In the latest PRmoment Podcast news review, host Ben Smith sits down with PR heavyweights Mark Borkowski and Angie Moxham to dissect a packed agenda covering political downfalls, tech trillionaires, and sports geopolitics. Before diving in, Smith drops a crucial reminder to secure tickets for the upcoming PR in AI Masterclass, featuring an incredible lineup available both face-to-face and virtually.

The Politics of War and a Leadership Vacuum

The discussion kicks off with the unraveling of Keir Starmer’s leadership following high-profile exits like John Healy over defence budget shortfalls. Angie Moxham delivers a scathing review, calling the exit the "last weapon of mass Starmer destruction" and the "final nail-in in Keir’s coffin." She describes Starmer as a "wounded dog limping towards the exit door," concluding simply that "he's not a leader."

Mark Borkowski highlights the internal party despair, noting insiders have long since "given up on Keir."

Looking ahead, Moxham predicts Manchester's Andy Burnham will secure a slim win at the Makerfield election and ultimately "end up in number 10."

Elon Musk and the Illusion of Value

The panel then tackles Elon Musk’s trajectory toward becoming the world’s first trillionaire. Borkowski holds nothing back, blasting Musk for "interfering with British politics from the other side of the world with some really disgusting and inciting language." He strongly challenges the cultural idolization of "mega tech bros," asking if they should be viewed as examples for humanity: "I argue you're not."

Moxham balances this critique with a critical lesson for comms professionals, noting Musk has "absolutely managed the art of perception to drive value in his businesses." For any CEO doubting PR's bottom-line impact, Moxham argues Musk is the ultimate proof of its power—even if he completely rewrites the rules of public accountability.

The World Cup Paradox: Unity vs. Geopolitics

Finally, the conversation shifts to the upcoming North American World Cup. Moxham underscores the immense emotional and cultural stakes of the beautiful game, sharing a striking quote: "The World Cup is the only event on earth where a billion people cry at the same time. The question is... whether those are tears of joy or tears of hatred."

While Borkowski notes that toxic global politics is already seeping into the tournament, he remains optimistic that great football will ultimately win out and rescue everyone from politicians to brands.

Master the Future: PR in AI Masterclass

As technology and perception continue to redefine the global corporate landscape, staying ahead of the curve is non-negotiable. Head over to the PRmoment homepage to grab your tickets for the PR in AI Masterclass. Tickets are flying out the door for both the face-to-face and virtual sessions—don't miss out on learning from an absolutely amazing lineup of industry experts!

In the May 2026 edition of the PRmoment Podcast, host Ben Smith sits down with new business maestro Andrew Bloch (AAR, PCB Partners) to dissect a shifting UK communications landscape. The overarching theme of the month highlights a widening divide between agencies riding massive waves of momentum and those experiencing localized, procurement-driven hesitation.

Before diving into the market data, Ben shares two critical industry diary dates for your radar:

• AI in PR Masterclass (July 2nd, 2026): Titled The Age of Algorithms, Predictive Analytics, and Risk, this event is a comprehensive guide to navigating future-facing tech. Secure your virtual or face-to-face London spot at PRmasterclasses.com.
• The Creative Moment Awards: The absolute final entry deadline is closing fast on Friday, 19th June 2026. Ensure your team's best creative work is in the running by submitting over at creativemomentawards.co.

Key Themes

1. The procurement squeeze and market polarization

Andrew Bloch defines the current climate as one of "cautious optimism" mixed with macro anxiety. Pipelines are active, but growth is unevenly distributed. Agencies with sharp specialisms—particularly in sports, consumer lifestyle, and social—are thriving, while others face gridlocked client sign-offs. Furthermore, clients are heavily relying on procurement to extract maximum commercial impact, shifting expectations entirely away from traditional "column inches."

2. The independent "David vs. Goliath" surge

A massive takeaway from May's pitch cycle is the clear dominance of independent agencies over legacy network holding companies. Clients are progressively prioritizing agile storytelling and pure earned media capabilities over sheer corporate scale.

3. M&A Strategy: earned media as strategic platform glue

While private equity (PE) and trade buyers are exercising strict valuation discipline, high-quality independents remain hot targets. Private equity is increasingly viewing standout consumer PR agencies as anchor platforms to bolt on smaller social, data, and AI-enabled services.

