Communicators get to tell the world what’s next. We’re the ones explaining how cutting-edge innovations will transform people’s lives and identifying important cultural shifts before they happen.
That’s one of the things I love most about my job. As the Global CEO of We. Communications, I get to work with colleagues and clients deeply immersed in the breakthroughs shaping the future. Together we debate, test, experiment. Sure, sometimes we disagree or hit roadblocks, but that’s OK. Decades of experience have taught me that a little tension and uncertainty often mean that you’re onto something important, and that the breakthrough could be just around the corner.
Right now, our industry is facing a particularly complex and dynamic moment. To find out how PR pros are responding, We. Communications and Meltwater surveyed more than 1,100 of them for our State of PR 2026 report.
The report surfaces very real pressures like tighter budgets and higher expectations. But I came away seeing a comms community well poised to lead us into a bright future.
When large-language models like ChatGPT and Copilot first arrived, communicators quickly embraced them. We explored, experimented and learned by doing. We didn’t always know exactly where the work would lead, or how we’d ultimately use the technology, but we understood that this was the future. We had the conviction to invest, and we set goals that everyone across the agency would dive in.
What a difference a few years makes! Today, the majority of communicators have integrated AI into workflows, and 90% have experimented with it in some way. The report shows that we’re using it to create content, summarize coverage, brainstorm campaigns, and measure activity and impact.
In other words, we’ve moved from experimentation to expectation. And that opens the door to something bigger.
Comms pros are great at measuring activity. We diligently track our story placements. We build slide decks, and we find creative ways to show our value through reach and impressions.
But we’ve always struggled to demonstrate business impact. We’ve certainly understood the importance, but we lacked the right tools. So it’s no big surprise that more than 40% of PR pros are still primarily focused on measuring activity rather than outcomes.
What’s so exciting about now is that we finally have the technology to address this decades-old pain point. Thanks to AI, we now have more precise tools to measure impact, not just activity. We can connect communications explicitly to reputation, risk and business value in ways that weren't possible before.
At We., we’ve developed Reputation Forecast, a first-of-its-kind framework that monitors and measures brand reputation. The solution merges our deep industry knowledge with financial-grade analytics, enabling communicators to track the economic value of corporate reputation and flag early risk signals before they become crises.
First, the good news: 60% of communicators say leadership understands their work well. But that leaves 40% who don’t feel valued, and that’s too many talented people not reaching their full potential.
The barriers will sound familiar: different priorities, department silos and lack of communication.
What’s different now is the opportunity.
Our early AI adoption, and the sophisticated tools emerging from it, gives us important new ways to demonstrate our value.
Take AI search. It has completely changed the way people discover and learn about brands; today people’s queries often end with an AI-generated summary. That can sound alarming, but we also have solutions. For example, We.’s GEO Compass can enable communicators to optimize for large-language models and help ensure that AI is getting their story right.
Executive teams across functions need to understand this, and it’s up to communicators to make sure they do.
All this innovation is exciting, but it’s hard to appreciate if you’re just trying to get through your inbox. Our research finds that communicators spend the bulk of their time creating content, responding to crises and urgent queries, and measuring and reporting. Technology can help us move faster with confidence. By taking over select tasks, it can provide people with more space to think, create, connect dots, and bring human judgment and empathy to complex problems. To do the work that only humans can do.
Introducing a Board-Level Framework to Monitor — and Influence — Reputation Value and Risk
Welcome to the new reality of communication. A new reality in which everything is not only becoming more complex for B2B decision-makers and consumers alike...
If Part 1 of this article made the case for embracing complexity, this second part explores what it means to lead through it, and why communicators must now operate at the heart of organisational strategy.
Introducing a Board-Level Framework to Monitor — and Influence — Reputation Value and Risk
Welcome to the new reality of communication. A new reality in which everything is not only becoming more complex for B2B decision-makers and consumers alike...
If Part 1 of this article made the case for embracing complexity, this second part explores what it means to lead through it, and why communicators must now operate at the heart of organisational strategy.
