As 2026 approaches, it pays to take stock of everything that occurred in 2025 and how it could impact the next year of the PR industry. Some friends in the communications world approached PRNEWS with predictions for the coming year for many PR tenets including digital, crisis, media relations and more.
Agencies/Business
Jennifer Risi, Founder and President, The Sway Effect
After a year of industry-shaking consolidation and layoffs, brands will increasingly turn towards independent agencies with leaner, more transparent models. In 2026, marketers will prioritize consistency, senior-level leadership, and direct access to decision-makers over scale and bureaucracy. Boutique agencies earn their seats at the table, for pitches and briefs, and their work will continue to stand out for creativity, speed and impact.
Liv Allen, VP and Head of PR, Codeword
Internal comms will finally move from afterthought to power center, as brands realize their most influential audience is the one already on payroll. With employees more vocal and values-driven than ever, companies that elevate IC will turn their workforce into their most credible advocates.
Greogry Galant, Co-founder and CEO, Muck Rack
Comms budgets are poised to rebound and even grow as brands fight for visibility in the GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) era.
With AI systems giving disproportionate weight to fresh, high-authority coverage, it’s no longer enough to rely on a "set it and forget it" SEO strategy. Brands must battle for the right kind of attention every single day to stay relevant in the AI-driven conversation.
After years of budget tightening—particularly for agencies—this new visibility landscape makes communications one of the few functions where under-investment directly weakens a brand’s presence in AI discovery. As earned media becomes a core input into generative engines, executives will redirect spend back into communications and PR as a strategic, future-proof investment. In short: the GEO era won’t just elevate comms—it will fund it.
Rupert Cresswell, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Elevado
As AI-driven workflows become the industry norm, hybrid studios will become the new standard for production: AI will sit at the center of modern production pipelines, unifying creative development, VFX, design, live action and post into a single continuous process. As expectations shift toward faster iteration, more ambitious world-building and scalable personalization, brands will turn to studios built to operate this way. The companies best positioned to lead will be hybrid studios able to move fluidly from idea to execution with AI as an accelerator, not a replacement.
Content
GiGi Downs, Head of We. Studio, We. Communications
Human storytelling will become the differentiator in an AI-saturated world. As AI accelerates content creation, filling the feeds with increasingly similar and eerily uncanny materials, so-called slop detectors and enshittification warnings are on the rise. For brands seeking to stand out and differentiate, the pendulum is naturally starting to swing back toward what looks and feels irrefutably human.
Communicators must double down on the parts of storytelling AI can’t replicate—emotional intelligence, cultural insight, lived experience and a trusted, verifiable point of view. That means elevating trusted human voices, shaping narratives around truth and crafting stories that feel personal rather than programmatic. The brands that win will be those using AI for efficiency, but relying on people for higher-order thinking, creativity and deeper meaning.
Rupert Cresswell, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Elevado
Social-first campaigns will be built with cinematic ambition—but grounded in real human authenticity. As social becomes the primary battleground for brand storytelling, we’ll see the rise of high-craft, AI-enabled micro-cinema made specifically for TikTok, Reels etc. But authenticity still comes from real people—whether that’s influencers, creators, talent or everyday individuals whose presence gives the work its cultural credibility. The winning model is hybrid: human-led ideas and on-screen voices at the center, with AI used to expand, multiply and enhance the content—not replace it. Brands will need work that feels handcrafted, culturally fluent and made at the speed of social.
Katy Kelley, SVP and Head of Marketing, Codeword
In a world polished to perfection by AI, brands will have to strategically “break” their own aesthetic to look real. The most trusted marketing in 2026 will be intentionally imperfect—slightly messy, human and impossible for AI to fake. Authentic errors will become a competitive advantage.
Crisis
Dara Busch, CEO, HAVAS PR North America
Crisis as the default state: Perma-crisis forces comms to operate as an always-on strategic function embedded in real-time decision-making.
