Ẹnitan Kẹhinde

Is PR Still Worth Banking On?

I do this every year. Take time off. Step away from the day-to-day. Ask myself the hard questions.

But this year feels different.

This year, I’m genuinely asking: Does PR have a future? Do I have a future in it?

I’ve spent a decade in this industry. Built campaigns for some of the world’s best brands and clients. Coordinated World PR Day for 5+ years, across 6 continents reaching 60M+ people. Led BHM UK for four years.

On paper, I’ve “had a good run”. But here’s what keeps me up at night:

AI can now write press releases in 30 seconds that used to take me about an hour.

Journalists are being laid off by the hundreds. The media landscape we built our careers around is crumbling.

Brands are cutting PR budgets and going direct to consumers on social media.

Influencers with no comms training are replacing carefully crafted brand narratives with authentic (or manufactured-authentic) content.

And I’m sitting here wondering: What exactly have I trained for? What am I building towards?

THE QUESTIONS I’M WRESTLING WITH:

Is strategic thinking enough?

We tell ourselves: “AI can’t do strategy. It can’t understand nuance. It can’t build relationships.”

But is that true? Or is it just what we need to believe to sleep at night?

Are we essential or just expensive?

When budgets get tight, PR is often first on the chopping block. That tells you something about how brands really value what we do.

Meanwhile, performance marketers with clear ROI metrics are untouchable.

Are we preparing for the industry that’s coming, or clinging to the one that’s dying?

I look at my younger colleagues, brilliant, hardworking, passionate about comms, and I wonder: Am I giving them good career advice? Or am I like a travel agent in 2005 telling them there’s a bright future ahead?

THE UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH:

The PR industry as I knew it when I started in 2015 is already gone.

The media relations playbook I learned? Increasingly irrelevant.

The crisis comms frameworks? Need complete rethinking for the rapidly changing pace of things.

The influencer strategies? Gets outdated every few months.

And yet… I’m still here. We’re all still here.

WHAT I’M REALISING:

Maybe the question isn’t “Does PR have a future?”

Maybe it’s “What does PR become?”

Because brands will always need:

• Someone to help them understand what people actually think (not what they hope people think)
• Someone to translate business objectives into human stories
• Someone to navigate the minefield of culture, politics, and public opinion
• Someone to tell them when they’re about to say something catastrophically stupid
• Someone to build trust in an era where trust is the scarcest commodity

Those needs aren’t disappearing. But the job title “PR Professional” might be.

We might become:

• Cultural strategists
• Trust architects
• Narrative designers
• Reputation engineers
• Community builders
• Crisis navigators

Same core skills. Different packaging. Different expectations. Different tools.

WHAT I’M BETTING ON:

I’m betting that strategic communications expertise becomes more valuable, not less, as AI and automation handle execution.

I’m betting that cultural intelligence and human judgment are the moats AI can’t cross (at least not yet, not fully).

I’m betting that the professionals who survive are the ones who stop defending “PR” and start solving business problems with communications as one tool in a much larger toolkit.

I’m betting that emerging markets, where I’ve built my expertise, will drive the next decade of growth as Western markets saturate.

But honestly? I’m not 100% certain. And that uncertainty is terrifying.

SO HERE’S MY PLAN:

I’m not abandoning ship. But I’m also not pretending the ship isn’t taking on water.

I’m diversifying:

• Building thought leadership (newsletter, speaking, frameworks that outlive individual campaigns)
• Learning AI tools deeply (not just surface-level “ChatGPT for PR” stuff)
• Developing advisory/consulting offerings (helping brands navigate, not just executing for them)
• Creating platforms that aggregate expertise (like World PR Day, building community, not just servicing clients)
• Investing in talent development (if the industry changes, at least I can help others adapt too)

I’m preparing for multiple futures:

• Future A: PR evolves and I evolve with it
• Future B: PR contracts and I pivot to adjacent fields (brand strategy, cultural consulting, talent development)
• Future C: I build something entirely new that uses my skills but isn’t called “PR”

I don’t know which future we’re heading into. But I’m not waiting to find out passively.

MY QUESTION FOR YOU:

Are you asking yourself these questions too?

Are you genuinely confident about the next 10 years in this industry?

Or are you, like me, simultaneously optimistic and terrified?

Because I think we need to talk about this more honestly. Not the performative “PR is dead/PR is alive” debates.

But real conversations about what we’re building, what skills actually matter, what the industry rewards vs. what it says it values.

I don’t have all the answers. I’m genuinely figuring this out in real time.

But I’d rather figure it out in community with other people asking the same questions than pretend I have it all figured out.

So drop a comment. Tell me:

Are you confident about PR’s future? Are you hedging your bets?

Let’s have the real conversation.