AI in PR: What to Automate (and What Should Stay Human)

AI is in PR now. Not as a trend — as a tool.

And it’s useful… if you use it wisely.
Because nothing kills brand trust faster than sounding like an AI-generated press pitch.

So here’s my take: AI should help you move faster, but it should never replace judgment.

Use AI for:

✅ brainstorming content themes
✅ drafting first versions (not final)
✅ summarizing long research
✅ building media list starting points
✅ repurposing copy into formats (blog → email → captions)

Don’t use AI for:

🚫 mass pitching without personalization
🚫 writing “emotional” brand stories without edits
🚫 sending messages you haven’t actually read
🚫 anything high-stakes that requires nuance (crisis comms, reputation issues)

Best practice:

If AI writes it, your brand voice should edit it.
The magic is: AI + human taste.

The ‘Soft Launch’ Era: Why PR Can Sometime Work Better When It’s Quiet

Somewhere along the way, people got tired.
Tired of being sold to. Tired of constant hype. Tired of launches that feel like a performance.

And honestly? Same.

That’s why we’re officially in the era of the soft launch — and PR is better because of it.

What is a soft launch?

It’s a launch that prioritizes:

  • credibility over virality

  • community over noise

  • real connection over big splashy announcements

It’s not “quiet” because you don’t care.
It’s quiet because you’re intentional.

Why it works

1) It builds momentum before the big moment
You warm people up first.
You let them feel like insiders.
You create a sense of trust before asking them to take action.

2) It creates more content naturally
Instead of one announcement, you have:

  • teasers

  • behind-the-scenes

  • brand story posts

  • founder Q&As

  • partnership highlights

3) It’s more emotionally believable
Audiences are drawn to what feels real — and soft launches feel more human.

Our recommendation:

If you’re launching something soon, don’t just plan the launch day.
Plan the 30 days before it. That’s where the real magic is.

PR Without the Panic, Building a Brand People Trust

There’s a version of PR that feels frantic.
Everything is urgent.
Everything is reactive.
Everyone is “just trying to stay relevant.”

But the brands that win long-term?
They don’t run on panic. They run on trust.

Here’s what PR looks like when it’s built for real longevity — not just short bursts of attention.

Step 1: Know your “most repeatable sentence”

This is my favorite exercise with clients:
If someone met you at an event and had to describe you to a friend later… what would they say?

If your answer is too long, too vague, or too complicated — your messaging needs tightening.

Step 2: Stop trying to appeal to everyone

PR doesn’t work when your message is for “anyone.”
It works when it’s for your people.

The goal isn’t mass attention.
It’s right attention.

Step 3: Build proof before you build hype

People don’t trust hype anymore.
They trust evidence:

  • testimonials

  • case studies

  • behind-the-scenes

  • consistency

Step 4: Be visible even when you’re not launching something

This is the biggest one:
So many brands go silent unless they’re promoting.

Instead, try:

  • monthly thought leadership

  • short insights

  • your POV on changes in the industry

  • light storytelling

That’s how your audience starts associating you with expertise.

PR in 2026: What’s Actually Changing (and What’s Just Noise)

If you work in PR long enough, you learn one universal truth: every year the industry declares a dozen things “dead” and another dozen things “the future.”

Press releases are dead. Then not dead. Pitching is dead. Then… more alive than ever.

So let’s keep it simple: here are the shifts that are actually changing how PR works right now — and what’s mostly noise.

1) PR isn’t just about coverage anymore — it’s about conversion

Yes, we still want press. But the real question clients are asking is: What happens after people see us?

  • Do they follow?

  • Do they sign up?

  • Do they share?

  • Do they remember?

The best PR today doesn’t end with an article. It creates a trail of momentum across:
earned media → social proof → community → action.

2) Trust is the new currency — and it’s earned slowly

Audiences are more skeptical than ever. That doesn’t mean they don’t want to connect — it means they want to feel safe connecting.

That’s why PR that works now feels:

  • human

  • specific

  • consistent

  • unpolished in a good way

3) The winning strategy is integration (not “more content”)

You don’t need more posts.
You need the right story told in the right places.

