Cision has launched Inside PR 2026: Trends, Challenges, and What's Next, a comprehensive study based on insights from nearly 600 PR professionals in the U.S. and UK. The report captures a profession in flux, where traditional strengths like creativity and storytelling coexist with emerging demands for agility, AI integration, and demonstrable business impact.
PR teams face intense challenges from media fragmentation (60%) and resource constraints (58%), with agencies experiencing higher impacts from evolving journalist behaviors and formats. This environment contributes to a significant agility disparity: while one-third of executives rate their organizations as extremely agile, only 14% of employees share that view.
Key barriers include team structure and organizational design (63%), alongside slow approval processes (53%). These constraints highlight that ambition alone is insufficient; achieving agility demands streamlined processes, real-time insights, and targeted investments.
Brand awareness tops PR objectives at 36%, yet a divide emerges between leadership and frontline teams. Executives (32%) and agencies (33%) emphasize revenue and ROI more heavily, while in-house and non-executive respondents prioritize brand-building around 40%. This alignment gap signals a push for greater commercial accountability at senior levels.
Generative AI adoption stands at 91%, transforming core activities such as idea generation (73%), writing refinement (68%), media monitoring (40%), and reporting. Despite this technological surge, human-centric skills dominate future needs, with storytelling leading at 59%, followed by media relations, strategic planning, and data interpretation.
Media monitoring tools remain essential, supporting analytical narrative management alongside multidisciplinary skills blending creativity, data literacy, and collaboration.
"Inside PR 2026 shows a profession undergoing a profound evolution," said Guy Abramo, CEO of Cision. "PR teams are being challenged to move faster, prove impact, and integrate AI responsibly — while continuing to deliver the creativity and narrative craftsmanship that make communications meaningful. The teams that can blend human insight with intelligent automation will be the ones who define the next era of PR."
The report outlines an evolving PR model that harmonizes craft with technology, positioning insight-driven, AI-enabled communications as the path forward for adaptive teams.
About Cision Cision is the global leader in consumer and media intelligence, engagement, and communication solutions. We equip PR and corporate communications, marketing, and social media professionals with the tools they need to excel in today's data driven world. Our deep expertise, exclusive data partnerships, and award-winning products, including CisionOne, Brandwatch, and PR Newswire, enable over 75,000 companies and organizations, including 84% of the Fortune 500, to see and be seen, understand and be understood by the audiences that matter most to them.
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