Major pitch wins & M&A Deals

• Notable Wins: Words and Pixels scooped the coveted UK/Ireland brief for tech giant Pinterest, beating out legacy networks. Newly launched Joe Public landed Sneak Energy, and The Romans expanded their sports footprint by securing Oakley’s global and North American remit. Other wins included Grayling taking the Croatian National Tourist Board and Hope and Glory onboarding Ask Italian.
• M&A Highlights: Publicis made a massive $2.2 billion bet on tech infrastructure by acquiring data collaboration platform LiveRamp at a 30% premium. Meanwhile, Havas snapped up Paris-based corporate influence firm Format, and Mike Worldwide acquired workplace communications agency Hudson Lake.

Quotes from Andrew Bloch

• On maintaining agency momentum:
• "In a market like this where budgets could disappear overnight, momentum is really the closest thing you can get to having security... You can't stand still in this market. Standing still is going backwards."
• On why private equity is hunting for PR firms:
• "What's really encouraging for the PR space is they're seeing earned media as actually the glue that ties together lots of different bits of the marketing mix."
• On the resurgence of pure storytelling:
• "A lot of agencies have almost forgotten the art of storytelling and the art of earned media... Let’s not forget how important earned media is. That’s where PR is."

In this episode of the PRmoment Podcast, Ben Smith and Will Hart, CEO of PRmoment Leaders, engage in a timely debate surrounding the structural integration of public relations and artificial intelligence. 

Moving decisively past the initial "experimental" phase where practitioners simply played with basic prompts, the industry has rapidly arrived at a critical juncture. Today's leaders are forced to confront foundational organizational design questions, evolving agency structures, and entirely new talent profiles.

While Hart highlights the profound excitement of being able to fundamentally rethink traditional operational workflows, Smith offers a grounded counter-perspective: the core objective of public relations—using distinct channels to strategically influence audiences—remains fundamentally unchanged. However, the infrastructure utilized to achieve these goals is shifting dramatically. 

A primary catalyst is the democratisation of predictive analytics; a concept that was once a cost-prohibitive dream for marketers is now an accessible reality for modern PR targeting. 

Yet, this technological leap brings multifaceted risks. Agency leaders are navigating intense client pushback regarding intellectual property security, deepfakes, corporate reputation vulnerabilities, and looming sector-specific compliance regulations.

A significant portion of the dialogue focuses on agency workflows and the existential threat of automation. Smith warns against a reductive approach to AI, noting that if an agency’s sole strategy is the integration of basic tools, it triggers a "race to the bottom" since everyone has access to the same software. 

True competitive advantage relies on human curiosity and the ability to navigate strategic ambiguity. This technical evolution directly challenges the traditional agency pyramid model. As AI automates the "grunt work," leaders must figure out how to train junior entry-level staff who historically relied on those repetitive tasks to learn the trade. 

Concurrently, in-house corporate communications roles are experiencing a major boardroom elevation, transforming CCOs into critical stakeholders guiding their broader enterprises through the AI revolution.

To master these urgent structural friction points, PR professionals should secure tickets to the upcoming AI in PR Masterclass (full agenda details at https://www.prmasterclasses.com/masterclass/pr-masterclasses-ai-in-pr/agenda).

Curated by Smith, this advanced, pitch-free session is not a how to write prompts for ChatGPT tutorial - it’s a high-level strategic activation. The elite speaker lineup includes Sal Della Monica (MikeWorldwide) discussing how to prevent efficiency from diluting work effectiveness, Allison Spray (Burson) exposing AI implementation traps, and Andy Barr revealing critical research on which media titles influence LLM results.

Additionally, leading copyright lawyer Luke English will break down the legal landscape, Mike Robb (Boldspace) will showcase agent-based workflow redesigns, and Kat Arnull will delve into the power of market mix modeling. The day also features a powerhouse corporate panel with in-house communications directors from L&G, Tenable, Procore, and Verizon, wrapped up by Peter Heneghan (Albie) forecasting the ultimate redesign of future communications teams. 

Available both in-person and via virtual live stream, space is strictly limited.

Will Hart on the scale of the AI shift:

"AI in PR got real very quickly. It's massively exciting though. How many times in your life in your working life do you get to be in a place where you can fundamentally rethink everything you do and how you do it."