Think:

  • a media hit becomes 3 social posts

  • which becomes a short email

  • which becomes a founder quote

  • which becomes a website headline

One good message → many touchpoints.

4) Relationships still win. Always.

AI tools can help write pitches, sure.
But AI can’t replace:

  • a relationship with a journalist

  • a trusted recommendation

  • a smart strategic intro

  • a strong brand reputation built over time

Seedling take:

If you want to do PR well this year, don’t chase everything.
Build a story people want to repeat.

2026 PR Trends To Plan For Now

Here’s six top trends we’re expecting to see this year, it’s time to prepare your strategy and budget.

1) AI moves from assistant to strategic partner

Think: risk sensing, pitch targeting, scenario modeling—not just drafting. Teams that pair human judgment with AI’s pattern-spotting will ship faster and smarter. mackmediarelations.com

Prep: Fund data hygiene, build prompt libraries/playbooks, and create approval guardrails.

2) Owned authority > rented reach

As media relations gets tougher and platform habits shift, brands are investing more in LinkedIn, newsletters, and community to tell their own stories. Axios

Prep: Treat LinkedIn as a newsroom. Stand up a monthly editorial board and POV calendar.

3) Reputation as a continuous discipline

No, PR isn’t “dead”—it’s a renaissance centered on reputation, authentic authority, and storytelling integrated across channels. Grow PR

Prep: Align PR with risk, legal, CX. Map your top 5 reputation drivers and track them.

4) Measurement gets more practical

Expect clearer links between PR activity and business outcomes, and more emphasis on narrative quality over vanity metrics.

Prep: Define “quality hit” criteria, connect to assisted conversions/retention, and report what the C-suite actually uses.

5) Creators and subject-matter experts become media

PR teams partner with niche creators and in-house experts to reach communities that traditional outlets miss.

Prep: Build a vetted creator bench and an internal expert-activation program (media coaching, content templates).

6) Team workflows modernize

With AI adoption rising fast across comms roles, skill mixes and org design continue to evolve. Upskill plans are table stakes. Axios

Prep: Budget for training and ethics guidelines; run quarterly tool audits.

The newness of January always feels so hopeful, hang on to that feeling, don’t let it be fleeting. Make the most of it.

Eliminate the Guesswork, Set Your 2026 Communication Goals

Planning season is here & as you turn the corner to 2026 everyone will be talking about goals, goals and more goals. Here’s a simple combo to make sure your goals are ambitious and measurable.

Step 1: Draft 3–5 Objectives (qualitative, inspiring)

Examples:

  • “Build trust by communicating product changes early, clearly, and often.”

  • “Grow our expert voice in [industry] conversations.”

Step 2: Attach 2–4 Key Results per Objective (quantitative)

  • “Increase monthly briefings with top-tier journalists from 2 → 6 by Q3.”

  • “Lift branded search clicks +25% YoY via thought-leadership PR.”
    For inspiration, browse communication OKR patterns like response-time SLAs, intranet engagement, and customer sentiment targets.

Step 3: Make every Key Result SMART

Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound.

Step 4: Tie to 2026 realities

  • Owned + social first. More teams are shifting from pure media hits to channels they control (newsletters, LinkedIn) as coverage gets harder.

  • AI-accelerated outputs. Plan for content drafts, pitch personalization, and reporting assisted by AI—then spend human time on strategy, creativity, and relationships. It’ll save time and prove efficiencies so you human hours are more strategic.

Step 5: Cadence & hygiene

  • Quarterly check-ins. Archive learnings and reset.

  • One dashboard per audience (exec, marketing, sales) to prevent “report sprawl.”

  • Pre-mortem each big bet: “If this fails by Q2, why?”—and design guardrails now.

It’s not rocket science, but it definitely requires a method. Find what works for you and your team and set goals you can achieve that positively impact your brand. Make the most of December (so you can enjoy a much needed break before jumping into the new year!

November Playbook: Thanksgiving Messages That Actually Feel Thankful

A great Thanksgiving message is short, specific, and human. Here’s how comms teams can express gratitude without sounding canned and artificial.

The principles

  • Personalize beyond the first name. Reference the relationship, last project, or milestone—specifics prove you notice.

