A new report from Help a Reporter Out (HARO) finds that public relations has expanded beyond traditional media relations to include a practice the report calls 'machine relations,' as AI systems now serve as a primary audience for PR content. The report, titled 'What is PR in 2026?,' is based on interviews with 39 public relations practitioners and identifies 38 distinct practices across eight themes that define modern PR.
The central finding is that every PR placement now has two audiences: the people who read a story and the AI systems that summarize it. Practitioners described an emerging discipline of optimizing content for AI answer engines, including conducting prompt research, reverse-engineering AI answer summaries across models, and optimizing content for citations. One practitioner's 16-month analysis of 166 media placements found 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.
The report also documents the fragmentation of the press landscape, where op-eds, industry trade publications, independent Substacks, and source-request platforms have replaced 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.
'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 human layer is described as the differentiator. As AI-generated pitches flood journalist inboxes, practitioners are returning to phone calls, in-person events, and long-term journalist relationships. 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 in the report.
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/.
