Key PR and Communications trends for 2026

The media landscape and consumer behaviours will continue to evolve rapidly this year and communicators will need to find smart ways to balance technology with human connection. 

Practitioners who use artificial intelligence to gain time-saving efficiencies on simple tasks and spend the hours gained for original thought that delivers greater value will achieve real success. 

How audiences discover brands, assess credibility and engage is shifting, fast. Our founder Greig Box Turnbull looks at the key PR and communications trends for 2026. 

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

The rules for earning visibility online have been rewritten by GEO and this year brands that do not grab this opportunity will be left behind. 

As AI becomes the primary source of information for people online it means AI search summaries in response to user queries now feature heavily ahead of adverts and websites. 

It means every article or online mention feeds the AI-led results. This is driving a huge shift in PR, which is a key tactic to help brands stay visible online, with success heavily weighed towards being quoted by authoritative, reliable sources (earned media).

This will see a big increase in communicators returning to traditional PR tactics of authoritative storytelling, unique insights and expert commentary to ensure brands are more likely to be named in AI summaries as trusted companies. 

Brands that do not embrace this key PR trend in 2026 will become increasingly invisible online. 

Demand for authenticity 

With communicators battling fake news, low-quality AI-generated boring content and low-attention spans remaining steadfast to the craft of strategy, high-quality storytelling, authenticity and relationship building are key. 

This year we will see an increased demand for creativity, high-quality content, a sense of belonging and a desire for authentic content that informs, educates and entertains. 

Our audience behaviour analysis of 2025 found people online, who have been bombarded with AI-generated video and graphic led content, craved reality. Content that was genuine, original, personable and relatable, earned the highest engagement rates and this will likely continue in 2026. For video and social media this means focusing on content that connects, highlighting real people and their experiences and behind the scenes content. 

Authenticity and creativity are now the key differentiator for digital content. 

Crisis communications

Social media and even mainstream media websites do not wait for brands to issue statements and acting fast will be more important this year. 

Responding early can help contain an issue on social media before it attracts interest from major media outlets. Brands that respond quickly (good and bad) on social media build long-term authority and trust. 

Monitoring tools can help detect misinformation online alongside tracking mentions and sentiment. Deeper analysis can also provide information on the ecosystem behind it. 

Growth of niche medias

This year will see a further increase in opportunities to tell brand stories via niche media to engage specific communities. 

Brands will invest more into owned media, such as blogs, social content, video and podcasts to engage audiences directly. Plus, more journalists and aspiring journalists will continue to build their own platforms independent to the mainstream media. 

Additionally, brands will ramp up engaging with micro-influencers on social media to achieve deeper, authentic connections. 

Overall, this will enable brands to niche down and engage audiences in a more direct and intimate way. 

Re-purposing content

Maximising each piece of content across multi-channels will increase in value in 2026. 

Brands that maximise the opportunity here will be the ones who adapt the story naturally across different platforms. 

For example, a product launch could be distributed in different ways with a CEO vision piece on LinkedIn, a news press release for the trade press, a broadcast interview on why the product has been launched and an Instagram video showing the product in action. 

Historically many brands are posting the same content on each platform. With an increased desire for authenticity this year, audiences will engage better with content that is uniquely tailored for each platform. 

Video marches on 

Video should no longer be treated as a bolt-on to PR and marketing strategies. Brands that do not use video on social media will be left behind this year. 

We will also experience increased demand from mainstream media to provide short form video content in conjunction with press releases and photographs. 

Summary

PR and communications is about connection, relationships, community, belonging and trust. 

The fundamentals of PR have not changed. It still requires the ability to tell a story with authenticity and engage. The world around it has changed and technology has created increased opportunity, alongside increased pitfalls. 

What has changed is how people receive information online and how important PR now is to keeping business visible. PR is deeper than awareness. It is credibility and reputation, which are the key factors for how brands show up in AI results online. 

Technology has created speed and access. But it won’t replace human judgement, and the authenticity audiences truly crave, and this year will see a doubling down for PR practitioners in applying tried and tested principles to modern content creation and distribution. 

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