  • Choose the right channel for the relationship. Email, text, social media, a card in the mail or a phone call.

  • Be seasonal, not salesy. (specificially for customers) If you include an offer, frame it as a thank-you, not a doorbuster. Don’t let your “thankfulness” seem like a way to have people spend more money, be sincere.

  • Inclusive tone. People observe Thanksgiving in different ways—focus on appreciation, rest, and togetherness.

Easy ways to go one level deeper

  • Handwritten notes

  • Customer-appreciation mini-gifts (digital or physical) with a note on why you chose it.

  • Having a gratitude lunch the week before & the first day back in the office when you know everyone is dragging and mentally still celebrating the holiday or recovering.

It’s the little things that become big things. New traditions, thinking outside of the box. Treat your employees, your customers and your team in a way that makes them eager to be there. Relationships matter and they take work. Don’t miss a chance to show your gratitude this season. Whether it’s words, a gift or something in between, let those around you feel noticed. I promise it’ll make all the difference.

The 90-Minute Communications Audit

A Q4 Tune-Up You Can Run This Week

October is the perfect “pit stop” between back-to-school chaos and holiday crush. A quick, focused communications audit helps you finish the year strong—and set 2026 up right! Here’s a simple 90-minute framework you (or your team) can run immediately.

Why this works

You don’t need a month-long study to spot high-leverage fixes. In 90 minutes, you can align messages, prune underperforming channels, and pick three moves that actually move the needle before year-end.

Agenda (90 minutes total)

1) Audience & Message Check (20 min)

  • Top 3 audiences right now: (e.g., customers, prospects, partners).

  • Core promise per audience (one sentence each): “We help ___ do ___ so they can ___.”

  • Proof snapshots: 3–5 recent wins, stats, or stories that validate the promise.

  • Drift test: Compare the promise on your homepage, LinkedIn, and sales deck. Is it the same story? If not, flag the gaps.

Output: A one-page Message Snapshot you can paste into briefs, sales decks, and PR pitches.

2) Content Gap Sprint (20 min)

Audit the last 60–90 days of posts, emails, and articles. Tag each as Teach, Prove, Invite, or Celebrate.

  • Teach: How-tos, frameworks, POV.

  • Prove: Case studies, testimonials, data drops.

  • Invite: Calls to action—book, demo, download, apply.

  • Celebrate: People, customers, culture, milestones.

Look for:

  • Overweight “Teach,” underweight “Prove” (common B2B problem).

  • Missing Invite (audience isn’t sure what to do next).

  • “Celebrate” with no context (nice, but why it matters?).

Output: 3 content gaps you can fill in the next two weeks.

3) Reputation & Risk Scan (10 min)

  • Search yourself: Page 1 results + recent reviews/mentions.

  • List top 3 FAQs/concerns you’re hearing from customers or reporters.

  • Draft one 3-sentence response per concern (plain language, link to proof).

Output: A mini response bank for sales and social—your future self will thank you.

4) Decide Your Q4 “Rule of Three” (15 min)

Pick one priority in each lane:

  1. Message: e.g., “Unify homepage, LinkedIn banner, and email welcome around our one-sentence promise.”

  2. Channel: e.g., “Double-down on LinkedIn (3 posts/week), park Twitter/X through Dec.”

  3. Content: e.g., “Ship two proof pieces: a 400-word case study and a 6-slide mini-deck.”

Write the owner, deadline, and success metric for each. If it doesn’t fit on a sticky note, it’s too big.

Quick Wins You Can Ship This Week

  • Homepage hero rewrite: One promise + one proof + one clear CTA.

  • LinkedIn refresh: New banner with your promise; pin a proof post.

  • Email welcome tweak: Add a one-sentence value promise and a “start here” link.

  • Case study mini-format: Problem → Plan → Proof → Payoff (150–250 words).

  • PR angle sharpen: Turn your best proof into a point-of-view pitch (“What everyone gets wrong about ___ and what our data shows.”)

Lightweight Templates (copy/paste)

One-Sentence Promise:
“We help [audience] do [valuable action] so they can [business outcome]—without [pain you remove].”