Ben Smith on the hidden danger of over-automating:

"You might run the most beautifully efficient PR business by integrating AI into your workflow. But if you're not very careful about the quality of your work, your level of insight may well decrease."

Ben Smith on why relying solely on tools backfires:

“If your strategy is the integration of tools and agents in your business, it's a race to the bottom. Because everyone's basically got access to that."

Ben Smith on how predictive analytics solves PR's historical budget issue:

"One of the things that has always had the handbrake on PR budgets is that unpredictability of outcome because there's so many other things going on... but AI has made predictive analytics accessible for a fraction of the historical cost. For PR that is going to change the game"

In this week's edition of the News Review on the PRmoment podcast, host Ben Smith, is joined by industry heavyweights Mark Borkowski and Angie Moxham to dissect one of the most significant political crisis management events of the year: 

Nicola Sturgeon’s high-stakes sit-down interview with Laura Kuenssberg on the BBC. Following her estranged husband Peter Murrell’s recent guilty plea to embezzling over £400,000 from the SNP, the former First Minister faced an intense 55-minute interrogation aimed at shifting the narrative from political complicity to personal betrayal.

Ben kicks off the discussion by questioning whether the interview succeeded in separating Sturgeon’s personal reputation from the unfolding financial scandal of the party she led for nearly a decade. 

Mark Borkowski offers a sharp critique of the crisis communications strategy, noting that while Sturgeon’s performance was emotionally raw—particularly when discussing a £425 necklace bought with stolen funds—it ultimately struggled under the weight of incredulity. He argues that her core defense—claiming she had no "conscious memory" of a massive motorhome parked outside her mother-in-law's house—strained public belief, leaving the "brand" of Sturgeon severely damaged despite her formidable media skills.

Angie Moxham shifts the lens toward the gender dynamics and long-term reputational impact. Moxham observes that Sturgeon deliberately weaponized a highly relatable narrative: the trope of a successful woman being unfairly blamed for the hidden, fraudulent actions of the man in her life. While Angie acknowledges that this framing could resonate strongly with a core segment of the public and female voters, she questions whether it can truly repair the massive trust deficit currently facing the SNP. 

Moxham analyzes how the "personal vs. political" mashup plays out for independent brand survival, noting that Sturgeon’s insistence that she is “serving a sentence for a crime I did not commit” effectively positions her as the primary victim, eclipsing the independence donors whose money was actually taken.

The panel agrees that while the BBC gave Sturgeon the necessary space to outline her trauma and bewilderment, the interview highlights the near-impossible task of separating a leader's legacy from systemic organizational failure. Ultimately, the review concludes that while Sturgeon successfully reminded the public of her formidable communication prowess, the sheer volume of high-value goods involved makes an absolute reputational recovery unlikely.

Finally, Ben closes the segment with an important industry notice, urging listeners to submit their entries for the upcoming Creative Moment Awards before the final entry deadline on June 19th.

You can watch the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg Interview to see the exact moment Nicola Sturgeon addresses the embezzlement scandal and discusses the personal toll it has taken on her life.

On this PRmoment podcast today we're chatting about the Nils Leonardgate.

Is comparing earned media creativity and paid media creativity pointless?

I normally have this debate internally in my own head when I watch the annual PR/ad creative bun fight at Cannes but it's come a bit early this year following Uncommon founder Nils Leonard's latest activation of his "let's start a fight' strategy where he says: "The PR industry should be scared, not just of Uncommon but in general."

We’ll also discuss to what extent paid media creative and earned media creatives are similar, and to what extent are they different. Can they ever be compared with much validity?

To talk about all this stuff welcome Hope & Glory co-founder James Gordon Macintosh.

Before we start the final entry deadline to The Creative Moment Awards is on Friday 19th June 2026.

Key Themes
1. Ad Land’s Cyclical "Discovery"

Gordon-Macintosh believes that this is not a paradigm shift, but rather a predictable, cyclical reaction to macroeconomic pressures. Whenever paid media budgets shrink due to client belt-tightening or shifting algorithms, advertising shops look to colonise PR space to protect their revenue lines. Every decade, advertising "discovers" a discipline PR has been practicing for years—whether it's social media, creator marketing, or culture marketing—and rebrands it as something entirely new.

