AI Didn’t Kill Public Relations. Bad PR Did.

I read an interesting article in the LA Times recently about how AI and influencers are reshaping public relations. And while I agreed with most of it, I kept thinking…

We’ve been talking about this all wrong.

Every few years, our industry finds a new shiny object.

Social media was going to replace PR.

Then owned media.

Then brand journalism.

Then SEO.

Now AI.

And every time, someone declares traditional public relations dead.

Spoiler alert: it never is.

Because people don’t trust technology.

They trust people.

What has changed is who those trusted people are and how audiences discover them.

The media gatekeepers aren’t gone.

There are just more of them. A technology reporter. A TikTok creator. A LinkedIn expert. A niche YouTube channel. An industry newsletter. A Substack author. A podcast host. A Reddit community. An AI assistant summarizing all of the above.

The audience doesn’t care whether the information came from The Wall Street Journal or someone with 40,000 deeply engaged followers who has earned their trust over five years.

They care whether it’s credible.

That changes how communicators need to think.

Here’s where I think many organizations get it wrong.

They’re treating influencers like another advertising channel.

“How many followers?” “What’s the CPM?” “Can we get three posts and a Reel?”

That’s marketing.

Public relations has always been about relationships, reputation, and third-party credibility.

Those principles haven’t changed. The list of people who provide that credibility has.

AI changes something even bigger.

The audience increasingly isn’t reading every article themselves.

They’re asking ChatGPT. Or Gemini. Or Copilot. Or Google’s AI Overview.

Those systems synthesize information from trusted sources across the web. Which means your earned media, expert commentary, executive thought leadership, podcasts, analyst reports, industry publications, and yes, even credible creators, all become signals that shape what AI says about your company.

That’s a very different communications strategy than simply “pitch more reporters.”

I don’t think we’re entering the influencer era.

I think we’re entering the credibility ecosystem.

Every credible voice that talks about your organization becomes part of a much larger network of trust. Journalists. Industry analysts. Customers. Employees. Subject matter experts. Podcasters. Creators. Partners. And increasingly…AI.

One warning.

Not every influencer is influential.

I know… shocking.

Follower count has become the communications version of vanity metrics.

I’d rather have one respected engineer explaining why your technology matters than five lifestyle influencers awkwardly holding your enterprise software in a flat lay photo.

(If someone figures out how to make a cloud migration look glamorous on Instagram, please let me know.)

The best partnerships happen when expertise and audience align, not when the follower count is impressive.

The comms teams that win won’t replace PR with AI.

They’ll use AI to do better PR. They’ll identify emerging conversations faster. Research journalists and creators more effectively. Personalize outreach. Monitor reputation in real time. Spot trends before competitors. Repurpose earned media across channels.

And spend less time formatting PowerPoint slides at 11:30 p.m.

(That’s a future I’m personally rooting for.)

The real opportunity

For 30 years, communications has been about helping organizations earn trust.

That hasn’t changed.

The channels have changed. The discovery mechanisms have changed. The definition of “media” has expanded. And now AI has joined the audience.

The organizations that succeed won’t ask whether AI or influencers are replacing PR.

They’ll ask a better question:

How do we build enough credible signals that both people and AI recognize us as a trusted source?

That’s a communications challenge. Not a technology one.

And that’s exactly where experienced communicators should be leading.

And, not to get too sales-y here, but this is what we help communicators do. Contact us if you need support with your brand’s discovery in AI models.

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