Introduction
The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into everyday communicative practices has precipitated a profound transformation in how language is produced, circulated, interpreted, and regulated. Across digital platforms, institutional communication, and mediated public discourse, language is increasingly co-shaped by algorithmic systems that predict, automate, translate, recommend, and categorize meaning. These developments mark a decisive shift from earlier phases of computer-mediated communication toward a new socio-technical configuration in which linguistic change and public relations practices are no longer exclusively human-centered but are deeply entangled with computational agency.
This edited volume responds to the growing need for theory-driven, empirically grounded, and critically reflective scholarship that examines linguistic change and public relations under conditions of algorithmic mediation. While existing research has explored digital discourse, social media communication, and strategic communication separately, fewer studies have addressed how AI technologies simultaneously reconfigure language practices, communicative norms, and professional public relations in interconnected ways. Hence, this book advances an integrated understanding of communication in the AI era, one that treats language not merely as a tool shaped by technology, but as a dynamic site where human intention, institutional power, and algorithmic logic intersect.
From predictive text systems and machine translation to sentiment analysis and automated content generation, AI-driven tools increasingly influence lexical choices, syntactic patterns, stylistic conventions, and discursive strategies. These technologies do not simply reflect existing language use; they actively participate in shaping communicative possibilities. In doing so, they raise fundamental questions about linguistic agency, authorship, creativity, and authority. When public messages are optimized by algorithms, translated by neural networks, or delivered through synthetic agents, traditional distinctions between speaker and system, writer and tool, persuasion and computation become blurred. The implications are particularly significant for public relations, a field whose core function is to manage meaning, relationships, trust, and legitimacy in dynamic public spheres.
This volume reconceptualizes public relations as a practice that is mediated by language and technology, situated within algorithmic environments. The rise of AI-driven analytics, audience segmentation, and automated messaging increasingly shapes how organizations communicate with stakeholders, manage crises, and construct public narratives. Concurrently, the publics engage in meaning-making through platform-specific vernaculars, multimodal expressions, and hybrid linguistic repertoires, which challenge the norms of standardized or institutionally sanctioned communication. Consequently, we observe a complex communicative ecology where professional strategic communication coexists with, and often competes against, participatory discourse that is amplified by algorithms.
The book focuses on linguistic change as a cultural and political process influenced by AI. It highlights how algorithmic systems can perpetuate historical inequalities and marginalize minority languages and communication norms. The contributors examine the impact of AI on language policy, inclusion, and representation, particularly in multilingual and postcolonial contexts with uneven digital infrastructures. The book emphasizes communication practices in diverse settings, challenging the notion of a universal AI-driven change and showcasing local innovations and resistance. Thematically, it integrates topics like algorithmic mediation, social media linguistics, and AI ethics, while employing interdisciplinary methodologies such as critical discourse analysis and linguistic ethnography.
Finally, the volume proposes a critical understanding of communication in the AI era, illustrating how AI influences meaning production and public relations as a site of linguistic struggle, offering valuable insights for scholars and practitioners.