The future of PR is getting rather interesting. We used to have a problem getting companies to publish. Now we have almost the opposite problem. Everyone is publishing everything all the time. LinkedIn posts, newsletters, podcasts, Substack essays, founder videos, press releases, thought leadership, industry reports and, increasingly, AI-generated content that can produce 800 perfectly polished words before you’ve finished your coffee.

Yet somehow, with more content being produced than ever, genuinely interesting stories can be surprisingly difficult to find. That’s the strange bit. We’ve never had more ways to communicate, but getting someone to actually stop, pay attention and think that’s interesting has arguably become harder.

So, What Actually Counts as News?

Take a typical company announcement. “We’re delighted to announce a new partnership with…” Fine. But why should anyone outside the two companies care? The partnership itself might be important, but the more interesting story could be what it tells us about the market. Is it part of a bigger shift? Does it change how something is done? Does it solve a problem people have been struggling with? Does it challenge an assumption? Does it reveal where an industry is heading?

That’s where PR gets interesting. Good PR isn’t simply about taking a piece of information and finding somewhere to publish it. It’s about finding the story inside the information and understanding why that story might matter to somebody who has absolutely no connection with the company.

AI Can Produce the Content But Can It Create the Story?

AI has made that challenge even more interesting. Generative AI has made producing content incredibly easy. You can turn a few bullet points into an article, a LinkedIn post, a newsletter, a press release and probably a rather enthusiastic CEO quote in a matter of minutes. That’s useful, but it hasn’t solved the harder question: why should anyone care?

AI can help you produce words. It can’t automatically give those words significance. And when everyone has access to essentially the same ability to produce polished content, the quality of the thinking behind it becomes even more important.

In fact, I suspect we’re going to see a growing premium placed on something rather old-fashioned: judgement. Knowing what is interesting, knowing what isn’t, knowing when a story needs more work and knowing when to challenge the client. And, occasionally, knowing when the answer is simply, “Not yet. We don’t have a story.”

Getting Published Isn’t the Same as Being Noticed

There was a time when getting something published was the achievement. Now, publication is only the beginning. A company can have 50 articles online and still have very little visibility or authority. It can have thousands of social posts and remain largely unknown. It can publish constantly and still not be part of the conversation.

That’s because visibility isn’t simply about how much you put out. It’s about what other people say about you, where they say it, who says it and whether those references carry any weight. In other words, there is a difference between being present online and actually being recognised.

And Now There’s Another Audience in the Room

People increasingly ask AI systems about companies, products, industries and experts. They expect an answer based on the information and signals available to those systems. That makes reputation, authority and credible third-party references more interesting than ever.

It also creates an interesting challenge for brands. You can publish constantly and still not build much authority. You can have a beautifully optimised website and plenty of your own content, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the wider digital ecosystem recognises you as credible, relevant or important.

Perhaps PR Is Becoming More Important, Not Less

So perhaps PR isn’t becoming less relevant. Perhaps it’s becoming more important, but for slightly different reasons.

When everyone can publish, being worth paying attention to becomes the differentiator. That means going back to some fairly basic questions before we start thinking about channels, content calendars or media lists. What’s actually happening here? Why does it matter? Who does it matter to? What’s different about it? What does it tell us about the bigger picture? And perhaps most importantly, would anyone who doesn’t work for this company genuinely find this interesting?

If the answer is yes, you’ve probably got something. If the answer is no, another press release probably isn’t going to fix it.

For brands working in fast-moving industries, this is where a specialist PR partner can be useful. Not simply to generate more content, but to help identify what is genuinely worth putting into the world, where the opportunity is and how to turn company developments into stories that have relevance beyond the company itself.

The future of PR may involve more AI, more automation and more channels than we’ve ever had before. But I don’t think the fundamental job is changing. Someone still has to find the story. Someone still has to recognise when there isn’t one. And someone still has to make people care.

That, thankfully, remains a very human job.

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If you’re wondering what your next story should be, or whether you have one at all, PR Plug can help you find it, shape it and put it in front of the right people. Get in touch at rosemary@prplug.io.