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2026 State of PR: 1,100+ Communicators Surveyed

Public relations is evolving faster than ever. Between generative AI, misinformation, and shrinking budgets, PR pros are being asked to do more—and prove more—with less.

Created in partnership with leading agency, We. Communications, Meltwater’s 2026 State of PR report reveals how over 1,100 global communications professionals are responding to these challenges and redefining what success looks like.

AI is officially mainstream: Over 90% PR teams have already integrated generative AI into their workflows for tasks like drafting press releases, optimizing content, and brainstorming.

Measurement is evolving: PR pros are under growing pressure to link comms outcomes to business KPIs, but over 40% are still measuring activity instead of outcomes

Budgets are tight, but expectations are higher: More than half of respondents expect little or no change in PR investment for 2026, despite increased demand for strategic impact.

Leadership buy-in is key: Communicators who can connect storytelling with data are earning their seat at the decision-making table.

Get more insights, benchmarks, and practical takeaways to strengthen your strategy and secure your seat at the leadership table.

Download the 2026 State of PR report to stay ahead of what’s next for PR. 

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The State of PR Report surveyed over 1,100 professionals on their views about the current state of the industry and expectations for the future.

State of PR 2026

Global Research Report by Meltwater & YouGov

How do audiences really feel about AI-generated content?

Trust it? Sceptical of it? Engage with it differently across platforms and generations?

AI is transforming how content is created, but public perception of AI-generated content is evolving just as quickly.

Created in partnership with the leading market research firm, YouGov, the Public Perception of AI-Generated Content Report reveals how almost 10,000 people interpret and respond to AI-generated content, and what it means for brands, marketers, and communicators navigating this new era.

Across industries and regions, this report delivers actionable insights for anyone shaping modern brand storytelling.

For brands and communicators, understanding perception is critical. Missteps can damage credibility. The right approach can unlock engagement at scale.

This report offers clear, data-backed guidance to help you:

Develop AI content strategies that resonate

Navigate transparency and disclosure challenges

Make informed decisions about AI adoption in marketing and communications

Download the full report to understand where trust is built, where it’s broken, and how to communicate effectively in an AI-driven world.

By completing and submitting this form, you will receive information, tips, and promotions from Meltwater, and you agree that Meltwater may share your contact information with YouGov for marketing purposes.

How do audiences really feel about AI-generated content?
Trust it? Sceptical of it? Engage with it differently across platforms and generations?

The Public Perception of AI-Generated Content Report

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Public Perception of AI-Generated Content

Learn how to influence ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and other LLMs, before they shape your reputation for you.

AI is now the first place people go to research brands. If you’re not showing up in AI-generated answers, you’re invisible to your audience. This guide shows PR and communications teams exactly how to take control.

Inside the guide, you’ll discover how to:

Understand how AI makes decisions: Learn how training data and real-time citations influence brand visibility.

Turn PR into a growth engine for AI visibility: See why earned media is now one of the most powerful signals for LLMs.

Build a repeatable AI visibility strategy: Follow a proven workflow to monitor, influence, and optimize your presence.

Leverage the C.O.R.E. framework: Scale visibility with Credibility, Omnipresence, Readability, and Endurance.

Activate the right channels: From news media to Reddit and YouTube, know where AI actually looks.

This guide is backed by insights from Meltwater’s GenAI Lens, the first platform built to monitor and optimize brand visibility in AI. 

Take control of your brand in the age of AI

Download the Own Your AI Visibility guide and start shaping how AI represents your brand today.

Get the Guide!

Download this free guide to learn how to influence ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and co., and take control of your brand’s visibility in AI-driven search.

Free Guide: Own Your Brand’s Visibility in AI

Own Your AI Visibility - Shape What AI Says About Your Brand

The communications landscape is facing a defining challenge: polarization.

The 2026 USC Annenberg Global Communication Report, sponsored by Meltwater and developed by the USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations, explores how political and social division is transforming the structure, strategy, and influence of the PR profession.

While artificial intelligence, hybrid work, and evolving media ecosystems continue to disrupt the industry, PR professionals say polarization is doing the most damage, intensifying reputational risk, increasing executive scrutiny, and complicating corporate speech. 