3-Sentence Proof Story:
“In Q3, [customer] needed [goal]. We [what you did], resulting in [quant result or quote]. That’s why [audience] chooses us for [category].”

Mini Pitch (email/LI DM):
“Noticed you’re tackling [topic]. We just helped [peer/customer] achieve [result]—happy to share the 3 steps (and the one to skip). Worth a 15-minute walk-through?”

How to Keep Momentum Through December

  • Cadence guardrails: 1 weekly flagship post, 1 proof item/month, 1 invite/month.

  • 90-minute Friday huddle: Score channels, pick one improvement, commit publicly.

  • Archive learnings: What worked, what didn’t, what to scale in 2026.

We like to keep the blog light, but sometimes we all just need a check list. Hopefully this helps get you on track for 2026!

When the Workweek Feels Endless—You Have to Clock Out (Physically & Mentally)

Modern work is “flexible”… until it isn’t. Texts at 7am. Drafting documents at 10pm. A calendar that shapeshifts hourly. The real skill now isn’t doing more, it’s knowing when to stop. These mindfulness micro-habits help any professional separate work from life, triage true crises, and leave the rest for tomorrow.

When it’s just not possible to shut down and you have to press forward, here’s a few ways to make it bearable.

60-second resets you can use anywhere

  • Ground through your feet. Place both feet on the floor, feel your weight in your heels, then toes. Ten slow breaths. This interrupts the stress loop and pulls you out of rumination. PR Daily

  • Alternate-nostril breathing (1–2 minutes). Gently close one nostril, inhale; switch sides to exhale. It’s a quick nervous-system reset between back-to-back meetings.

  • Move a little to think better. Stand, roll shoulders, walk the hallway. Short movement breaks restore focus and reduce tension.

At the end of the day, you have to call it quits. Don’t leave space for the endless loop, the work will be there tomorrow and as long as you gave it your best all day, you can’t carry it home with you too.

Create a nightly “shutdown sequence”

  • Write a “Later List.” Before you log off, make a list and the very next step for each task. Leaving tasks in writing lowers your mental load and helps you stop working in your head.

  • Create a three-bucket triage:

    1. Crisis/Now: legal, safety, or reputational risk → act or escalate.

    2. Important/Planned: big work that deserves protected time → block on calendar.

    3. Waitlist: non-urgent items → batch for a weekly sweep.

  • One-line signoff ritual: Close with a consistent statement (“I’m off for today—back at 9am”) in Slack/Teams and email footer. Your team will learn your boundary.

We only have finite time in each day, setting obtainable objectives with measurable goals will help you feel more productive between 8-5pm and more restful from 5pm-8am. We’re in the same boat—let’s see how we can create more buckets with less spillover. There’s a time for work. A time for rest. And, hopefully still time for enjoyment. I’m certain balance (all around) will increase productivity and workplace happiness.

The Authenticity Arms Race: Why Being "Real" is Getting Harder

Something strange is happening in the communications world. Everyone's talking about authenticity, but somehow, everything feels more manufactured than ever. Brands are hiring authenticity consultants to help them be more genuine. Influencers are crafting spontaneous content. CEOs are taking courses on vulnerable leadership.

As someone who's been helping organizations find their voice since 2004, I'm watching an authenticity arms race unfold—and it's creating some fascinating contradictions.

The push for authentic communication started as a response to overly polished, corporate messaging that audiences were rejecting. People wanted real stories, honest mistakes, and genuine personality from the brands they supported. This was a good thing—it forced organizations to drop the corporate speak and connect more humanly with their audiences.

But somewhere along the way, authenticity became a marketing strategy rather than a communication philosophy. Now I see brands carefully scripting their "unscripted" moments and workshopping their vulnerability.

Here's what's making authentic communication harder: audiences are now sophisticated consumers of authenticity itself. They can spot performed genuineness as easily as they once spotted obvious PR spin. Maybe more easily.

This creates a paradox for communicators. The more deliberately we try to be authentic, the less authentic we appear. The more we study what makes communication feel genuine, the more strategic our genuineness becomes.

I've seen this play out with Austin startups trying to nail that perfect founder story—the carefully crafted narrative of struggle and breakthrough that feels both personal and inspirational. The best founder stories I've helped develop weren't planned at all. They emerged from conversations about what actually happened, not what would sound good in a press interview.

