Like every industry, AI has profoundly changed PR, from the way practitioners work with reporters to how content is produced. Even the way a simple press release is structured is different today than it was just 18 months ago.

But one thing that hasn’t changed is that PR is still based on relationship-building, experience, and the ability to earn trust from people who don’t owe you anything. AI has a role to play in each of those, but it’s just one tool in a large and eclectic toolbox.

Here’s a look at the biggest ways AI is reshaping the industry, what it means for your brand, and how REQ is adapting its own approach.

How Is AI Changing PR?

AI has been a gift to public relations practitioners because it gives them abilities they otherwise would not have had. 

Take measurement and analytics, for example. Measuring the success and ROI of a PR program has always been challenging, solely relying on impressions and audience reach. AI allows us to augment that information with the ability to analyze things like sentiment analysis (which is used to evaluate the tone of articles) and ways to more directly correlate earned media coverage with direct sales.

AI has also been invaluable in helping us better connect with journalists. We used to have to hunt and dig through websites and stories to get a good sense of a reporter’s interests. We still do that to some extent, but we can also use AI to analyze a reporter’s past articles and match pitches to their interests more quickly and accurately than we could before.

Of course, AI is also changing how we approach online search and content creation. G2’s research found that 61% of buyers have used or plan to use an AI chatbot during the buying process. As a result, we’re no longer focused exclusively on how to get on page 1 of Google; we’re also optimizing for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and more. 

For that to work, content needs to be original and say something that stands out, in addition to being structured appropriately for AI search. Press releases and blogs need to be written differently, and true storytelling has become more important than ever before.

Can AI Do the Work of a PR Team?

As its name suggests, “public relations” has always been about personal connections. Whether you’re talking about buyers, partners, or the media, good PR involves creating messages that resonate on a one-to-one level with people.

AI is great at automating tasks and replicating a lot of the fundamentals that are critical to a solid PR program, like building media lists, performing analysis, and uncovering story ideas. Where it falls short are in the areas where PR teams excel. The personal relationships with media that are so critical to getting stories placed. The ability to create a multi-pronged strategy built off of years of experience. The ability to empathize in the event of a crisis. 

The correct answer to the question, then, is yes, AI can do some of the work. A good PR team uses it to handle the groundwork faster, like monitoring coverage, researching reporters and trends, and turning around first drafts, so more of their time goes to strategy, storytelling, and relationships on your behalf. For you, that means faster turnaround and more of your investment going toward the work that actually moves the needle.

But it can’t do all of it, and certainly not the work that’s most important. That is still best left to the experts.

Does Earned Media Matter More or Less in the Age of AI?

More. AI tools decide which brands to mention based largely on what credible third parties say about them, not just what brands say about themselves. Muck Rack found that earned media makes up 84% of the sources AI tools cite.

That makes a strong earned media program one of the most direct ways to influence how AI describes your company. Coverage in trusted outlets, analyst mentions, and expert commentary influence buying decisions and become the source material AI uses to answer your buyers’ questions. Owned content still plays a role, as long as it’s clear, well-structured, and answers questions directly, but it works best when third-party coverage backs it up.

How REQ is Adapting

We’re using AI where it makes our work faster and better, and keeping people in charge of what makes it effective. That shows up in a few ways.

We measure AI visibility alongside traditional PR metrics. Share of voice and media coverage still matter, but we also track share of model: how often your brand shows up in AI-generated answers in your category compared to competitors. That baseline gets set at the start of every engagement, so you can see whether the work is moving the needle where your buyers are actually looking.

We connect earned media to search and AI visibility. Our media relations and content teams work together, so a single piece of coverage can become a blog, a social campaign, and a content asset built to rank in search and get cited by AI tools.

We build custom AI tools around certain  client’s needs. Our team creates automated workflows and AI skills tailored to specific clients, trained on things like their messaging framework, approved language, and executive voices. That might mean a tool that drafts reactive commentary in a spokesperson’s voice when news breaks in their space, or one that keeps every piece of content aligned with a client’s core positioning. Our team still reviews and refines everything that goes out, but the groundwork happens faster, so we can move quickly when an opportunity comes up and spend more time on strategy.

We use AI to accelerate, not replace, our storytelling. Through our Narrative Studio, AI helps us speed up research and production, while our writers and strategists shape the ideas, voice, and point of view that make content worth reading.

Questions to Ask Your PR Partner About AI

• Do you measure AI visibility? Your partner should be able to tell you how often your brand appears in AI answers today, and how that’s changing.
• How does earned media support our AI presence? Look for a clear connection between coverage and how AI tools describe you.
• Where do you use AI, and where don’t you? A good answer is specific about both.
• Who owns the strategy and the relationships? AI can support the work, but people should still be driving it.

Looking Ahead

AI is changing the channels, the tools, and the speed of PR, but the fundamentals are holding up better than ever. Brands that earn credible coverage, tell a consistent story, and back it up with real expertise are the ones both people and AI tools end up trusting.

If you’re rethinking how your PR program shows up in an AI-driven buying process, we’d love to chat.