From Claude to Perplexity, the changing role of answer engines in PR
As answer engines rise and the world becomes noisier, communicators face a make-or-break moment. Are you ready?
The noise level is not a temporary condition.
War, oil price swings, revised economic forecasts on both sides of the Atlantic: these aren't isolated disruptions. They're the operating environment now. And inside that environment, every organisation is still expected to deliver results that move markets, shift opinion, and change behaviour. The pressure on communications teams hasn't eased because the world got harder. It's intensified.
Marketing budgets are under scrutiny everywhere. Clients are asking sharper questions about what they're actually getting: reputation enhancement, measurable demand generation, real enterprise impact. Vague assurances about brand building don't survive that conversation anymore.
AI is reshaping information and opinions
Meanwhile, the infrastructure that communications has relied on for two decades is being rebuilt underneath us.
AI is reshaping how people find information and form opinions. Answer engines are displacing traditional search. And the numbers are starting to show it: Press Gazette recently reported that 30 of the 50 biggest US news websites saw double-digit year-on-year traffic declines in February, per Similarweb data. The UK picture looks different for now. According to Ipsos iris data, six of the top ten UK newsbrands reported audience growth in January 2026. But that divergence won't last indefinitely. The structural shift is the same on both sides.
Discoverability is no longer a function of good content and consistent publishing. It has to be engineered for a world where AI systems are increasingly the first point of contact between a brand and its audience. If an organisation isn't visible in that layer, it's invisible in a growing share of the information environment, full stop.
This is what "every company needs to act like a tech company" actually means in practice. Not a rebrand or a chatbot. Cross-platform AI visibility, content optimised for generative search, predictive analytics that surface risks and opportunities before they become crises. These are communications functions now, not IT functions. The organisations that recognise that are building something durable. The ones waiting for clarity are ceding ground.
How brands communicate in the AI age
Earlier this year, the Agentic Organizations 2026 Report, produced in partnership with the House of Beautiful Business launched at Davos, offering a framework for exactly this challenge. The core finding wasn't about technology adoption. It was about communication: how brands need to show up, earn trust, and stay legible in a world where machine intelligence is mediating more and more of the relationship between organisations and their audiences. That's a communications problem before it's anything else.
The craft at the centre of this profession, the ability to build credibility, shape narrative, and counsel leaders under pressure, matters more in this environment, not less. But it has to operate inside a different infrastructure. Data-backed narrative development instead of instinct-led storytelling. Agentic AI handling execution so senior practitioners can focus on judgment. The communications leaders who get that right will define the next decade of influence. The argument was never about whether to adapt. It's about how fast.
Grant Toups is the global CEO of Hotwire & ROI DNA.
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