I read a lot. It’s an occupational hazard. I notice when something is well written. I also notice when something is off.
Lately, I’m seeing more AI-generated content that passes every surface test. The grammar is clean. The tone is fine. What’s missing is judgment.
Cision’s Inside PR 2026 report surveyed nearly 600 PR professionals in the U.S. and U.K. Ninety-one percent say they’re using generative AI in their workflows. The most in-demand skill for 2026 is storytelling, at 59%. That tells you exactly where the work actually is.
AI doesn’t know your client is three days out from a board vote. It doesn’t know the reporter you’re pitching had a bad experience with your sector last quarter. It doesn’t know when the right move is to say nothing. It produces a draft. It doesn’t make a judgment call.
Research published in the March/April 2026 issue of Harvard Business Review March/April 2026 found that generative AI narrows the gap between novices and midlevel performers, but not between novices and experts. To use AI output well, you still have to know what good looks like. In communications, that’s the whole job.
The craft was never just in the writing. It was in knowing what to say, to whom and when. AI makes that clearer, because now we can see what’s left when the words are handled.
If anything, AI is clarifying the role, not replacing it. When the mechanics of writing are taken care of, what’s left is the part that always mattered most: perspective, timing and the ability to make the right call when the answer isn’t obvious. That’s not a gap AI is closing anytime soon.
Sharon Hegarty is a senior vice president who spends the majority of her days writing and editing. Ironically, AI was used to help craft this blog.
