Three out of four PR professionals use AI (artificial intelligence) to conduct their activities for the benefit of clients and in their interaction with journalists. This is according to the “The State of PR” survey, conducted globally by Muck Rack (2025) on a sample of 1100 public relations professionals. Specifically, 75% of respondents state that they use generative AI for their work, and 13% plan to try introducing it soon. Only 6% do not intend to introduce it. This data is also confirmed by the recent survey by IAB Interactive Advertising Bureau – Europe, which shows that 91% of operators in the digital advertising sector have used or are already using generative AI. Of the remaining, 90% stated that they intend to test it within their company in the coming months.

Experts and professors: “Use should not become abuse, otherwise it’s ‘degenerative’.” Focus on training young professionals on the topic.

What is generative AI used for in PR? According to the Muck Rack report, mainly for “Ideation/brainstorming” (82%), “writing a first draft” (72%), or “re-editing a text” (70%), and then, 1 in 2 communicators (50%) use it to write a press release. “A wrong or rather ‘degenerative’ way,” comments famous spin doctor Davide Ciliberti of Purple & Noise, top Italian PR agency “to use this technology, which is in fact a very interesting and useful tool. Thinking of delegating activities such as creative or strategic ideation to a machine means abdicating as a professional, in my opinion also in a way that is not very fair to the client, who pays for that asset.”

“As a professional, I agree with what my colleague stated,” comments Stella Romagnoli, a professor of advertising strategy workshops at La Sapienza University of Rome. “As a teacher, this snapshot leads me to think that perhaps it is now also a priority to train young people, who are approaching the profession through universities and academies, in the correct and conscious use of today’s new technologies, such as AI, and those that will certainly come, so that use does not become abuse or an easy shortcut.”

Scrolling through the ‘ranking’ of AI usage according to Muck Rack’s survey, it emerges that communicators use AI to draft texts for social media (59%), define strategy and planning (42%), but also to ‘find journalists’ (21%).

“One of the beautiful things about AI applied to PR, which is the creation of original images and infographics to facilitate the understanding of news – comments Ciliberti – very useful for newsrooms and readers, instead ends up in second to last place (16%) in this particular ranking.“