Guide: AI in business › PR and communication in the age of AI
A press release in the AI era has two readers: a journalist who decides in a few seconds, and an AI model that may quote it months later in an answer about your company. We analysed 1,796 press releases from 74 companies published in the Commplace® newsroom between 2019 and 2026. Releases are getting longer, increasingly talk about artificial intelligence, and almost nine in ten give a voice to an expert. What follows from this, and how to write with the help of AI without losing credibility? That is what this article is about.
In 60 seconds Press releases in brief
- In one sentence: a press release is a short text with one message for the media. Once it is online, AI models read it too.
- When to send: when you have real news, for example a launch, your own data, results, a board change or a comment on an important event in your sector.
- Where the money goes: in the expert's time and in preparing data, not in the writing itself. The budget grows with the number of newsrooms and language versions.
- Starting point: one sentence about what happened and why it matters to the reader. The AI tool comes only after that.
- Hard limit: AI does not invent figures or quotes, and every text is checked and signed off by a human.
What does the data from 1,796 releases show?
We collected all the releases published in the Commplace newsroom from January 2019 to 22 September 2026. This is a picture of one newsroom, not of the whole market. The method and limitations are described in the Commplace Press Release Barometer, and the key indicators are below:
| Indicator | Result |
|---|---|
| Half of the 2021 releases were up to… | 597 words |
| Half of the 2026 releases are up to… | 740 words |
| Mention of artificial intelligence: 2022–2023 / 2026 | 3,3% / 11,9% |
| Includes a percentage figure | 49.8% of releases |
| Reference to a study, report or data | 39,3% |
| Expert quote | 86,6% |
| Headline in the form of a question | 39,1% |
| Headline longer than 70 characters | 49,4% |
| Published Monday to Thursday | 81% |
What is a press release when AI models read it too?
Press release (otherwise press release) is a text in which the company sends one message to the media: what happened, who is affected, why it matters. The basis, or the lead, the pyramid reversed and contact information are discussed in our guide how to write a press release.
What has changed is what happens to the text after it is sent. The release goes to the newsroom, trade websites and articles, and from there to search engines and AI models. In its study “What Is AI Reading?” from May 2026, Muck Rack calculated that journalism makes up 27% of the sources cited by ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, and more than half of the journalistic texts cited are less than a year old. A clear, dated release with data therefore has a second life. It becomes a source of answers about the company. How this translates into brand visibility is explained in our article on AI PR and what ChatGPT says about companies, and you can read about where communications fits into the whole implementation of artificial intelligence in the guide “Artificial intelligence in business”.
The term „AI press release” has therefore two meanings today. It refers to text prepared with the help of tools, but also to text that is read by models after publication. This guide applies to both, because one cannot function without the other.
Why is AI changing the way press releases are written?
For two reasons. First, journalists receive more material than ever, yet reply less often. In Muck Rack's “State of PR 2026” report, 71% of PR professionals report a low response rate from journalists, 61% report shrinking media lists in their sector, and 49% send a single pitch to more than 20 journalists. A release has to stand up in its first sentence.
The second reason: the same industry is writing with AI on a massive scale. According to the same report, 80% of PR professionals already use generative AI at work, so the result is easy to predict — newsroom inboxes are flooded with similar-sounding texts that are hard to tell apart. The winner is whoever has specific news, a figure with a source and an expert opinion that cannot be generated.
When does a press release make sense, and when not?
A press release is for conveying news. Not for “being in the media”. It works when a company has something a journalist can pass on to readers without reworking it:
- your own sector data (a survey, a comparison, a report with a described method),
- a launch of a product or service that changes something for customers,
- a board change, an investment, a new plant, entry into a market,
- an expert comment on an event the media are already writing about,
- a correction or clarification in a crisis (how to act when a crisis is fuelled by AI is described in our article on crisis communication in the age of AI).
How Commwork®AI measures what remains after press information
After sending a message, publications usually count and that’s it. Commwork®AI adds importance to the source and reaching your target groups by monitoring, and in addition, it checks whether the message appears in the responses of eight AI engines. The Commplace® team turns this into a plan for future topics, and the decision is made by a human being.
- Industry media 41%
- Business websites 22%
- Regional portals 18%
- Press office and aggregators 12%
- National media 7%
- 2.08.2026Art. 50 AI Act: principles of disclosing content from AI
- 22.09.2026Barometer: analysis of 1796 press office messages
- Week 2One sentence message and a list of editors
- Week 4Data report ready for shipment
- Week 8Expert's comment on the day the GUS data were published
- Week 12Measuring publication, tone, and citations in AI
- 01Choosing the message
- 02Data and expert
- 03Editorial selection
- 04Publication and listening
- 05Measuring the impact
- After media monitoring, additional layers are added: the source’s credibility, reaching the target group, the gap compared to the competition, and a prediction as to whether the topic will grow in popularity.
- It measures according to the standard of fair measurement, i.e., the action, reception, effect, and impact individually, without pricing the publication as an advertising equivalent.
- It checks in eight AI engines whether your key messages are getting through to the answers. Why this matters for sales, we explain in the article AI PR and visibility in ChatGPT.
