A report published today by Help a Reporter Out (HARO) finds that public relations has expanded beyond media relations to include a new discipline of “machine relations,” as AI answer engines become a primary surface for PR work. The report, “What is PR in 2026?”, is based on interviews with 39 practitioners, from a publicist with 51 years of experience to the founder of an AI-native agency. It identifies 38 distinct practices across eight themes that now constitute the work of public relations.
The central finding is that PR now serves two audiences: the people who read a story and the AI systems that summarize it. Practitioners described an emerging focus on optimizing content for citation by large language models, conducting prompt research, and reverse-engineering AI answer summaries across different models. This shift has led to what some call “machine relations,” while insisting that the human work machines cannot do has become the industry’s differentiator.
Key findings from the report include that AI answer engines are now a primary PR surface. Practitioners conduct prompt research, reverse engineer AI answer summaries across models, and optimize content for citations. Additionally, earned media does double duty: one practitioner’s 16-month analysis of 166 media placements found 84% landed in outlets with measurable AI visibility in large language models. Another agency’s client research found that 30-45% of AI prompt answers draw on editorial and earned media.
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. The human layer is the differentiator: as AI-generated pitches flood journalist inboxes, practitioners 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 in the report. The full report is available at https://blog.helpareporter.com/what-is-pr/.
