drafting time; used as a source of facts, it creates errors you will have to correct in public.

This guide covers the inputs a release needs, a prompt you can adapt, the structure journalists expect, and the checks UK organisations should run before sending. The advice is tool-neutral.

What AI can and cannot do for a press release

A language model is good at turning a set of facts into readable sentences, suggesting headline options, tightening a long paragraph and converting a release into other formats such as a short social post. It is not a source. Google's guidance on generative AI content puts the reason plainly: generative models "don't retrieve facts, but predict a likely sequence of words based on their training data", so their output may contain inaccuracies that must be checked by a person.

Newsrooms treat AI output the same way. The Associated Press's standards around generative AI, published in August 2023, say "any output from a generative AI tool should be treated as unvetted source material", and that AP staff do not use ChatGPT "to create publishable content". The same standards urge staff not to put confidential or sensitive information into AI tools. If the journalists receiving your release work to rules like these, a release that reads as unverified will get the scrutiny it deserves.

The UK's professional body for public relations, the CIPR, runs an AI in PR programme with free guides on AI tools and ethics. Its AI in PR panel launched in 2018, and in June 2026 it published a best-practice guide, The Responsible Use of AI in PR, available to members (checked October 2026). Its framing is that adoption requires "professional judgement, ethical decision-making and a clear understanding of the risks as well as the opportunities".

The inputs you need before you start

The quality of an AI-drafted release depends on the brief. Prepare these before opening the tool:

  • The news in one sentence. If you cannot state it, the release is not ready.
  • The five Ws. Who, what, when, where and why, with exact names, dates and locations.
  • Figures with their sources. Every number you plan to use, with the document it comes from.
  • A real quote. Ask the spokesperson for two or three sentences in their own words, or draft them and get explicit approval. Never let the tool invent a quote and attribute it to a real person.
  • Background facts. What the organisation does, where it is based and any facts journalists routinely need. This becomes the boilerplate.
  • Contact details for media enquiries.
  • Timing. The release date and any embargo.

Strip out anything you would not want stored outside your organisation. The ICO's guidance on AI and data protection sets out accountability duties for organisations using AI with personal data; it notes that, following the Data (Use and Access) Act, the guidance is under review (checked October 2026). Check your organisation's policy and your tool's data settings before pasting in names, customer details or unannounced information.

A prompt that keeps the facts yours

Vendor guidance agrees on the basics. Anthropic's page on reducing hallucinations recommends explicitly restricting the model to the documents provided and giving it permission to say it does not know. OpenAI's prompt engineering guide suggests separating instructions from supporting content with Markdown or XML tags.

A prompt built on those principles:

<role>
You are an experienced press officer writing for UK journalists.
</role>

<facts>
[paste the news sentence, five Ws, figures, approved quote,
boilerplate facts and contact details]
</facts>

<instructions>
Write a press release using only the information in <facts>.
Structure: headline; one-line subheading; dateline; lead paragraph
covering who, what, when, where and why; two short body paragraphs
in descending order of importance; the approved quote exactly as
given; "Ends"; notes to editors with the boilerplate; media contact.
British English. Plain, factual language with no superlatives.
If information needed for any part is missing from <facts>,
write [MISSING: description] instead of inventing it.
Then give three alternative headlines.
</instructions>

The [MISSING] instruction does two jobs. It stops the model filling gaps with plausible inventions, and it gives you a checklist of what to chase before sending.

The structure journalists expect

Most UK releases follow a familiar pattern, and an AI draft should be checked against it:

  • Headline. States the news. A journalist should understand it without reading further.
  • Subheading (optional). Adds the second most important fact.
  • Dateline and lead paragraph. Place and date, then the core news in one or two sentences.
  • Body. Supporting detail in descending order of importance, so the release can be cut from the bottom.
  • Quote. From a named person with their real role, adding opinion or context rather than repeating the facts.
  • "Ends". Marks the end of the copy for publication.
  • Notes to editors. Boilerplate, background, links to images, embargo details.
  • Media contact. A real person who will answer on the day.

Write the release in plain language. The GOV.UK style guide advises that even legal content "can still be written in plain English", and the same discipline helps a busy journalist. AI drafts tend towards marketing adjectives ("innovative", "leading", "cutting-edge"); delete them unless the release proves the claim.

Editing and fact-checking the draft

Treat the AI draft as a junior colleague's first attempt. Work through it with your source documents open.

  1. Check every fact against the brief. Names, spellings, job titles, dates, days of the week, figures, units, place names.
  2. Compare the quote word for word with what was approved. Models often "improve" quotes; any change needs fresh approval.
  3. Search for additions. Anything in the draft that was not in your facts block should be deleted or sourced.
  4. Check the boilerplate is accurate and current.
  5. Read it aloud to catch awkward phrasing.
  6. Get sign-off from the spokesperson and anyone else your process requires.

A second prompt can help, though it does not replace the human check: "Compare this draft with the facts block. List every statement in the draft that is not directly supported by the facts, and every fact that has been altered."

Legal and disclosure points for UK releases

Press releases sit in an unusual regulatory spot. The CAP Code, which the Advertising Standards Authority administers, lists "press releases and other public relations material" among the things it does not cover, in its scope of the Code, unless the material falls within the advertising categories in part I. That is not a licence to exaggerate. Consumer protection law still applies to commercial practices aimed at consumers: the CMA's guidance on unfair commercial practices (CMA207) explains the rules under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 and was last updated on 18 November 2025 (checked October 2026). Take advice from your legal team on claims about price, performance or environmental benefits.

Listed companies have further obligations. The FCA's page on the UK Market Abuse Regulation explains how UK MAR applies to financial instruments traded on UK venues, including rules on disclosing inside information. Market-sensitive announcements follow their own process, and unannounced price-sensitive information should never be pasted into a tool outside that process.

Finally, decide on disclosure. Google's helpful content guidance suggests explaining how automation was used where readers might reasonably ask how content was created. For a release, accountability matters more than labelling: a named person in your organisation stands behind every word.

Common mistakes with AI-drafted releases

  • Invented quotes. The most serious error. A fabricated quote attributed to a real person can damage trust with journalists and the person quoted.
  • Hallucinated context. Models sometimes add a market size, a founding year or a "first in the UK" claim that was never in the brief.
  • Hype language. Superlatives without evidence make journalists skim past.
  • Burying the news. If the lead paragraph is about the company rather than the announcement, rewrite it.
  • Generic boilerplate. Replace vague mission statements with what the organisation does, where and since when.
  • Skipping the second reader. Someone who did not write the brief should read the final version.

Our sister site AI Disraeli UK covers related writing workflows for British organisations. Whatever tool you use, the release goes out under your name, so the facts, the quote and the judgement have to be yours.