The solution isn't to abandon authentic communication—it's to stop treating it as a tactic and start treating it as a practice. Real authenticity comes from organizational self-awareness, not communication strategy.

This means understanding not just what story you want to tell, but why you're telling it. It means being comfortable with the parts of your narrative that aren't perfectly polished. And it means accepting that authentic communication sometimes means saying things that aren't optimally strategic.

The brands that will win the authenticity arms race are those that stop trying to win it. They'll focus on being genuinely useful, honestly helpful, and transparently human. Everything else is just performance.

In a world where everyone's trying too hard to be real, the most authentic thing you can do is stop trying to be authentic and start trying to be helpful.

Why Your Crisis Plan is Probably Useless (And How to Fix It)

Every organization I meet has a crisis communications plan. It's usually a thick binder or a comprehensive digital document, carefully crafted and properly filed away. Here's the uncomfortable truth I've learned after helping Austin businesses navigate everything from accidents to viral social media disasters: most crisis plans are completely useless when crisis actually strikes.

I'm not saying this to be provocative. I'm saying it because I've seen well-intentioned plans crumble under the pressure of real-world chaos, and I've learned what actually works when everything is falling apart.

The Planing Paradox

Traditional crisis planning focuses on anticipated scenarios and predetermined responses. We map out decision trees, craft holding statements, and assign roles with military precision. It feels comprehensive and reassuring. The problem? Real crises rarely follow our scripts.

When a local restaurant faces a kitchen incident, their crisis plan might call for a formal statement within 24 hours. But the story moves at internet speed—comments, shares, and news pickup happen by the hour. A carefully planned response timeline becomes immediately obsolete.

What Actually Matters in a Crisis?

After years of crisis work, I've identified what separates organizations that weather storms from those that get washed away. It's not about having the perfect plan—it's about building the right reflexes.

First, speed trumps perfection every time. In our hyperconnected world, silence is interpreted as guilt or incompetence. A quick, honest acknowledgment buys you credibility and time to craft a more complete response.

Second, authenticity beats polish. Audiences can spot corporate-speak from miles away, and it erodes trust faster than the original crisis. The businesses that recover strongest are those that communicate like human beings, not PR machines.

Third, internal communication determines external success. If your team doesn't know what's happening or what to say, that confusion will leak out in a thousand small ways.

Instead of just planning for crises, we need to build organizational muscle memory. This means regular scenario exercises—not formal tabletop discussions, but quick, unscripted moments where teams practice rapid response. Empowering your front-line staff to make initial responses without waiting for executive approval could be a great reflex to strengthen. And it means accepting that perfect messaging matters less than timely, honest communication.

Your crisis plan should be a lightweight framework, not a rigid script. Focus on principles, not predetermined statements.

What's Replacing the Traditional Press Release?

I've watched the PR landscape evolve over the past 25 years, and if there's one thing I'm certain of, it's this: the traditional press release is on life support. Don't get me wrong—I've written thousands of them, and they served us well for decades. But the media consumption habits that made press releases effective? Those shifted dramatically, and most PR professionals are still playing catch-up.

Here in Austin, I'm seeing local businesses pour resources into crafting the "perfect" press release, only to watch it disappear into the digital void. Meanwhile, the companies getting real coverage are doing something entirely different.

What’s really working?

The brands that break through aren't sending press releases—they're creating stories worth sharing. Instead of announcing, they're inviting journalists into conversations. Intimate roundtables with key reporters, sharing not just what you’ve built, but why you built it are far more valuable today.

Smart communicators are shifting from broadcast to dialogue. We're trading mass distribution for targeted relationship building. When a client has news to share, my first question isn't "What should the headline be?" It's "Who specifically needs to hear this story, and what's the most human way to tell it?"

This means more phone calls, more coffee meetings, and yes, more work per story. But it also means better placement, deeper coverage, and relationships that extend far beyond a single news cycle.

The press release isn't entirely dead—there are still regulatory requirements and archival needs that keep it breathing. But as a primary communication tool? It's time to pull the plug and invest in what actually moves the needle today.