2. Bought vs. Earned Creative Architecture

The structural divergence between advertising creativity and PR creativity forms a central pillar of the debate. Advertising is hardwired for absolute control—agencies write a script, buy the slot, and force eyeballs onto the screen. PR, conversely, requires navigating a chaotic, reactive ecosystem of third-party validation, shifting editorial gatekeepers, and genuine cultural conversations where control is surrendered in exchange for authenticity.

3. The "Infinite Monkey Cage" of Ad-Led PR

While acknowledging Uncommon’s brilliant output (such as Rat Boot and PAIN), Gordon-Macintosh draws a line between flashy stunts and sustainable communication strategy.

Quotes from James Gordon Macintosh:
"Every decade, I'd say advertising discovers something PR has frankly been doing for years, and they try to give it a new name."

"Advertising is about buying your way into the media space—you buy the eyeballs. PR genuinely has to engage with what people are actually talking about."

"If you take an infinite number of monkeys and give them an infinite number of typewriters... mathematically one will eventually write Hamlet. In ad agencies, an earned idea is all too often luck, not skill."

In this episode of the PRmoment Podcast, host Ben Smith sits down with Will Hart, CEO of PRmoment Leaders, to unpack the four most pressing leadership challenges facing senior agency executives. As agencies navigate an era characterized by unprecedented disruption, Hart highlights how leaders are balancing day-to-day business survival with systemic shifts in technology and workforce culture.

Key Themes

• AI Disruption & Governance: Artificial Intelligence is the most pervasive topic across agency masterclasses. The challenge has evolved from initial existential panic to practical governance—determining how to safely integrate AI into client services, agency structures, and junior talent workflows without losing the human element.
• The Multi-Generational Divide: A distinct cultural fault line has emerged between pre-COVID and post-COVID workforces. Gen Z and junior practitioners prioritize hard boundaries and work-life balance, contrasting sharply with the traditional, "always-on" agency culture of the past.
• The Unsettled Hybrid Work Model: The debate over hybrid working remains volatile. While client-side CEOs increasingly demand five-day in-office weeks, agencies are attempting to maintain flexible structures (typically a 3:2 model) to retain talent, with proximity and commute times dictating employee satisfaction.
• High Performance in Hyper-Competitive Markets: Leaders are forced to maintain profitability, pitch constantly, and deliver exceptional creative work while fundamentally restructuring their businesses.

On AI Panic: > "If you work hard, you're motivated, and you're intelligent... you're going to be alright. It's a tool for you to earn more. You don't need to panic." — Ben Smith

Elevate Your Agency: Join the Latest Semester of PRmoment Leaders

Are you a senior PR agency leader trying to navigate these exact friction points alone? You don't have to. The latest semester of PRmoment Leaders has officially kicked off, offering an exclusive, private community where over 30 agency bosses openly share challenges, benchmarks, and strategies.

This semester features an unmissable masterclass lineup designed to solve modern agency pain points:

• Clara Biu (Allwyn UK): On the evolving talent profile required for modern in-house teams.
• Bruce McLachlan (Amazon): Revealing "10 things I wish I’d known when running an agency."
• Nicola Green (Virgin Media O2): On elevating comms to the board level without a CMO.
• Thierry Ngutegure (Six Chillies): On the intersection of SEO, data, and PR storytelling.
• Frankie Cory (Hello Tomorrow): On building a modern agency from scratch with AI at its core.
• Ben Smith (PRmoment): Breaking down macro-trends and insights from over 430 podcast interviews.

Click here to learn more about PRmoment Leaders and secure your place for the next cohort!

Stay Ahead of the Comms Curve! As discussed in this week's news review, modern public relations requires a bold, adaptive approach to narrative building and corporate communication. To ensure your skills remain razor-sharp in an evolving digital landscape, don't miss PRmoment's AI in PR Masterclass. Learn how to ethically and effectively leverage cutting-edge artificial intelligence tools to supercharge your campaigns, streamline insights, and manage modern brand reputations. 👉 Secure your spot today: PRmoment's AI in PR Masterclass

Authentic executive communication vs. corporate sanitisation The podcast opens with a fascinating critique of Swatch CEO Nick Hayek’s unconventional Radio 4 interview. While mainstream commentators rapidly branded the appearance a catastrophic failure, Mark Borkowski and Angie Moxham offer a refreshing counter-perspective. Borkowski highlights Hayek’s raw, completely unscripted communication style as distinctly "Trump-like," celebrating its absolute lack of rigid media training or an "antiseptic approach." Instead of cowering behind safe, predictable corporate scripts, Hayek projected the inherent confidence and personality of the family-run brand. The panel agrees that modern consumers actively reject over-sanitized rhetoric, preferring unvarnished transparency. As Borkowski notes, "Bland, antiseptic, vanilla talk does not connect." Moxham adds that Swatch treats its consumer base as "fans" rather than mere purchasers, cultivating an intense, scarcity-driven demand similar to the fanaticism seen at high-profile pop concerts.

