The USC Center for Public Relations’ 2025 Relevance Report, AI Activated, provides valuable insights from communications leaders who are eagerly embracing artificial intelligence to streamline and differentiate their team’s everyday work.

Written as an AI guidebook for PR professionals, the Relevance Report shares the views of nearly 50 corporate communications leaders, tech executives and academics on how agencies and companies can benefit from a culture of innovation. The collection of essays was curated by the Center for Public Relations, in collaboration with Microsoft, which authored four essays.

The perspectives in the 2025 Relevance Report reflect a range of opportunities and challenges AI brings to the PR industry:

• Frank X. Shaw, Microsoft’s chief communications officer explains how AI sharpens their storytelling and enables them stay relevant.
   
• WE Communications CEO Melissa Waggener Zorkin writes of the need for creating strong organizational cultures that support experimentation and learning, which she believes will empower employees and lead to greater overall success with AI.
   
• Venture capitalist Mark Stevens, a USC Board of Trustees member, posits that AI’s potential to replace human jobs is tempered by the argument that AI can empower workers to focus on creative and strategic tasks.
   
• Golin’s Jeff Beringer notes that AI adoption drives cultural shifts in PR agencies, with leadership building “cultures of experimentation.”
   
• Grubhub’s Dave Tovar shared his team’s recent experience using AI to help drive a successful consumer-focused PR campaign. 
   
• USC Annenberg’s Christina Bellantoni outlines how the media are addressing misinformation being generated through AI.

Other contributors include corporate communications leaders from Merck, Experian, IBM and Optiv, and agency executives from Edelman, Burson and Day One.

“A year ago, fears dominated the conversation, but now we see big PR agencies appointing chief AI officers to drive innovation and corporations experimenting with AI in every aspect of their business,” said USC Center for Public Relations Director Fred Cook. “This is just the beginning.”

The Relevance Report from the USC Center for Public Relations is an annual publication showcasing the industry's future as viewed by agency and corporate communications leaders and university academics. Previous editions forecasted the post-pandemic workplace, reviewed cause marketing, profiled future leaders, and analyzed marketing and tech PR trends.