Guide: AI in business › PR and communication in the age of AI
AI media monitoring collects brand mentions from traditional media (press, radio, television), news sites and social media, and artificial intelligence helps sort them, assess their tone and pick out what needs a response. The tool provides data. The conclusions, that is, what those mentions mean for the company and what needs to be done, are still drawn by a person. Below we explain how to choose a tool, what it costs and which tasks to hand over to AI and which are better not.
In 60 seconds Monitoring in a nutshell
- How it works: a system continuously collects publications and statements about the company, and AI organises, summarises and assesses their tone.
- Who will find it useful: companies that want to know about a problem before their customers and board do, and those that measure PR results.
- Prices: according to September 2026 price lists, from PLN 180 net per keyword in one medium (IMM) and from PLN 399 net a month for an online tool (Brand24).
- Where to start: with the keywords and sources your customers actually read. Not with the biggest package.
- Weak spot: automatic tone assessment confuses irony with praise, so a person should always check a sample.
What is AI media monitoring?
Media monitoring is the continuous collection of everything the media and internet users say about a company and its brands, its board members and its competitors. It used to mean press cuttings and radio recordings. Today it is a system that searches thousands of sources every few minutes and sends the results to an inbox or dashboard.
AI adds a layer of organisation on top. It removes duplicates and reprints, groups mentions into topics, summarises the day and assesses tone. An example from the market: since 21 May 2024 IMM has offered clients a Brief AI feature that creates an automatic summary of the most frequently covered topics based on editorial material. We wrote about what monitoring is traditionally used for in assessing image in our piece on media monitoring as a tool for analysing corporate image, and you will see how this tool fits into the wider use of AI in communications in our guide to AI tools and applications in business.
Media monitoring, brand monitoring or internet monitoring?
These names are often used interchangeably. Providers understand them differently, though, so before comparing offers check exactly what the package includes, because the same service name can mean a completely different set of sources. The Polish market has both classic media monitoring providers and internet monitoring tools. A company often needs both, because journalists and customers read different things.
Jeśli klienci to zakupowcy dużych firm, zwykle wystarczy monitoring prasy, radia i telewizji plus portale branżowe. Gdy sprzedajesz konsumentom, monitoring mediów społecznościowych przestaje być dodatkiem i staje się podstawą, bo tam skarga pojawia się pierwsza.
| Type | What it covers | When it is enough |
|---|---|---|
| Media monitoring | press, news sites, radio, television, often with transcription | when opinion-forming and trade media matter |
| Internet monitoring | news sites, blogs, forums, reviews, social media, podcasts | when customers talk about the brand mainly online |
| Brand monitoring | company name, products, board members’ names across all channels | when the goal is reputation and early warning |
| AI answer monitoring | what ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity say about the company | when customers look for suppliers through AI models |
Who is media monitoring for, and in what situation does it pay off?
Monitoring pays off on one condition. Someone in the company must have the time and the mandate to act on the results; otherwise the report lands in an inbox, nobody opens it and the subscription is paid for nothing. The most common situations are:
- a consumer company where a complaint on social media can become a story on news sites within an hour,
- a B2B company that runs media relations and wants to know what sticks in the trade press,
- a company ahead of a launch, transaction or board change, when every mention counts,
- an employer in the middle of recruitment or restructuring that needs to hear the voice of employees and candidates,
- a company that wants to compare its media presence with its competitors.
Sentiment analysis: what AI judges well and where it gets it wrong
Sentiment analysis is the automatic assessment of whether a mention is positive, negative or neutral. In its September 2026 price list Brand24 includes it in all paid plans, and the higher tiers add, among other things, an AI assistant and detection of sudden events. Features like these save hours of reading.
The weak spots are predictable: irony (“oh great, broken for the third time”), industry jargon, the inflection of names in Polish, neutral texts on a difficult subject. The model may also classify as negative a factual report of a crisis in which the company comes out well. A simple test before you buy? Feed the system ten mentions whose tone you know and count how many it rated the same way you did. We break down the pitfalls of tone assessment in our piece on sentiment analysis.
Ocena tonu wzmianek to więc punkt wyjścia do rozmowy, a nie werdykt. Traktuj ją jak pierwszy szkic, który ktoś z zespołu podpisuje albo poprawia.
Jak Commwork®AI zamienia wzmianki w decyzje
Narzędzie do monitoringu mówi, że ktoś napisał. Nie mówi, czy to ważne i kto ma coś z tym zrobić. Commwork®AI dokłada do nasłuchu osiem warstw analizy i sprawdza, co o marce mówią modele AI, a zespół Commplace® zamienia to w rekomendacje. O reakcji decyduje człowiek.
- social media 41%
- Portale i blogi 27%
- Prasa branżowa 16%
- Radio i telewizja 9%
- Responses from AI models 7%
- 21.05.2024IMM udostępnia klientom podsumowania Brief AI
- Week 2Lista haseł z odmianami i wykluczeniami gotowa
- Week 3Test tonu na 10 wzmiankach zakończony
- Week 4Alarm z właścicielem i dyżurem po godzinach
- Tydzień 10Pierwsze porównanie z trzema konkurentami
- Week 12Raport efektów PR z rekomendacjami
- 01Hasła i źródła
- 02Test na 10 wzmiankach
- 03Osiem warstw analizy
- 04Alarm z właścicielem
- 05Measuring the effect
- Po monitoringu dokłada osiem warstw: kontekst i wagę źródła, dotarcie do grup, lukę, konkurencję, prognozę tematu, warianty reakcji i zadanie z właścicielem.
