Our team dug into PRWeek’s newly released 2026 Agency Business Report, and three themes stood out: AI visibility, the renewed power of earned media and reputation as a connected, measurable system.

Here’s what the report says about where communications is headed and what it means for brands that want to be seen, trusted and chosen.

AI Isn’t Just a Tool. It’s a Target Audience.

One of the sharpest observations from the report is from Grant Toups, CEO of Hotwire:

“Communications is moving from, ‘How do I optimize this campaign for the LLM’ to ‘How do I think about the LLM as a target audience in everything I do?’”
— Grant Toups, CEO, Hotwire

That’s a meaningful shift. Instead of treating ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude simply as tools for creating or finding information, communicators need to think about how those platforms understand and represent their brands: What do they see? What sources do they trust? What do they cite?

As Toups put it, AI systems are “listeners that speak a different language.” Brands that learn how to communicate in that language — through credible content, authoritative sources and consistent signals — will be better positioned to show up when it matters.

That’s the thinking behind our AI Visibility work at Approach. Our proprietary AI Visibility Audit shows where your brand currently appears in AI-generated answers, where the gaps are and where there’s an opportunity to build greater visibility.

Earned Media Is a Key Driver of AI Visibility.

Two quotes from the report that captured this shift particularly well:

“AI rewards consensus and earned media.”
— Curtis Sparrer, Bospar

“Publicity is the food of the LLMs.”
— Grace Leong, CEO, Hunter

The point is bigger than AI: third-party credibility matters.

AI systems draw on information from sources they consider authoritative, including news coverage, expert commentary and other credible third-party content. That makes earned media increasingly valuable and not just for reaching people, but for strengthening the signals that shape how AI understands a brand.

The report also points to renewed interest in traditional communications formats, including press releases, wire distribution and in-person events. These aren’t necessarily making a comeback for nostalgia’s sake. They remain useful because they can create credible, structured information that gets distributed across the broader information ecosystem.

The takeaway: a strong earned media program can do double duty — building trust with human audiences while strengthening your brand’s broader discoverability.

Reputation Is Now a System and It’s Measurable.

Reputation isn’t built in a single channel or owned by a single discipline. Executive visibility, media coverage, social content, thought leadership, investor communications and crisis communications all contribute to how a company is perceived.

Increasingly, those signals influence one another. A CEO’s point of view on LinkedIn can reinforce a company’s broader narrative. A trade media placement can become a source an AI platform references. A disconnect between what a company says and what third parties say about it can create confusion.

The implication is clear: communications can no longer operate as a collection of disconnected programs. The strongest brands are building a consistent narrative across channels — and measuring how that reputation is taking shape.

That’s why our work at Approach looks at reputation holistically. Our Credibility Check diagnostic scores brands across five dimensions — Authority, Visibility, Engagement, Transparency and Consistency — to identify where reputation is strong, where gaps exist, and where to focus next.

Questions Worth Taking Back to Your Team

The report points to a few questions every brand should be asking:

• How does your brand appear in AI-generated answers today? Not search rankings, but the actual answers people receive from ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI platforms?
• Is your earned media program generating credible third-party coverage that strengthens your authority and visibility?
• Are PR, content, executive visibility and social working from the same narrative — or operating as separate programs?

If you don’t know the answers, that’s useful information in itself.

The Bottom Line

The 2026 PRWeek Agency Business Report puts language around a shift that is already underway: AI is changing how brands are discovered, earned media is helping shape that visibility and reputation is increasingly being built across an interconnected system of signals.

These aren’t abstract trends. They’re becoming part of the communications work brands need to get right.

Request a complimentary sneak peek of your AI Visibility today. →