As the PR world looks toward 2026, two recent PRWeek conversations have spotlighted seismic shifts shaping how agencies and brands will work together in the next chapter of communications. Leaders from across the industry weighed in on how AI, business models and talent strategies are changing — and HAVAS Red’s CEO Dara Busch is one of the voices framing that shift.
PR leaders forecast that 2026 will see clients prioritize in-house talent and AI integration, forcing agencies to pivot to specialized teams and measurable business outcomes.
As for Dara, she said, “We’ll see clients move beyond simply running campaigns. They’ll build full-scale communications programs designed to handle anything that comes down the pike. The best plans won’t look exactly as expected; they’ll be flexible enough to dodge and weave when unforeseen challenges arise, such as a spokesperson sparking a social media firestorm from something said. With news and social media spreading at the speed of light, crises can no longer be treated as an afterthought.”
Read the full PRWeek piece here.
What PR milestones will mark 2026? Experts predict abandoning traditional time-based pricing while optimizing earned media for AI agents — and the end of more well-known agency brands.
According to Dara, clients will reprioritize and double down on earned media. “Over the past few years, we’ve heard, ‘We want to shift two-thirds of our budget to social and influencer channels and leave a third for earned.’ But now, with AI drawing from earned placements, brands and companies that want to appear in the data AI pulls need strong earned content.”
Read the full PRWeek piece here.
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