We Did It! Fullintel’s Human-AI Approach Wins PRSA’s Anvil Award
Imagine our excitement when they called out “Fullintel” at the PRSA Anvil Awards ceremony in New York City this month. Our team practically jumped out of their seats! After years of building something genuinely different from what everyone else was doing, we’ve received what many call the “Oscars of PR” in the “Best Solution Provider/Vendor – AI-Automation Resource” category.
Sure, winning feels great. But what makes this victory especially meaningful is that it validates what we’ve been saying for years: sometimes, the most intelligent AI isn’t the one that works alone but is hand-in-hand with human experts.
Swimming Against the AI Only Current
While most of our competitors raced to automate everything possible, we took a different path. We kept hearing from clients that fully automated systems missed important context and delivered too many irrelevant results.
“I remember one client telling me they got hundreds of alerts about AAA Batteries when they were trying to monitor AAA, the automobile association,” laughs one of our senior analysts. “That’s when we knew pure automation wasn’t cutting it.”
Instead, we invested in training our AI using years of human-analyzed data. This means our technology understands what matters specifically to each client – their competitors, products, industry jargon, and unique challenges.
Andrew Koeck, our President and Co-Founder, put it perfectly at the award ceremony: “While others chased full automation, we built something more balanced – AI that’s smart enough to recognize patterns but humble enough to learn from human expertise.”
What makes this win even sweeter? It’s our second consecutive Anvil Award. Last year, we won for our Strategic Media Analysis services, and now for our AI technology. No other media intelligence company has been recognized for both its human analysis and AI capabilities.
Real Problems Need Real Solutions
Before building our platform, we sat down with communications teams and really listened. Here’s what they told us was driving them crazy:
- Computer systems that couldn’t understand the difference between positive and negative context
- Being buried under mountains of mostly irrelevant articles and social mentions
- AI tools that require constant human correction
- Having to use different monitoring systems for different regions or departments
One communications director told us: “I don’t need a system that sends me everything under the sun. I need one that knows what matters to my brand and catches what humans might miss.”
How We’re Different: AMEC Certified Analysts + Brand Trained AI
What makes our award-winning platform special isn’t just sophisticated algorithms (though we have those too). It’s how we’ve built a system where skilled analysts guide the technology every step of the way.
Fullintel Hub AI Edition
Think of this as mission control for your brand’s media presence. It brings together monitoring, measurement, and analysis in one place, but with a twist – it’s customized for your specific industry.
A healthcare client once told us, “Finally, a system that understands the difference between a mention of our drug for treatment versus a passing reference in an unrelated article!”
MattAI: Your Media Intelligence Chat Buddy
We created MattAI to answer the questions communications professionals actually ask. Instead of forcing you to dig through dashboards and reports, MattAI lets you simply ask: “How did our CEO’s speech perform compared to our competitors’ at the industry conference?”
One user described it as “having a veteran PR analyst on call 24/7.”
The Human AI Hybrid Touch
This is our secret sauce. Our analysts don’t just build the system and walk away – they’re constantly fine-tuning it:
- Teaching the AI what’s relevant for each client
- Creating custom dashboards that show what actually matters
- Delivering daily briefings that combine machine speed with human judgment
- Stepping in during crises when the stakes are highest
As one team member puts it: “The AI handles the heavy lifting of processing millions of articles, but humans make sure we’re lifting the right things.”
Real Results for Real Public Relations Teams
The proof is in how our platform has changed work life for communications teams:
- One global brand cut its morning media review from three hours to 45 minutes
- A PR agency avoided a potential crisis when our system caught an emerging issue in trade publications before it hit mainstream media.
- A corporate communications team stopped missing international coverage when our system spotted connections that their previous tools couldn’t
Ellen Edmonds from AAA shared: “When the Ukraine war caused gas prices to spike, we were drowning in media mentions. Fullintel’s system helped us filter the noise and focus on stories that actually impacted our strategy. Now they’re doing the same with tariff coverage.”
Seeing It Work: The Ozempic Media Monitoring Example
Recently, we used our platform to analyze how the media covers Ozempic and similar weight loss medications. Going through over 100,000 mentions, we discovered:
- Most stories focused on drug pricing (about 31% of coverage)
- Elon Musk generated more coverage than serious side effects like vision problems
- Celebrities with positive experiences received better sentiment than those reporting problems
- There’s growing confusion between medical treatments and cosmetic procedures
A pharmaceutical client used these insights to completely reshape their communication strategy, focusing on education rather than just responding to celebrity mentions.
Where Media Intelligence is Headed Next
As AI becomes more powerful, we’re staying focused on improving its performance with human expertise, not replacing it.
We’ve noticed growing concern about AI accuracy and transparency among communications teams. That’s why we’re doubling down on approaches that keep humans involved in critical decisions while letting machines handle the repetitive stuff.
One industry insider recently told us, “After trying three fully automated platforms, we’ve come around to Fullintel’s view—the best systems know when to rely on algorithms and when to use human judgment.”
Thanks to the People Who Made It Happen
This award belongs to every Fullintel team member who’s stayed late analyzing breaking news, fine-tuned an algorithm, or hopped on a weekend call during a client crisis.
It also belongs to our clients who pushed us to be better. Your feedback – both positive and critical – has shaped everything we’ve built.
Finding the Sweet Spot
Winning this award confirms what we’ve believed all along: the magic isn’t choosing between people or machines—it’s figuring out how they work best together.
Our media intelligence platform combines AI’s speed and scale with the judgment and insight of experienced analysts. The result? Communications teams get what they actually need: relevant information that helps them make smart decisions quickly.
As we celebrate this win, we’re already working on what’s next. At Fullintel, technology works best when it makes humans better at what they do, not when it tries to do everything itself.
Ted Skinner
Ted Skinner, as the Vice President of Marketing at Fullintel, specializes in AI-driven media monitoring and has authored “Predictable Results”. His role at a company that recently won PRSA’s Anvil Award for its Human-AI approach to media intelligence demonstrates his deep understanding of the field. This, coupled with his experience in crafting compelling narratives and utilizing visual storytelling techniques in marketing, positions him as an expert with substantial knowledge and practical experience in media intelligence, AI applications, and effective marketing communications.
