New York’s Hustle Meets AI: Solopreneurs Revolutionizing PR

Starting with a Passion

Many folks in the bustling world of communications kick off their own gigs out of sheer love for polishing PR strategies. But let’s be honest, a chunk of their day still drowns in operational chaos.

In big agencies, you’ve got account managers, project coordinators, and junior strategists all juggling the nitty-gritty stuff. But, when you’re running a boutique solo, you’re basically doing it all—every single detail, every step of the process.

Enter AI to the Rescue

Now, here’s where it gets exciting. Take Adebukola Ajao, the brains behind B.D.Y. CONSULT. She’s been spearheading strategy, creative direction, marketing tasks, and even partnerships all by her lonesome for over a decade now.

Turns out, using AI has been her secret sauce. She’s been riding this tech wave for two years, putting the “solo” in solopreneur without dropping quality or responsiveness.

Polishing Proposals with AI

When it comes to churning out polished proposals, Ajao swears by AI. Google’s Gemini is her go-to for digging through call notes, emails, and every Google Doc at her disposal.

Sifting through this data and popping out a draft proposal used to be a week-long saga. These days, thanks to AI templates, she’s done in hours.

And she doesn’t stop there. Read AI steps in to transcribe meeting notes, catching not just words, but the vibes in the room. If a client’s jazzed during a proposal, Ajao doubles down on that energy.

She nails it when she says, “If a client says no, I don’t feel burned out from having spent a week doing their proposal. It’s just onto the next one.”

AI for Strategy Brainstorms

Over at CJC, founder Ciara Siegel is all about AI’s brainpower. The synthesis and pattern recognition? A game-changer. Client strategy work that once gobbled up weeks now takes a fraction of the time.

Siegel gets clever—using Gemini to transcribe conversations and tapping into ChatGPT. It’s like having a team, or at least a sounding board, without the water cooler chit-chat.

She mentions, “Half the value isn’t what AI says back, it’s what surfaces once I hear my own thinking out loud.”

Building Operations with AI

Lisa Chensvold, running Chensvold Communications, started way in 2025. Initially skeptical, she dove into generative AI when the tech chaos got too real.

“I reminded the algorithm I work alone,” says Chensvold, shifting AI to suit her scrappy, solo vibe.

Struggling with tracking prospects? ChatGPT helped design her “scrappy CRM” in Notion. Throw in Claude from Anthropic to test plans, and suddenly, she’s running smoother ops.

Making It All Work

For these solopreneurs, AI helps with everything from client onboarding procedures to creating detailed style guides.

Chensvold sums it up beautifully, “The least creative things about the work, I can use a non-human system to help build, so that I can have my humanity show up for my clients.”

In a city like New York, where the only constant is hustle, these solopreneurs have found a way to make AI their trusty sidekick.