Communicators embrace tools like AI and LinkedIn at rapid pace, report says

By the numbers: Muck Rack surveyed 1,089 PR professionals between June 5 and July 16 and found that roughly 6 in 10 say AI will grow in importance over the next five years.

• Other future priorities for communications teams include media relations (35%), strategic planning (33%) and reputation management (29%) followed, along with influencer marketing and owned content (28%).
• Of note, only 4% cite DEI or ESG communications as a future priority.

State of play: Currently, 84% say media relations is the top job function, however, securing media placements has never been more difficult, per the survey.

• 72% cited low response rates from journalists as a key obstacle to securing media, while 62% pointed to shrinking newsrooms and 48% cited shorter news cycles.

As such, many are turning to owned platforms to generate interest or appeal directly to consumers, investors and employees.

• LinkedIn is the most valuable social platform for PR pros (56%) by a long shot, followed by Instagram (16%) and X (11%).
• Only 2% view TikTok as valuable and only 1% say Reddit and YouTube is valuable for their PR efforts.

The intrigue: 39% of PR pros say they've stopped using X for professional purposes in the past year, making it the most frequently abandoned platform by a wide margin.

• However, rival platforms like Bluesky and Threads have not replaced it.

What to watch: As communicators rely more heavily on social media platforms, they must also re-evaluate how they are monitoring the conversation and measuring the impact of these efforts.

• A whopping 53% of PR pros say they don't use social listening tools.

More on Axios:

• Companies embrace in-person interviews to dodge the chatbots