Over the past twenty years in PR, I’ve seen more “revolutions” than I can count. Email was going to kill the press release. Social media was going to finish off journalism. Influencers were apparently going to make us all redundant. And yet, here we are. Each time, PR hasn’t died. It’s simply adapted, grown and, if anything, become more creative.
I still remember sending comms by fax. Or sticking press releases into envelopes, then running them through the franking machine. Email terrified me, as did the internet (which I thought would never catch-on) – but the excitement of refreshing Google News to see if our story had landed – oh my, the joy! I’d spend hours physically cutting out newspaper clippings and sticking them onto boards for clients, before any real digital monitoring system existed. Every single change has felt seismic at the time, but once the dust settled, the core of what we do – telling good stories well – has always remained the same.
Now, the latest “disruptor” has arrived. AI-powered search. And while some people are already in full panic mode, predicting the end of traditional PR as we know it, I see something very different. This isn’t the end of creativity, writing, or press. Far from it. It’s a chance to make those things work even harder for us.
The rise of AI search
Search used to be straightforward. You typed a few words into Google, scrolled through the blue links, and picked the best-looking one. That was the journey. Simples.
But now that’s changing fast. Ask Google a question today and you’ll often be handed an AI-generated summary at the very top. Bing has gone full conversation mode. Perplexity acts like a research assistant, pulling together neat little packages of information from across the web. People don’t just “search” anymore, they ask. And they expect an instant, fully-rounded answer to every question.
That shift has big implications for PR. A carefully crafted feature might no longer be found by scrolling through results. Instead, it could be boiled down to a single line in an AI summary. A brand announcement might be lifted, or twisted, by an algorithm trying to be helpful. For many people, the search page is the story now. There’s no click-through, no context, no nuance, just what the machine decides to show. And that’s a scary thought.
What this means for PR
To me, PR has always been about visibility and credibility. Getting the right story in front of the right people at the right moment. And that hasn’t changed, even if the way it plays out certainly has.
Visibility today isn’t just about page one rankings, it’s about being a source that AI considers “safe” to cite. Credibility is being tested in new ways too, with algorithms weighing up authority signals to decide whether you’re trustworthy enough to be included. Because of this, clarity matters more than ever. If your story rambles or your key message is buried in paragraph six, the chances are it won’t be picked up at all.
I’ve already seen early examples of AI getting things wrong. A client’s quote shortened to the point of losing its meaning. A news story attributed to the wrong person. It’s nothing catastrophic (although clients might feel like it is) but it does remind us that if we don’t take control of how our stories are presented, the technology will happily do it for us.
Why the traditional PR still matters
Here’s the part I feel strongly about. None of this makes traditional PR redundant. If anything, it makes it even more valuable. Strong writing, compelling narratives, relationships with journalists – these are the things that help a story cut through. So in essence, to me as a strategist, writer and content creator, it’s business as usual.
There’s still a particular magic in seeing a client’s name in print, in hearing their story on the radio, in knowing that an editor chose your piece because it had substance. I’ll never stop loving that. But here’s the twist. A well-written article in a respected outlet doesn’t just reach its immediate audience anymore. It also feeds into the AI engines looking for credible sources. That same piece might later reappear as a neat snippet when someone asks a search tool a related question. And that’s brilliant. I’ve been banging the drum for years about making sure we eek every opportunity we can from every piece of writing we produce. Wanting to ensure our output works harder and its benefits are maximised. And now here we are. With AI picking up that concept and running with it…
So the press release, the feature, the opinion piece – they’re not dying. They’re doubling up. They’re doing their usual job and becoming the raw material for how brands are represented in AI-powered search. Lovely stuff!
How we can harness AI search for PR
So instead of panicking about what AI might do to our work, I’d rather focus on what it can do for us. Smarter monitoring tools mean we can track not just where stories appear, but how they’re being summarised and shared. We can see the questions people are asking, in real time, and tailor our content to meet that demand.
On the writing side, it’s about being crystal clear. Short sentences. Logical structure. Quotes that actually sound quotable. Transparent sources. These aren’t new skills for us, but now they’re just more important than ever. They don’t only make sense for algorithms, but they make life easier for journalists and readers too.
And when it comes to measurement, we may need to broaden our view of what “success” looks like. It won’t always be a big headline splash. Sometimes, the win will be subtler, such as a client’s name showing up in the quick answer someone gets when they ask a search engine a question. That visibility is real, even if it looks different to the old-school cuttings book.
The challenges
Of course, it isn’t all smooth sailing. AI can be clumsy. It can strip out nuance or make things up entirely (which is a particular bugbear of mine). Smaller voices risk being squeezed out if the algorithms only favour big, established brands. And there’s always the temptation to write “for the machine,” stuffing content with keywords until it sounds flat and lifeless.
But honestly? Those risks just highlight why PR matters. It’s our job to hold onto the nuance, to keep the humanity, to make sure the heart of the story doesn’t get lost in the shuffle. When AI produces a flat summary, it’s our creativity that brings the colour back.
Looking ahead
It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see where this is heading. Voice search will keep growing. AI assistants will become the norm. People will expect instant, personalised answers to every question.
For PRs, that means picking up a few new skills and understanding how these tools interpret content, being faster on our feet, and being able to measure success in new ways. But it also means doubling down on the skills that never go out of fashion. Empathy, originality, and the ability to tell a story that actually resonates.
AI search isn’t the end of PR. It’s the next chapter. Just as social media didn’t kill journalism, this won’t kill creativity. It will test us, stretch us, and, if we let it, make us sharper than ever.
For me, there’ll always be a thrill in seeing a story in print. But I’m equally excited about the idea of that same story being the one line an AI search tool chooses as the definitive answer to a question. Because at its heart, PR isn’t about platforms or algorithms. It’s about people. And no matter how the technology changes, the magic will always lie in connecting human stories with the audiences who need to hear them.
