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Study reveals the growing role of AI while emphasizing the enduring importance of storytelling and human insight.
Cision has unveiled its latest study called Inside PR 2026: Trends, Challenges, and What's Next. This landmark report examines how public relations teams are adapting during a transformative period in the industry drawing insights from nearly 600 PR professionals in the U.S. and UK.
The study highlights a profession trying to balance traditional values with emerging needs while creativity and storytelling remain fundamental, agility, AI fluency and demonstrable business impact are increasingly defining success. The report reveals that 60 percent of PR teams identify the rapidly changing media landscape as their most significant challenge with 58 percent highlighting resource constraints. Agency teams feel this pressure even more acutely than in house teams with 71 percent reporting media fragmentation as a major hurdle related to evolving journalist behaviors and formats.
Structural impediments such as team size and organizational design and slow approval processes are cited as holding teams back from achieving their agility goals. The findings spotlight the ambitious nature of the profession yet reveal constraints in infrastructure that inhibit innovation. Brand awareness is still the guiding priority for 36 percent of respondents but there's a notable shift towards measurable commercial outcomes with 32 percent of executives and 33 percent of agency professionals focusing on revenue and return on investment.
A standout trend in the report is the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence across PR activities with a remarkable 91 percent of professionals incorporating generative AI into their workflows. Most notably 73 percent use it for idea generation while 68 percent apply it for writing and content refinement. However, the human element remains crucial; storytelling is identified as the most sought-after skill for 2026 followed closely by media relations and strategic planning emphasizing the need for human interpretation and strategic insight in the evolving landscape of public relations.
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