On the second Monday of every month, PRSA is offering AI Pulse, a briefing hosted by Ray Day, APR, PRSA’s 2026 immediate past chair, that provides timely insights into the latest AI trends, tools and developments. Learn how to stay ahead of an ever-evolving digital landscape here.
Artificial intelligence “in comms and PR is everything right now,” Linda Zebian said. “You can’t do the job without it. It can drive efficiency and give us insights that we’ve never had before. The PR team is positioned to own this within their organizations.”
Zebian, vice president of communications for Muck Rack, was a panelist on April 13 for “AI Pulse,” PRSA’s monthly livestream.
“If we don’t learn how to fully use the technology, we’re putting ourselves at risk,” she said. “You won’t have a choice anymore.”
For those new to AI, using it to measure PR effectiveness is a strong entry point, said host Ray Day, APR, vice chair of Stagwell, executive chair of Allison Worldwide, and PRSA’s 2026 immediate past chair.
Artificial intelligence has “fundamentally changed what we’re able to do in communications, for the better,” including for measuring results, panelist Sofia Portugal said. “We can track narratives in real-time. Trends forecasting has never been more precise. And everything at a speed that we’ve never seen before.”
Portugal, who earned her master’s degree in data science from the University of Florida in 2024 after earning her bachelor’s degree in advertising there, now works for the school’s student-run PR and ad agency. She said her team uses Quid, an AI tool that identifies patterns in news, social media and the market to reveal opportunities and threats.
Artificial intelligence allows communicators to be strategic advisers, said panelist Tony Sardella, managing director of predictive analytics at communications consultancy Allison Worldwide, where Day is executive chair.
“It gives us clarity on where to focus, where not to focus, and how to change and shape external environments,” Sardella said. “AI is making the PR function more accurate. We’re able to measure things that we couldn’t measure before.”
With AI tools, communicators can now collect and organize online conversations and measure the underlying emotions that people feel about brands or companies, positively or negatively, he said.
Artificial intelligence shows PR pros where to look and what’s around the corner, so they can better focus their resources and achieve business objectives, he said.
Gen Z reservations about AI
PR professionals are using AI to spark and research content ideas, write or edit press releases and other texts, and generate images. But just 28% are using AI to measure the impact of their work, according to Muck Rack surveys.
And contrary to what might be assumed, young communicators are not necessarily eager to use AI in their work.
“The narrative around Gen Z-AI tends to be, ‘We’re digital natives, we embrace the tools, and we’re just going to figure it out,” Portugal said. But while 51% of Gen Z communicators are using AI at least once a week, “Enthusiasm has collapsed,” she said. Gen Z has not “fully bought into AI just yet.”
Among Gen Z PR practitioners, “80% of us believe AI will make it harder to learn, and 69% of us trust human-only work more than AI-assisted work,” Portugal said. People in her generation feel “anxiety about what over-relying on AI early in our careers might cost us cognitively: our ability to think critically, to come up with original ideas, and to do the work that requires judgment.”
Portugal attributed the decline in enthusiasm to the novelty wearing off — and to a lack of training.
“We need tools that aid our work, not replace it,” she said.
As AI reshapes the tools of the profession, communicators face a familiar challenge: balancing efficiency with the judgment and creativity that build trust.
Illustration: Kanisorn