Calculated narrative building and strategic influencer campaigns The discussion then shifts to the recent "Spygate" football controversy involving Middlesbrough and Southampton. Host Ben Smith expresses admiration for the remarkably disciplined and highly effective influencer campaign orchestrated by Middlesbrough’s comms team and chairman, Steve Gibson. Rather than dumping information all at once, Middlesbrough carefully built their narrative over time. They secured top-tier legal representation, briefed cooperative ex-players, and systematically leaked damning photographs of an opposing spy to friendly journalists. This proactive storytelling successfully controlled the public agenda, forcing Southampton into a defensive crouch. Because Southampton’s legal constraints left their communications team completely silent, the resulting media vacuum was instantly filled with a narrative of guilt. Borkowski notes that this explosive media distraction even provided a convenient shield for broader network crises elsewhere in the television industry.

The drastic financial stakes of modern sports public relations The final segment delves into the massive financial and emotional pressures defining sports PR. While football thrives on the raw passion of its fans, the institutional machinery is driven by economic survival and the elusive £200 million windfall associated with Premier League promotion. When a crisis hits and a brand or club is completely caught red-handed, traditional public relations defenses fall entirely flat. Reflecting on his own team's visual guilt, host Ben Smith delivers a sharp industry reality check: "In PR, you can't shine a shit." Moxham concurs that in such scenarios, the only option left for a comms director is to turn off the phone and hide. Ultimately, the panel concludes that while fans bear the emotional brunt, the club owners face the true economic impact, constantly balancing high-stakes operational risks against highly volatile public narratives.

In this episode of the PRmoment Podcast, host Ben Smith sits down with the industry’s veteran commentators, Mark Borkowski and Angie Moxham, to dissect the shifting boundaries of media integrity, agency workflows, and national political communication. Together, the panel delivers a timely analysis of an industry facing an existential crisis of trust.

Here's the link to PRmoment's PR Masterclass AI in PR.

1. The threat AI "make-believe" journalists

The episode kicks off with a sobering discussion centered on tech journalist Rob Waugh's latest reporting in the Press Gazette. Waugh exposes an industrial-scale manipulation scheme where entirely fabricated, AI-generated journalist personas have successfully placed hundreds of articles across major global business titles. These ghost writers are systematically deployed to surreptitiously plug crypto schemes, tech startups, and corporate interests.

Borkowski notes that while propaganda and astroturfing are legacy tactics, generative AI scales them to a terrifying degree. The panel recalls the recent Cannes Lions scandal, where an entry won a prestigious award using entirely fabricated media coverage out of South America, highlighting a systemic vulnerability where agencies prioritize superficial metrics over verification. Moxham points out that this "phantom press" is the inevitable consequence of traditional newsrooms being hollowed out by massive redundancies, leaving overstretched editorial teams vulnerable to automated deception.

2. "Back to the Future": The PR revival

In response to this rising tide of automated noise, Moxham champions a radical return to traditional PR foundations—a strategy she calls "back to the future." As algorithmic content compromises independent media, the panel predicts a massive audience backlash that will drive consumers back to trusted, verified heritage brands.

For PR practitioners, the antidote to AI replication is raw human connection. Moxham sharply critiques the modern tendency of junior agency staff to act like "monkeys on a typewriter," hiding behind digital data and email grids. Instead, she urges a revival of "white-eyeballing it"—picking up the phone, pressing the flesh, and stepping out of the office to build deep client and media rapport. Borkowski echoes this, identifying a generational deficit where younger professionals struggle to navigate real-time phone conversations, even as overstretched journalists operate like "galley slaves" with little time to meet. Ultimately, the panel agrees that personal networks are the only asset guaranteed to survive a career, suggesting modern alternatives like personalized WhatsApp voice notes to maintain a high-touch human presence.

