PR’s Old Light Fading, New One Rising.
By Matt Burns, Acumen Strategies
Technology is rewriting the rules of the PR industry. Those who adapt will thrive. Those who cling to the past will fade.
“Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Dylan Thomas’s plea to resist surrender resonates today in PR. The light here is not life. It is an outdated model of sprawling account teams, stacked billable hours, and the belief that size alone signals value. That glow is fading fast, replaced by something leaner, sharper, and driven by technology.
Artificial intelligence is not a distant prospect. It is already transforming the industry. Research that once took a team days now takes one professional hours. Drafts that consumed afternoons can be finished in minutes. Media monitoring, campaign reporting, and dashboards, once painstaking and manual work, are now routine. The efficiencies are undeniable.
Look beyond PR to see how disruption is playing out. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently admitted he needed “fewer heads” because AI now handles nearly half of customer support interactions. The company cut thousands of roles, an honest acknowledgment that technology has rewritten the economics of its business. That same reality is coming for PR. The question is not whether AI will reshape the industry but how quickly firms will adapt.
For decades, the hallmark of large agencies has been the footprint slide, the measure of how many offices span the globe and how many people fill the payroll. That is less relevant today. What matters is whether results can be delivered quickly, cost effectively, and credibly. In this environment, the old badge of honor based on scale begins to look more like overhead.
Large firms are responding by investing heavily in proprietary platforms, betting that intellectual property will preserve their edge. But in chasing scale through software, they risk being outflanked by scrappier players willing to stitch together existing tools and layer on judgment, experience, and creativity. A five-person shop can now deliver the output of a 50-person team.
That is the paradox: technology levels the field. Where once the advantage was headcount, now it is adoption. Speed matters more than size. Nimble matters more than global. Clients increasingly judge by impact, not infrastructure.
This does not erase people from the industry. It changes their role. Senior voices, seasoned strategists, and trusted counselors will matter more. The margin for error shrinks when technology handles the basics. Layers of junior staff once justified by slow workflows are fading. There will still be bright new talents entering PR, but fewer of them.
That shift will show up in titles. The familiar hierarchy of account coordinators, executives, and vice presidents feels mismatched in a world where AI handles much of the legwork. Roles will evolve toward strategy, intelligence, and creativity. Tomorrow’s professionals may be known as narrative architects, reputation engineers, or engagement catalysts, titles that emphasize judgment and outcomes rather than rank. Expertise, not headcount, becomes the currency of trust.
The tools available today narrow the gap between the top of the market and everyone else. What remains the true differentiator, the only lasting one, is people. Their judgment, instincts, and creativity remain irreplaceable. Technology only clears the underbrush so those qualities can shine.
Some in PR will resist. They will rage against efficiencies, shrinking support staff, and a flatter business model. That is natural. But rage is not strategy. The better path is to embrace the shift, reimagine the economics, and lean into work that cannot be automated.
Thomas’s line does not end in despair. It ends in defiance. The light of the old model is dimming, but the PR industry’s future is not darkness. It is a different light, one cast by technology that amplifies human excellence, not armies of staffers billing in 15 minute increments. Those who cling to the glow of the past will fade. Those who adapt will find the light renewed.