The impact is difficult to quantify, yet impossible to ignore.

Drawing on global survey data from agency and in-house PR leaders, perspectives from the U.S. general public, and interviews with Fortune 500 Chief Communications Officers, this year’s report examines:

How polarization is increasing PR’s strategic importance inside organizations

Why executive visibility and corporate activism are being reconsidered

How trust in media is shifting across generations

What communications teams are doing to manage risk in an increasingly divided environment

Why the future of the profession remains optimistic despite societal disruption

The findings reveal a powerful paradox: while polarization is widely viewed as harmful to society, it is simultaneously elevating the role of communications leaders as strategic advisors to the C-suite.

Download the 2026 USC Annenberg Global Communication Report now to gain data-driven insights and practical guidance for leading communications in a polarized world.

Explore how polarization is reshaping public relations. Read the 2026 USC Annenberg Global Communication Report, sponsored by Meltwater.

2026 USC Annenberg Global Communication Report | Polarization & the Future of PR

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Polarization is Reshaping PR - What Comms Leaders Need to Know

AI is rewriting how brands get discovered

Buyers aren’t browsing anymore — they’re asking AI.

And AI isn’t just finding answers… it’s deciding which brands show up, how they’re described, and who gets trusted.

This report reveals what’s actually happening behind the scenes — and why LinkedIn has become one of the most influential sources shaping AI-generated answers.  And most brands are not prepared for how that changes visibility.

AI is prioritizing expertise, relevance, and structure.

Turn your LinkedIn content into an AI visibility engine

The brands winning in AI aren’t just publishing more, they’re activating their experts. This report shows how to:

Track where your brand appears in AI-generated answers

Identify which sources shape your narrative

Measure how your content performs across AI models

Analysis of 9.5 million AI citations reveals LinkedIn’s growing influence in AI-generated answers.

How LinkedIn Powers the Answers AI Gives the World

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How LinkedIn Content Wins in AI Search

This new Meltwater Intelligence Report explores how public conversation, social platforms, and AI driven search are reshaping trust and reputation in the Australian insurance sector.

With insights drawn from nearly 5,000 media and online conversations across a 90 day period, ‘The Trust Gap’ reveals how customer perception is formed in moments of friction, uncertainty, and silence, and why insurers are often absent from the conversations that matter most.

Trust is no longer owned by brands: It is shaped across forums, social platforms, and AI generated summaries, often without brands being present in the conversation.

Frustration doesn’t build, it spikes: Claims related issues spread quickly across social channels before reaching mainstream media, shaping perception in real time.

Small moments can become big narratives: Individual experiences can escalate rapidly, turning into broader sector wide conversations about fairness and trust.

Uncertainty fills the gaps: When information is fragmented across media, influencers, and AI generated sources, customers are left to interpret conflicting signals.

Influence now sits with the crowd: Creators, communities, and AI systems are redefining how insurance products are understood, beyond traditional brand control.

If you are not visible, you are defined by others: AI generated search is driven by earned media and open web sources, meaning third party content shapes how your brand is represented.

Download the full report to understand what makes Australians trust, question, and choose their insurance providers today.

The Trust Gap: Reputation in Australian Insurance

The Trust Gap: What Public Conversation Reveals About Reputation in Australian Insurance

A smarter approach to analyzing social listening.

Sentiment tells you how people feel. But it rarely tells you why, or what to do next.

In a fragmented media and social landscape, brands are drowning in unstructured data. While sentiment and emotion analysis have become standard tools, they often miss nuance, misread intent, and fail to provide the context needed for confident decision-making.

This white paper introduces attitudinal analysis, a modern approach that reveals tone, intent, and meaning behind conversations across social, media, and voice-of-customer data.