3. Political Vacuums and the Power of the Soundbite

Shifting to national politics, the conversation turns to the brewing leadership crisis within the Labour Party. With the party locked in a high-stakes strategic vacuum ahead of a pivotal, by-election, Moxham views Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham as Labour's strongest candidate to stabilize market confidence and protect the country's recent economic growth metrics.

Analyzing the broader communication landscape, Borkowski argues that while figures like Keir Starmer are fundamentally decent, they struggle because they project robotic corporate brands. 

Conversely, populists like Nigel Farage excel because they understand that modern audiences react emotionally to punchy soundbites rather than structured paragraphs. Farage operates masterfully as a "soundbite man," fearlessly voicing the exact grievances an unsettled electorate is thinking. The panel concludes with a stark warning: Reform UK is poised to deploy its deep pockets and sophisticated social media apparatus to destabilize Labour's By-election campaign.

This latest PRmoment podcast with Grayling's Tom Symondson explores AI integration in public relations.

Tom simplifies the process into 3 themes:

AI Integration and Strategy
Agencies will implement AI by prioritizing internal efficiency and service innovation. Implementation success requires depth over breadth to maximize impact.

Human Augmentation and Risks
AI should serve as an augmentation tool to support experts rather than replacing critical thinking. Teams must guard against efficiency-focused work becoming low quality.

Operationalizing AI Implementation
Agencies should decentralize AI expertise by embedding champions within teams instead of separate hubs. Prioritizing repetitive tasks allows firms to scale high-value client services.

If you want to learn more about how the future of PR will be impacted by AI, don't miss PRmoment's PR Masterclass: AI in PR.

Details

• Introduction and Optimistic Outlook on AI in PR: Ben Smith welcomed Tom Symondson, who co-leads Accordience's AI team, to discuss the impact of AI on the PR agency model.
• Tom Symondson expressed extreme optimism about AI's impact, asserting that core PR skills like relationships, experience, creativity, bravery, and judgment are irreplaceable. They suggested that AI will automate tasks that are not highly valued by clients or consultants, such as general research and formatting of monitoring reports, allowing consultants to focus on high-value analysis and strategic input.
• Emerging Opportunities and UK Investment: Tom Symondson identified that AI will generate new mandates, clients, and revenue streams, particularly around technology-focused businesses, crises, and regulation issues stemming from AI. They expressed optimism about the UK industry's potential benefit from significant investments in large language models (LLMs) by companies like Anthropic and OpenAI in London and the UK. 
• Three Approaches for AI Implementation in PR: Agencies are anticipated to approach AI integration in three primary ways: improving internal efficiency, changing how client work is currently delivered, and creating entirely new tools and service lines that become new revenue streams. 
• The internal efficiency focus involves automating or augmenting repeatable, client-invisible backend functions such as transcribing meetings, building action lists, and reporting processes. Tom Symondson noted that businesses should focus on depth over breadth, selecting one area for the biggest impact before moving on to the next.
• Understanding AI Augmentation: AI augmentation, distinct from replacement, refers to the technology supporting human experts rather than substituting them, particularly because much of the PR industry's work requires nuance. Tom Symondson gave the example of using an enterprise LLM system for new business research, where the tool supports initial framing but does not replace the consultant’s own deep research process. They emphasized that the challenge for agencies is mapping out where this augmentation will have the greatest impact and providing training to take advantage of the tools.
• Obstacles to Successfully Embedding AI: The three main obstacles to integrating AI into an organization are cost, data and readiness risk, and time. Cost arises because enterprise-level access to AI tools is often high, and data readiness requires extensive security and system sign-off. Tom Symondson identified time as the biggest obstacle, as consultants need more time to experiment with different prompts and processes to understand the full range of AI's impact on their work.
• The Risk of Efficiency Over Effectiveness: Ben Smith cautioned that the "race to efficiency" can be a "race to the bottom" if not carefully managed. Tom Symondson agreed, noting the risk that increased automation could lead to less expert consultants if technology performs more research than people. The opportunity lies in using the time saved by AI to allow consultants to specialize further, for example, spending more time networking, attending events, or researching clients.
• The Role of Human Judgment and Criticality: Ben Smith highlighted the necessity of retaining a critical mind because LLMs, while able to generate answers quickly, still produce errors.
• Tom Symondson added that LLMs are excellent with structured data; therefore, agencies must connect their LLMs to accurate data tools, in addition to training colleagues on drafting effective prompts and knowing when to use the technology. They cited the doubling of AI's ability to complete long tasks every seven months, projecting that in 14 months, AI could complete a 40-hour human task.
• Importance of Openness and Ownership in AI Use: Tom Symondson stressed the need for consultants and agencies to use AI appropriately, ensuring it augments and supports work, rather than replacing critical thinking. A crucial element is fostering a culture of transparency where people are open about how they used AI for research, including what worked well, what struggled, and what human work was needed to finalize the product. This transparency ensures that people maintain ownership of the work product, balancing efficiency with quality.
• Innovation and Use Case Clarity: Ben Smith noted increased innovation in PR firms over the last 18 months, which Tom Symondson attributed to the significantly reduced ease and cost of experimentation, allowing someone to build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in a weekend. However, Tom Symondson suggested that there might be less innovation this year as the industry moves toward a "substance phase," focusing on embedding existing AI use cases across the organization.
• Creative Quality and the Need for Uniquely Human Work: Tom Symondson identified the risk of "AI slop" or ideas that look and feel similar due to over-reliance on AI-generated content (e.g., AI writing, image, or PowerPoint generation). Great creative agencies will continue to succeed because their ideas are expected to feel "uniquely human" and grounded in culture, emotional intelligence (EQ), and personality.
• Operationalizing AI Implementation Across Agencies: Recognizing that time is a major barrier for busy teams, Tom Symondson emphasized the McKinsey principle that depth is more critical than breadth when implementing AI.
• Identifying and Managing Repetitive Tasks: In the internal productivity bucket, agencies focus on automating repeatable tasks, such as templating monitoring reports from spreadsheets into client emails, which Tom Symondson estimated could number in the thousands.
• Structure for AI Implementation and Expert Teams: The practical implementation of AI is highly decentralized, residing within the agencies themselves. Instead of a separate AI hub, teams have AI champions who are client-facing staff who integrate AI into their normal day jobs. Tom Symondson stressed the importance of having people work on AI who are connected to the day-to-day client work.
• The Opportunity for PR Compared to Other Marcom Sectors: Tom Symondson suggested that because PR is less structured and repeatable than sectors like production or media buying, the impact of AI is different, offering more opportunity for PR. 
• AI will improve PR's ability to measure and articulate the value of its work by making it easier to structure and analyze diverse data sources. The discussion concluded that in the long term, AI will not replace talent, but rather reduce the fee earned from less-valued tasks, while increasing revenue from high-value services that require judgment, advice, and impactful results.

