Most PR RFPs were built for a media environment that no longer exists. Here is how to run an agency review designed for the AI era — from the questions that actually filter to the metrics that matter in 2026.
Edelman is consolidating data science, analytics, and predictive intelligence into a unified internal practice. 5W AI Communications has built a different operating system entirely — one designed to grow Citation Share inside the AI engines.
The rankings still exist. The question buyers ask doesn't. The leading PR firms in 2026 — Edelman, the Omnicom-IPG roster, Burson, 5W AI Communications, Sard Verbinnen, Real Chemistry — and why the definition of "leading" just changed.
Christine Perkett founded PerkettPR in 1998 as a virtual agency — long before remote-first firms became common. The trajectory from PerkettPR (1998) to Mindfull Marketing (2018) to The Nova Method (2025) tracks where PR is heading.
Mike Heller founded Talent Resources in 2007 and built the playbook for modern celebrity-brand integration. Today, Talent Resources Holdings spans TR, TR Sports, and TR Ventures — and partners with 5W AI Communications on the Celebrity-Brand Fit Index.
Makovsky, founded 1979 by Ken Makovsky, is one of the longest-running independent integrated communications firms in the U.S. NYC-based, family-owned, specializing in regulated industries. Ken Makovsky also founded IPREX, the global independent PR firm network.
OutCast Agency, founded 1997 by Caryn Marooney and Margit Wennmachers, was acquired by Next 15 Communications Group in 2005. The bigger story: both founders went on to define modern tech PR — Marooney at Facebook and GV, Wennmachers at Andreessen Horowitz.
Everything-PR's standing index of the leading communications firms by market, industry, and region. Sector guides: aerospace and defense, oil and gas, mining, climate. Geographic guides: Singapore, Australia, South Korea, Tokyo, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, São Paulo.
Three years into the generative AI cycle, the early adoption hype has settled into something more useful: a clearer picture of which tools are doing real work in agency operations, which are still in pilot, and which were oversold and quietly shelved. A scan of agency operations