Why sentiment and emotion analysis break down in real-world text, especially with sarcasm, ambiguity, and mixed signals

The limitations of legacy emotion models (including why frameworks like Plutchik’s Wheel no longer hold up for linguistic analysis)

How attitudinal analysis captures intent, tone, and context — not just positivity or negativity

The Conversus Attitude Framework, a 15-attitude system built from hundreds of millions of real conversations

How attitudes predict behavior like churn, loyalty, advocacy, and purchasing intent more reliably than sentiment alone

Practical use cases for brand perception, crisis detection, competitive intelligence, CX, and marketing optimization

This white paper is essential reading for:

Marketing & Brand Leaders seeking deeper insight into perception and intent

PR & Communications Teams managing reputation, crises, and narratives

Insights & Research Professionals working with unstructured data

Agencies & Strategists delivering high-impact analysis to clients

CX & Customer Intelligence Teams focused on loyalty and churn prediction

Get the full white paper to explore how attitudinal intelligence transforms unstructured data into confident decisions.

Download your report on "From Sentiment to Emotion to Attitude"

How attitudinal analysis, reveals tone, intent, and meaning behind conversations.

From Sentiment to Emotion to Attitude [Report]

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From Sentiment to Emotion to Attitude

Can Brands Actually Engineer a Viral Moment?


Every brand wants to go viral, but few understand how it actually happens.

Is virality based on luck? Timing? Strategy? Or something else entirely?

In today’s multi-voice media landscape, attention doesn’t live in one place. It’s shaped by creators, communities, platforms, and culture - all interacting at once.

No one illustrates this better than BTS. Their recent comeback and world tour show how moments aren’t just launched, but are boosted, remixed, and amplified by millions of voices in real time.

In this webinar, we’ll break down a real-world example from BTS’ comeback, showing how fan communities, social platforms, and media visibility come together to turn a release into a global cultural moment.

What drives virality today, and why it’s more unpredictable than ever

How conversations and content spread across a multi-voice landscape, from creators to communities to mainstream reach 

Whether brands can truly engineer virality or just increase their odds

How to build a brand presence that can participate in and benefit from viral moments

Complete the form to view the webinar on demand, and dive into these trends and see how you can apply these ideas to your strategy for the year ahead.

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On-Demand Webinar: What the BTS Comeback Teaches Us About Viral Campaigns

Is virality based on luck? Timing? Strategy? Or something else entirely? No one illustrates this better than BTS. Their recent comeback and world tour show how moments aren’t just launched, but are boosted, remixed, and amplified by millions of voices in real time.

Thank you! We hope you will find this webinar insightful.

Content is moving faster, audience attention is harder to earn, and the strategies that once delivered results are no longer landing in the same way.

You’re still posting. The metrics still come in. But too often, the impact is limited, momentum is hard to build, and even strong content struggles to stick.

Join Marcus Willis from Kill Boring Dead and Meltwater for a candid conversation about what’s really happening on social media right now - and why marketers need to rethink what effective looks like.

This session will unpack why social feels more challenging than ever, why being seen is no longer enough, and what sets memorable brands apart from the ones that are easy to overlook.

Why previously effective tactics are losing impact

What audiences are actually paying attention to now

Why brands can achieve visibility without building recall

What marketers need to change to stay relevant and drive results

Complete the form to view the webinar on-demand, and dive into these trends and see how you can apply these ideas to your strategy for the year ahead.

On-Demand Webinar: What's Happening on Social Media Right Now?

Communications teams aren’t lacking data, they’re lacking clarity. Too often, reporting focuses on volume, reach, and sentiment, leaving executives asking a more important question: what does this actually mean for the business?

In this webinar, we’ll explore how to move beyond traditional metrics and transform communications reporting into actionable intelligence that drives decisions and earns executive trust. Drawing on real-world frameworks and examples, we’ll show how leading teams shift from measuring activity to influencing outcomes, connecting insights to business priorities, stakeholder needs, and real-world impact.

Move from reporting metrics to driving business outcomes

Turn dashboards into decision-making tools

Translate insights into clear, executive-ready recommendations

Demonstrate measurable impact that leadership can act on

You’ll also see how Meltwater’s dashboards and AI-powered insights help you transform real-time media, social, and consumer data into clear, actionable intelligence so you can benchmark performance, uncover trends, and confidently communicate impact to leadership.

True executive visibility isn’t about more data, it’s about delivering insights that influence strategy and prove your value at the leadership table.

Want to know more about Meltwater? Request a Demo.

Webinar: Earning Executive Trust with Insights That Drive Action

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