For years, we have heard that public relations is outdated. Does PR still work? Aren’t people sick of PR practitioners? Aren’t they tired of the “middleman” (or woman)? These questions have been swirling for a while, and the press release is a case in point. Aren’t press releases “dead”? Aren’t journalists sick and tired of press release content?
The Evolution of PR in a Changing Media Landscape
In reality, the PR industry has consistently adapted and evolved since the first press release was issued by Ivy Lee about a railroad accident in 1906. Over the decades, we have navigated the emergence of the internet and social media and other signs of the changing times to remain relevant. And yes, PR professionals remain relevant, too.
We need the facts! And it’s up to journalists to report the facts, often based on PR experts who know what is newsworthy and when. You know who else needs the news? Artificial intelligence.
How AI Is Changing the Value of Press Releases
AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini rely on news stories and other media hits to source their responses to user queries. As AI-generated queries become more and more popular, people are relying on responses that come from somewhere, and that “somewhere” may be traditional reporting. In many cases, users are coming across AI answers that are essentially repurposed from journalistic content. And where does that content originate? Often from press releases and other forms of media outreach. In fact, it is very possible for content to go from a press release to a news story and then to an AI answer based on a specific question.
In other words, large language models (LLMs) are reading the news to train and spit out information. LLMs don’t just make up information (except when they “hallucinate”); they depend on reputable websites and platforms to find it, contextualize and summarize it, and then share it with users. This might be a news story or even a newswire release, which isn’t “reported” in the traditional sense, but still introduces AI to a newsworthy announcement.
In many ways, the press release is perfect for the LLM. Press releases—at least the best ones—tend to be structured and highly factual with clear, concise statements. There may be certain spin involved, but press releases are easy to grasp for a reason. They are supposed to focus on the big picture without getting bogged down by tiny details, and AI therefore finds this information easy to reference.
Note: Not all LLMs are the same. As Michael Mahin, Ph.D., points out, ChatGPT doesn’t browse the live web, whereas some others—Google Gemini being one of them—do pull in real-time content. This still translates to hundreds of millions of users—people who may encounter press release content.
A Call to Action for Modern PR Professionals
Once again, we are seeing PR adapt and evolve with new-age technologies. Based on firsthand experience, I have seen client work—from website blogs and social media posts to news stories—pop up in LLM searches, and it is exciting to see. Just like securing a front-page story in a top newspaper is exciting, we should be encouraged that our content might find its way to an AI response that reaches millions of people.
If you work in PR, focus on becoming the best possible version of your content creator self. If you do that, public relations as an industry will remain alive and well, and so will the press release. Our bread and butter is still fresh.
This article originally appeared on the Forbes Agency Council CommunityVoice in October 2025.