Kristi Piehl, Founder and CEO, Media Minefield
Deepfakes and bots will dominate crisis scenarios. Every leader I’ve spoken to around the country hears me say this at some point: If you haven’t dealt with a communications crisis yet, you likely will. Bad things happen to good businesses. That’s why planning ahead matters so much—especially now, when deepfakes and bots can spread something false about you faster than you can refresh your feed. You can’t wait until you’re in the middle of it to figure out what to do. You need to monitor your online presence, and provide clear steps for who responds and when and partners who know how to navigate this new landscape.
Any crisis will require a reactive strategy, but it’s critical to employ a proactive strategy that incorporates the social media platforms of leadership members. Social media can be a force for good when leaders commit to showing up with clarity, consistency and authenticity.
Digital
John McCartney, APR, Founder, JMAC PR
In 2026, simply using AI tools will no longer be enough. PR professionals will need to think more deeply about how they interact with these systems. To achieve this, prompt engineering will become a key strategic skill, similar to creative literacy communicators.
Crafting precise, effective prompts influence the quality of AI outputs. Good prompts lead to sharper messaging, richer insights, clearer angles and more relevant content. Teams that develop prompt fluency will outperform those that see AI just as a drafting shortcut. Prompt engineering will become a key differentiator that boosts ideation, research and execution in daily work.
This trend reflects the growing recognition that AI performance depends on the skill of the operator. Prompting is not a developer-only activity; it has become critical for anyone crafting narratives with AI support.
Hally Wax, Senior Vice President and Technology Industry Expert, RH Strategic Communications
In 2026, the PR edge belongs to “algorithmic credibility.” Your comms strategy isn’t just talking to humans anymore—it’s training the machines that will tell humans what to believe. By 2026, visibility alone won’t save you. The new PR currency isn’t impressions, backlinks or earned mentions—it’s citations by machines. In a world where AI systems like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity shape 80% of B2B discovery journeys, your brand’s credibility will depend on whether you’re trusted enough to be quoted by the algorithm itself.
The emerging discipline of Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is rewriting the playbook. The brands that win will treat every press release, research brief, and blog post as training data— clean, structured and authoritative enough to be pulled directly into AI-generated answers. The losers will keep chasing clicks while AI ignores them completely. Being cited by AI models will be the new front page of Google, the new Gartner Magic Quadrant, the new “as featured in Forbes.” Those who master citation-readiness —verified data, machine-readable content, transparent authorship—will dominate algorithmic trust networks. Those who don’t will vanish behind a curtain of generative noise.
Aidan Ryan, Head of Issues and Crisis, North America, We. Communications
Regulation becomes a communications issue, not just a legal one. With rising oversight on AI use, deepfakes, data practices, ESG claims and misinformation, communicators will play a bigger role in helping organizations interpret, prepare for and explain regulatory expectations. This shift elevates the importance of reputation as something that can be measured, monitored and forecasted, a trend we’ve seen accelerate as leaders look to tie reputation signals directly to risk and business outcomes.
In the year ahead, communicators must translate complex policies into clear, credible narratives for employees, customers, investors and partners. This includes preparing leaders to speak confidently about compliance, creating proactive messaging for high-scrutiny areas, and building rapid-response systems for regulatory shifts. The mandate expands: communicators become interpreters, risk sensors and reputation stewards, not just messengers.
Danielle Ruckert, Vice President and Healthcare Industry Expert at RH Strategic Communications
Social chatter will be prioritized. Reddit and other social platforms have become an early warning system for brands. We expect to see more agencies stand up “Reddit playbooks” for reputation management, and crisis plans will include Reddit scenarios. Finally, media coverage may begin to embed Reddit posts.
Kalie Moore, CEO and Founder, High Vibe PR
Comms teams will be able to prove ROI like never before by focusing on metrics that prove media hits are being cited. This will mean that your messaging is actively shaping how consumers perceive your brand. For specific industries, we will also be able to tie this to financial growth (for instance what new meme coin should I buy). Gone are the days of reporting domain authority (this doesn't matter for LLM's) and BS engagement metrics.
Health
Theresa Dolge, EVP & Chief Media Relations Officer, Inizio Evoke Comms
In 2026, health media will reclaim its edge as earned coverage becomes critical for visibility in LLM-powered search. As AI content floods the internet, what cuts through is credible reporting, real clinical context and stories that put people first. Media will experiment with new hybrid formats to meet how audiences actually consume news and what they expect in terms of clarity and trust. At the same time, platforms like Substack will continue to gain ground, forcing traditional outlets to move faster, get sharper, and lean harder into what they do best.