This PRmoment podcast looks at the PR pitch market in the UK and the PR M&A activity for April 2026.

PRmoment founder Ben Smith interviews Andrew Bloch.

Andrew also runs the advisory firm Andrew Bloch & Associates.

Pitch Market - 
Trading has been generally positive and the market remains resilient, with many agencies out performing expectations. However, operational pressures are evident, including slower client response times and higher-than-expected inflation causing rising costs and impacting profitability. Transparent conversations around value, output, and outcomes are becoming increasingly critical as both sides navigate a more complex and cost-sensitive landscape. Agencies will be closely monitoring the impact of global events but for now, many are benefiting from momentum built in Q1, which shows little sign of slowing. By month-end, most agencies should have a clearer view of the year ahead.

M&A Market - 
M&A activity points to a market increasingly driven by capability consolidation, specialist expertise and tech-enabled differentiation. Large holding groups are continuing to make targeted acquisitions to deepen strengths in high-growth areas such as social, influencer, sports marketing and experiential, with a clear focus on building more connected, end-to-end communications ecosystems. 
Private equity remains active in backing platform-building businesses and specialist agencies with strong vertical expertise, particularly where there is an opportunity to internationalise, professionalise or bolt on proprietary tech and data assets. 

We are also seeing growing value placed on owned technology, data and creator/influencer platforms as acquirers look for defensible IP and measurable ROI. 
Alongside strategic and PE-led deals, founder succession and management buyouts continue to shape the independent agency landscape, while newer niche businesses are increasingly carving out value through highly defined audience propositions before either scaling independently or becoming attractive acquisition targets. 

Overall, the market remains robust for differentiated assets that combine specialist sector expertise, scalable international reach and technology-led or measurable service offerings.