Help a Reporter Out (HARO), the platform connecting journalists with expert sources, today published a report titled “What is PR in 2026?” based on interviews with 39 public relations practitioners. The report identifies 38 distinct practices organized across eight themes, capturing how the field has evolved to serve two audiences: the people who read a story and the AI systems that summarize it.
The central finding describes an emerging discipline of “machine relations” alongside traditional media relations. Practitioners now conduct prompt research, reverse engineer AI answer summaries across models, and optimize content for citations. AI answer engines have become a primary PR surface, with one practitioner’s 16-month analysis of 166 media placements finding that 84% landed in outlets with measurable AI visibility in large language models. Another agency’s client research showed that 30-45% of AI prompt answers draw on editorial and earned media.
Earned media now performs double duty, as placements must resonate with both human readers and AI systems. The press landscape has fragmented into a longer tail, with op-eds, industry trade publications, independent Substacks, and source-request platforms replacing the single big-splash placement. Creators now function as media outlets, with PR teams researching influencers like journalists, commissioning editorial-style content, and brokering non-paid YouTube collaborations.
Despite the technological shift, practitioners emphasized that the human layer remains the industry’s differentiator. As AI-generated pitches flood journalist inboxes, professionals are returning to phone calls, in-person events, and long-term journalist relationships. “HARO has sat at the intersection of journalists and sources since 2008, so we hear how the job is changing from both sides,” said Brett Farmiloe, CEO of Featured, which owns and operates HARO. “The biggest shift in 2026 is that every placement now has two audiences: the readers who see the story, and the machines that cite it. The practitioners in this report are mastering both.”
The report opens with Devon Blaine, who has owned and operated The Blaine Group, a Beverly Hills-based communications agency, for 51 years. “PR has always been about delivering a timely and honest message in an interesting way,” said Blaine.
The full report, including all 38 practices, eight themes, and a practitioner FAQ on AI, GEO, and measurement, is available at https://blog.helpareporter.com/what-is-pr/.