The view reproduced is modeled after the dashboards provided to customers. The names, numbers, and terms are examples and show the way the system works, not the results of a specific company.
How to write a press release with the help of AI, step by step
AI is useful for organising material, headline variants and shortening. It is not suitable for making up content. The order below protects against the most common blunders, and we break good instructions for models down into parts in the article how to write prompts for ChatGPT and Gemini.
- STEP 01News first, tool second
Write down in one sentence what happened and why it matters to the reader. Can't do it? Neither can AI.
- STEP 02A headline that makes sense within the first 70 characters
Half of the headlines in our newsroom are longer. Check that the meaning is not lost when an inbox or search engine shows only the beginning. This is where AI helps, because in a minute it will suggest several variants to choose from.
- STEP 03Every figure with a source and a date
Every second release contains a percentage, but a figure is only valuable when you know where it comes from. Never let AI “fill in” data. Models can produce a figure that sounds credible and does not exist.
- STEP 04An expert statement that adds an opinion
86.6% of releases include an expert statement, so the mere presence of a quote does not make anyone stand out. What stands out is a quote that says something not found in the rest of the text. It must come from a human and be approved by them.
- STEP 05AI as a topic only when it is news
The share of releases about artificial intelligence has risen to 11.9%. Adding AI as a buzzword weakens credibility with journalists who read dozens of such texts.
- STEP 06Human review and sign-off
A named person checks the facts and takes responsibility for the text. This is also the condition under which a text on public matters does not need to be labelled as AI-generated.
What a journalist needs and what an AI model needs
The good news is that both readers largely want the same thing. The differences concern details that are easy to add without spoiling the text, such as an expert's full credit line or a date next to every figure.
The question often arises as to how many words should a press release have. In our press office, half of the 2026 messages have up to 740 words, and in 2021 that limit was 597 words; so the texts are getting longer. Don’t treat this as a standard. The length should come from the message, and the most important facts are still at the beginning, because that’s where both the journalist and the model look for them.
| Element | Journalist | AI model |
|---|---|---|
| First sentence | news they can pass on | a self-contained sentence to quote |
| Figures | with a source, to be checked | with a source and date in the text |
| Expert | an opinion not found in the rest of the text | first name, surname, position, company |
| Company name | once, without adjectives | consistent with other sources |
| Place of publication | inbox, media page | public newsroom and trade websites |
| Length | as long as the news requires | the most important facts at the start |
How much does a press release cost and what drives the budget?
Writing the text itself is the smallest part of the cost. Money and time go into preparing the news, the data, the expert's work and reaching the right newsrooms. The table shows what the budget for one release consists of.
Do you count whether it was worth it? Look at the publications, at whether Press mention It carries your message, on their tone and presence in the AI responses, rather than on the number of emails sent. Tracking this without manually reviewing hundreds of results is easier AI media monitoring. We do it in Commwork®AI system, Which, after monitoring, weighs the source and checks whether the message appears in the responses of eight AI engines.
Do you want to go through this table on a specific topic and check if it is already news for the media? Commplace public relations team it will start with one sentence and the editorial board's list, and only then with the text.
| Item | What it covers | What drives the cost |
|---|---|---|
| News and topic | choosing the angle, checking whether it is news | whether the company has data or needs to collect it |
| Data and sources | survey, comparison, verification of figures | sample size, method, data rights |
| Text and expert | writing, quote, approvals | number of approvers, expert's availability |
| Distribution | list of newsrooms, versions tailored to titles | number of media outlets, sectors and languages |
| Measurement | publications, tone, presence in AI answers | measurement period and number of tools |
When should you send a press release?
In our data, 81% of releases are published from Monday to Thursday, 14.6% on Fridays and 4.5% at weekends. Most publications in the newsroom appear between 12:00 and 15:00 — as many as 34.5% of all of them. Note: these are publication times in the newsroom, not proof of best effectiveness.
More important than the day of the week is the rhythm of the newsroom and the sector. A weekly closes its issue on a different day from a web portal, and a comment on new GUS (Statistics Poland) data makes sense on the day of their publication, not a week later. With big news, it is better to brief a few journalists in advance than to send everything to everyone at once. How to build such relationships for years is covered in the article on media relations.
When planning the timing, also think about AI models. The press release stays online for years, and Muck Rack counted that more than half of the journalistic texts cited by AI are less than a year old. Freshness matters. If the data has changed, publish an update with a new date instead of relying on the model to find a newer version on its own.
List before shipment and plan for quarterly communications
The decision threshold for messages looks different than for tools. You don’t ask whether AI is worth it; you just ask whether the topic deserves a post. A simple rule: if you don’t indicate three editorial teams whose readers will get something new from this message, instead of a message prepare an expert comment or a blog post. After a quarter, count how many posts your publications with your message generated, and compare the result with the previous quarter with a similar number of posts. One weak quarter doesn’t mean anything yet. Two consecutive ones are already a sign that the problem lies in the selection of topics, not in the editorial teams.