Danielle Ruckert, Vice President and Healthcare Industry Expert, RH Strategic Communications
Authenticity will stop being a buzzword. More and more, people are craving authentic connection. In 2026, we’ll see communicators put formal guardrails on scripts, over-polishing and AI-generated copy. In healthcare, we can expect more non-CEO spokespeople—frontline nurses, pharmacists and community health workers—as default media voices on issues like access to care and burnout. Unpolished but honest is a style choice we should expect from brands, with more visible emotional and slight imperfections helping to build trust with target audiences.
Kyra Faircloth, Senior Advisor, Public Affairs & Policy, Inizio Evoke Comms
Politics will continue to shape healthcare in 2026 as the rapid policy moves of 2025 across immunization standards, FDA pathways and domestic manufacturing begin to converge and redefine the landscape in which companies must communicate scientific progress and public responsibility. As scientific information is increasingly filtered through political lenses, communicators will need new ways to sustain trust across diverse audiences (while ensuring clarity and credibility in an environment where signals move faster than institutions).
Media Relations
Gabie Kur, Partner and Head of Growth, Codeword
Brands will resurrect old-school comms tactics like press releases and wire blasts thinking they’ll overperform in LLMs. What they’ll learn (again) is that they’re still minimally impactful, and AI doesn't magically make mediocre tactics effective.
Sam Hrdlicka, Associate Vice President and Education Industry Expert, RH Strategic Communications
We will get back to the basics on reporter relationship building. AI tools can assist with pitching and research, but relationship building remains human work. As some education newsrooms shrink, journalists are seeking partners who bring relevant, audience-driven stories, not just press releases. In 2026, PR professionals should double down on empathy and connection: take time to understand a reporter’s interests, anticipate their coverage plans, and offer insights that make their jobs easier.
Trust
Noah Keteyian, Executive Vice President, Corporate Reputation & Brand Purpose, We. Communications
Nonprofits and philanthropies will become the most trusted voices in society. In a fast-changing policy and economic environment, nonprofits and philanthropies have become the public’s most trusted problem-solvers. New research from We. Communications and YouGov shows nearly half of people now say the role of foundations and nonprofits has become more important and believe these organizations play an even more important role today than they did a year ago, raising the stakes for clear, compelling communication.
In the year ahead, communicators in the nonprofit and philanthropy sector will have a rare opportunity to turn heightened public trust into deeper understanding and engagement. That means telling straightforward, consistent stories that show the real impact of an organization’s work, giving donors and supporters clear reasons to get involved and creating content that reflects the urgency of the issues communities are facing. It also means being ready to respond quickly and transparently when questions or crises arise. As expectations grow, communicators aren’t just sharing information, they’re helping build and protect the trust that makes their organizations effective.
Brittany Jacobsen, Account Director and Sustainability Industry Expert, RH Strategic Communications
Community-first climate comms will beat footprint talk in 2026. In 2026 climate and agtech leaders will be under growing pressure to move past talking about their footprint, partnerships and pilots and start proving what happens at the very end of their impact chain. Even with shifting federal priorities and louder anti-ESG rhetoric, funders, policymakers and buyers will expect “impact receipts” that show real outcomes in the lives of farmers, patients and frontline communities, not just emissions saved or acres covered.
The organizations that stand out will treat communities as co-strategists and co-storytellers. They will bring local and Indigenous voices into product design, policy conversations and press opportunities, and they will be ready before key climate, heat or water moments hit with stories that show their solutions at work in real places. Companies that stay focused on themselves or rely on vague ESG language will struggle to earn trust, talent and capital. Audiences are out of patience for promises. They want proof and they want to hear it from the people most affected.
Dara Busch, CEO, HAVAS PR North America
Truth becomes the brand differentiator: Proof, evidence, and context replace message volume as PR leaders shift from storytellers to trust stewards.
Nicole Schuman is Managing Editor at PRNEWS.