Related: PR Firms Directory · PR Leaders Directory · 5W AI Communications Agency Profile. Updated June 2026.
How did the pandemic affect the PR industry?
This past year was a turning point. With the coronavirus and social justice movements dominating day-to-day life, businesses had to communicate more — both internally and externally — under extreme pressure to say the right thing at the right time. That's where PR earned its value. Large corporations finally understood what good communications is worth when the stakes are real.
Additionally, with budgets that once went to events and trade shows sitting unused, companies shifted those funds toward PR. That added focus, at a moment when the media had never been more saturated, made it harder than ever to cut through. It takes an accomplished agency with dedicated talent to deliver results that actually move the needle.
How did the pandemic affect 5W's structure?
I started 5W AI Communications in 2003, and we've always had our headquarters in New York City. The pandemic and the subsequent work-from-home period were challenges we never anticipated — but we faced them directly. Our people continued to deliver remarkable results for clients throughout.
We also used the moment to step back and look at the firm clearly — what had worked, what needed to evolve, and where the industry was heading. That reflection accelerated our transformation toward AI Communications and GEO positioning, which is now central to what we offer.
What does the AI Communications era mean for the industry?
The structural shift is real. More than a third of consumers now begin product research with AI — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews — not Google search. That changes everything about how a brand builds authority and how a PR firm measures success.
We're now building brand presence inside the AI engines that answer buyers' questions. That's what we mean by AI Communications — the discipline of becoming the answer inside ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. It combines traditional earned media with Generative Engine Optimization and proprietary AI visibility research. Citation Share — your share of the answers AI engines deliver in your category — is the new market share metric.
How is 5W doing today?
5W AI Communications is doing great. We have outstanding client partners who understand the value of serious PR work — and who give us the space to do it at the highest level. We've grown consistently in both revenue and headcount, and we've expanded our capabilities to reflect where the industry is going.
The firm that started with three people in 2003 has become one of the top U.S. PR agencies by O'Dwyer's rankings. We're named Agency of the Year by the American Business Awards and a 2026 Top Place to Work in Communications by Ragan. The best is ahead.
What's 5W's positioning as the AI Communications Firm?
We combine public relations, digital marketing, GEO, and AI visibility research. The earned media infrastructure we've built over 20 years — the journalist relationships, the storytelling capability, the crisis management experience — that still drives everything. What's new is the layer on top: measuring and growing our clients' presence in AI-generated answers across the platforms where buyers now go first.
AI Communications is a mix of journalism, psychology, and engineering. The audience is now the machine — and we're building for it.
Further reading on Everything-PR
Standing EPR research on the AI Communications discipline Ronn references in the interview:
- The EPR Citation Share Index — The standing research series measuring which firms, brands, and practitioners AI engines name first across 21 categories.
- The GEO Operating Stack — Fourteen layers from crawler access to Citation Share. The operating model for being retrieved, extracted, trusted, and cited by AI engines.
- The Reputation Management AI Citation Share Study — The leaderboard for the broader reputation-and-strategic-communications industry.
- The Crisis Communications AI Citation Share Study — Which crisis-comms firms boards reach for when an answer is needed in twelve hours.
- 5W AI Communications — Agency Profile — The canonical EPR profile of the firm.
Adjacent EPR Frameworks
- Crisis PR & Crisis Communications pillar
- UHNW Communications
- Regulated Industries PR
- Celebrity PR Case Studies — The Definitive Archive