When the press release is to be sent to the agencies, ask about a few things before signing the order. Where will you get the list of editors and when did you last check it? Who will prepare the expert quote in the press release and who will approve it? How will you measure whether the message appeared in publications and in AI responses? Will the report show the tone and weight of the sources, or just the number of mentions? You can safely reject the proposal to price the publication in PLN as an equivalent of advertising. We explain in the text why this number says nothing about the effect. about why we don't count advertising equivalents.
Before sending anything, answer six questions. It takes only five minutes, and it saves on shipping costs that no one is interested in.
- Is the message contained in a single sentence that a journalist can pass on?
- Does the title of a press release make sense in the first 70 characters?
- Does every number have a source and date in the text itself?
- Does the expert's statement say something that is not included in the rest of the communication, and has the expert approved it?
- Do you know if AI content tagging applies to graphics or recordings attached to the material?
- Will the message be sent to the public press office so that AI models can find it?
Does a press release written with AI need to be labelled?
Article 50 of the EU AI Act, applicable from 2 August 2026, requires disclosure that a text has been generated or altered by AI when it is published to inform the public on matters of public interest. In its guidance on Article 50, the European Commission points to an exception: a text that has undergone human editorial review, where a person or company takes responsibility for it. A mere spelling check is not such a review.
What does this mean for a spokesperson? A release prepared with the help of AI but checked for substance and signed off by the spokesperson usually does not need to be labelled. It is different with a generated photo or recording depicting real people or places, because such material must be labelled. We have collected details and examples in the article on labelling AI content from 2 August 2026. This is not legal advice. If in doubt, consult a lawyer about the specific case.
How to combine the speed of AI with quality control across the whole content department, from releases to expert articles, is shown in the article on copywriting and content marketing with AI. And if you prefer to hand the entire process over to a team that will find the message, get it to the editorial department and measure the effect, see how we conduct it public relations.
Blunders that make a journalist write off the sender
A quote generated by AI and attributed to a real person without their approval is a legal and reputational risk. A single correction from an expert costs more trust than ten good releases will build.
A figure “from ChatGPT” for which no study can be named may be an AI hallucination. A journalist who spots it will write off the sender for a long time, and an AI model may then repeat the wrong figure in its answers.
Financial results before publication or transaction details pasted into a free chat can end up where they shouldn't. For such texts, use company tools with training on your data switched off.
Mass mailing lowers the response rate and teaches journalists to ignore the sender. Ten tailored versions sent to ten of the right people usually achieve more than a hundred identical emails.
A release about “using artificial intelligence” with no specifics (what exactly, and with what effect) sounds like hundreds of others. It damages the credibility of the whole company, including for its next, genuine news.
The questions about press releases we are asked most often
How many words should a press release have?
There is no single standard. In the Commplace newsroom, half of the releases from 2026 are up to 740 words long; five years earlier they were up to 597. Length is not a virtue: the most important news should be in the headline and the first paragraph, with the rest developing it.
When is the best time to publish a press release?
In Commplace data, 81% of releases are published from Monday to Thursday, and 34.5% between 12:00 and 15:00. These are, however, publication times, not proof of best effectiveness, so match the timing to the rhythm of specific newsrooms and events in your sector.
Can press releases be written entirely by AI?
Technically yes, but it is a bad idea. AI is good at organising material, suggesting headline variants and shortening text. But it does not know the news, has no relationships with journalists and is not responsible for the accuracy of the data, so the text must be reviewed and signed off by a human.
How do you write a press release that ChatGPT will quote?
Start with one self-contained sentence containing the news, give figures with a source and a date, and credit experts by first name, surname and position. Publish the text in a public newsroom, not just in an email. Models draw on what they find online.
Does a press release written with the help of AI need to be labelled?
Usually not, if the text has undergone a substantive human review and the company takes responsibility for it. Article 50 of the AI Act provides for this exception. Generated images or recordings that could be taken as real, however, must be labelled.
What is the difference between “informacja prasowa” and “komunikat prasowy”?
In Polish companies these are usually the same texts and both terms are used interchangeably. Some use “komunikat” for a shorter, more formal message, such as a board statement, and “informacja prasowa” for a text with background and data, supplemented by an expert statement.
How often should a company send press releases?
As often as it has real news. A steady rhythm helps, but a release without news does more harm than good, because it teaches journalists to skip the sender. One strong release a month is better than four weak ones.
Sources
- SOURCECommplace: Press Release Barometer 2019–2026 — an analysis of 1,796 releases · 22 September 2026
- SOURCE
- SOURCE
- SOURCEEuropean Commission: transparency obligations under Article 50 of the AI Act (FAQ) · as of 24 September 2026
- SOURCEAI Act, Article 50 — text of the provision · as of 24 September 2026
Read next
You will receive an assessment of whether your message is news, help in preparing the data and an expert quote, as well as a list of relevant editorial teams. After publication, we check what has been published in the media and in AI responses. Start by discussing the next communication.
Sebastian Kopiej, President of Commplace®. In public relations since 1996. Text prepared with the help of AI tools and fact-checked by the author. Data current as of September 29, 2026.