From AI to IRL, CES made one thing clear: the future of communications isn’t about choosing between technology and humanity—it’s about deliberately blending the two. Across keynotes, panels and interviews, communications leaders from many brands, including Reddit, Hello Sunshine, Yahoo and more, underscored a common shift underway in PR and communications: audiences want genuine connection, communities want a seat at the table and AI works best when it enhances—not replaces—human insight and creativity.
For communicators, the takeaways are reassuring yet challenging. Consumers are receptive to brand engagement, but only when brands show up with empathy, transparency and a willingness to listen. At the same time, AI is rapidly reshaping workflows, storytelling and strategy—making it essential for teams to create space to experiment, collaborate and rethink long-standing practices. Here’s what PR and communications pros can take away from CES 2026 regarding where the industry is headed next.
Communities are more likely to welcome brands to conversations than in the past.
Adam Collins, Chief Communications Officer at Reddit, proved that Reddit users are warming up to brand interactions, allowing many companies to dip their toes into a very important platform for reputation and audience engagement.
“According to a joint study done by Reddit and IPG Media, 81% of respondents said they like when brands have conversations with them on Reddit and the majority are likely to participate in conversations with brands,” he said.
IRL is becoming more relevant for building community and engaging fandom.
Maureen Polo, CEO of Hello Sunshine, a female-centric media company founded by Reese Witherspoon, talked about how Reese’s Book Club allows the company to hear and understand who their audiences are. Book groups meet in real life at Barnes and Noble and other stores, and due to their success, the company launched a new book club, Sunnie Reads, designed for young women in the 15-to-18 year-old age range. Through a Hello Sunshine Gen Z advisory board, the company found that young women are looking for more opportunities for offline community connections, much like the older Hello Sunshine members.
Involve fans in the creative process.
Yong-yi Zhu, VP, Head of Business Operations and Strategy, Tencent, spoke about including fans in the creative process. “How we look at the development of our games is with our communities," Zhu said. "We have influencers, but we also have players, right? And so for us, it's about harnessing that power."
Tencent continues to iterate on games that it's already launched, including Warframe and Path of Exile, and collaborates with fans on how to improve them. "One of the things that we really look for with our developers is something that's innovative, something that's challenging the status quo in terms of what the genre could be, and that sometimes involves a lot of collaboration with communities and reaching large audiences, whether it's through an open test, closed tests...open dialog with with influencers. They feed back in. They tell us, "this doesn't work. I can't stream this.” And [platforms] like Twitch really enable us to build better games," Zhu said.
Allow dedicated time for your staff to play in the AI sandbox.
Sona Iliffe-Moon, the Chief Communications Officer at Yahoo, encouraged her team last year to launch two initiatives—"Prompt & Prosper" and "Prompt & Progress"—to expand AI fluency and embed AI into communications workflows. Prompt & Prosper was a dedicated, distraction-free day for the comms team to experiment with AI, focused on automating a recurring task, building a reusable AI asset and deepening AI knowledge through hands-on learning.
"Prompt & Progress" built on that foundation by shifting from individual exploration to collaborative, future-focused innovation. Teams developed bold proposals for how AI could transform communications, exploring ideas such as reimagining the press release, enabling AI-powered crisis response, modeling news cycles, simulating interviews and more.
Top agencies are looking to enhance human talent, not eliminate it.
Yannick Bolloré, Havas CEO and Vivendi Chairman, shared his vision for a future where technology and human ingenuity converge to unlock new creative possibilities, with AI as a strategic partner. “At Havas, technology amplifies human creativity; it doesn’t replace it,” Bolloré said.
Bollore’s CES keynote drove home the fact that artificial intelligence isn’t just a tool for efficiency— it’s reshaping how creativity, storytelling and marketing work. But crucially, rather than replacing human insight, tech should amplify human imagination and empathy.
Nicole Schuman is Managing Editor of PRNEWS.