Generative AI did not "transform" public relations — that word is too soft. It rebuilt the floor. Ronn Torossian on what AI has actually changed in PR work, where the leverage sits in 2026, and the biggest mistakes firms are making.
Three years ago, a communications team's org chart had no AI-specific role on it. Most still don't — and that absence is the problem, not a sign that the problem doesn't exist. The work has appeared whether or not anyone's name is attached to it. Quick answer. Four responsibilities now need named ownership on a communications team: the AI Communications Lead (owns the operating model), the AI Visibility Director (owns presence in AI answers), the AI Workflow Editor (owns output quality), and the AI Governance Lead (owns the controls).
Twenty-five questions every enterprise AI buyer should put in writing — telemetry, decision layer, enforcement, recourse, change management. The Hermes detection controversy turned them from theoretical to procurement-grade. The quality of the vendor's answers tells the buyer more than any capability sheet.
Most agencies adopted AI faster than they governed it. This article outlines five essential components for effective AI governance: an approved-tools register, data and confidentiality rules, a client-disclosure standard, named ownership, and a review cadence. Implementing these measures ensures responsible AI use and mitigates risks, preventing costly retrofits after incidents.
In 2026, AI is standard infrastructure in PR agencies — embedded across research, media targeting, content creation, monitoring, measurement, and Citation Share tracking inside ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, and Microsoft Copilot. The full playbook.
The AI tool stack moved faster than enterprise communications kept up. Everything-PR's complete cluster on AI products, AI tool communications, and the governance and reputation story of a category restructuring how work gets done.
The Hermes/OpenClaw detection incident, initially cataloged as a billing error, reveals structural insights into how AI platforms operate. This article delves into the AI governance lessons from the Hermes case, focusing on telemetry, decision-layer disclosure, and recourse architecture.
Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical, released May 25, 2026, places the Vatican inside the AI policy conversation alongside the labs, governments, and standards bodies. Communications leaders should read it as a structural shift — not a religious document.
AI Policy is the communications discipline that shapes how AI gets regulated. Not AI ethics. Not AI governance. Not the same as AI regulation. A definitive guide to the discipline behind AI's most contested decisions.
An enterprise AI procurement cycle after Hermes is a governance conversation. The capability questions still matter. They no longer differentiate. The questions that differentiate are now about what the platform reads, what it decides, and what happens when it gets the decision wrong. This piece is the operational guide to how that shift changes procurement, what to add to every RFP, and where to push back.