- Łączy kilka abonamentów nasłuchu w jeden strumień i odsiewa szum, zawsze pokazując, ile sygnałów odrzucił i dlaczego.
- Mierzy według normy uczciwego pomiaru działanie, odbiór, efekt i wpływ osobno, bez ekwiwalentu reklamowego, a przy kryzysie działa plan z tekstu o AI in crisis communication.
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.
What should you hand over to AI, and what not?
A good division of labour looks like this: AI takes what is repetitive and quantitative. The person stays with judgement, relationships with people and responsibility.
Najwięcej pracy zostaje po stronie człowieka przy wadze wzmianki. Dlatego w Commwork®AI system po samym nasłuchu dokładamy osiem warstw: wagę źródła, to, czy wzmianka dotarła do Twoich grup odbiorców, lukę wobec konkurencji i prognozę, czy temat urośnie. Z kilkudziesięciu sygnałów dziennie na ekran trafia kilkanaście, każdy z powodem, a system zawsze mówi, ile odrzucił.
| AI does well | Stays with a human |
|---|---|
| removing duplicates and reprints | judging whether a mention matters to the business |
| grouping mentions into topics | deciding whether and how to respond |
| initial tone assessment | checking a sample (AI confuses irony with praise) |
| a morning summary of the day | talking to a journalist |
| an alert when mentions suddenly rise | judging whether it's a crisis or just noise |
How to choose a media monitoring tool step by step
Every tool’s demo looks good. The differences only show up on your keywords and your sources, so start your choice with a test on your own data, not with a sales presentation.
- STEP 01List the keywords and sources
The company name with its variants and abbreviations, brands, board members’ names, competitors. Plus a list of the media your customers read, including trade and local titles and, if it matters to you, radio and television.
- STEP 02Test the Polish language on your own examples
Enter a name that inflects or is ambiguous. See how much noise comes in and whether the system copes with abbreviations and irony.
- STEP 03Measure speed and alerts
How many minutes after publication does a mention appear in the system? Does the alert about a sudden spike arrive before a crisis develops?
- STEP 04Check whether the tone assessment can be corrected
Can you see on what basis the system assigned it? And does your manual correction then stay in the reports?
- STEP 05Assess the reports and data access
Does the report show anything beyond the number of mentions and reach? Can the data be exported and combined with other company data, for example the sales system?
- STEP 06Calculate the total cost
Subscription plus the team’s time spent reviewing and cleaning results. A cheaper tool that buries the team in noise can end up more expensive overall.
How much does media monitoring cost?
Prices depend on the number of keywords, the type of media and the number of users. Some providers publish price lists; others quote individually. Below are public prices checked on 24 September 2026 and the factors that increase the cost. This is a reference point, not a recommendation of a specific tool.
Na czym oszczędzić, a na czym nie? Tnij liczbę haseł, które nic nie wnoszą, ale nie tnij czasu na interpretację, bo to on zamienia wzmianki w decyzje. Jeśli wolisz dostać gotowe wnioski zamiast surowej listy, zobacz, jak wygląda monitoring mediów i marki z interpretacją dla zarządu.
| Item | Example public price | What drives the cost |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional media monitoring | IMM: PLN 180 net per keyword in a selected medium per month | number of keywords and media (press, radio, TV, internet) |
| Broadcast item on request | IMM: PLN 90 net per item | number of items and transcripts |
| Internet monitoring with AI | Brand24: from PLN 399 net a month (4 keywords), PLN 299 with annual payment | number of keywords, users and AI features |
| Review and report for the board | individual quote | frequency, language, depth of analysis |
| Team time | internal cost | amount of noise and quality of filters |
AI model answers as a new source for monitoring
In 2026 monitoring gains a source that most tools do not cover: what ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity say about the company. Muck Rack’s “State of PR 2026” report shows that only 25% of PR professionals monitor brand mentions in AI answers, and 17% track traffic from AI tools to their website.
Why does it matter? A model repeats what it has found in the media, including old allegations and out-of-date offers. We described a manual measurement method in our piece on AI visibility audits, and where models get their information about companies is explained in our article on AI PR and the publications that shape ChatGPT’s answers. When a model states something untrue, see also our piece on AI hallucinations.
How do you measure PR results based on monitoring?
Liczba wzmianek i zasięg to dopiero pierwszy poziom. Standard pomiaru komunikacji AMEC rozdziela cztery poziomy: działania, odbiór, efekt, wpływ na biznes. Monitoring dobrze mierzy odbiór, czyli to, gdzie i w jakim tonie o firmie napisano. Efekt i wpływ wymagają innych danych: ankiet, zapytań ofertowych, wyników rekrutacji. Pojedyncza Press mention w tytule czytanym przez Twoich klientów może więc ważyć więcej niż sto przedruków, choć w zestawieniu ilościowym wygląda skromnie.
We do not convert coverage into “what the advertising would have cost”. This metric, known as advertising value equivalency, does not measure impact and the industry standard rejects it; we set out the reasons on the page why not advertising value equivalency. We write about how to combine monitoring with day-to-day work with journalists in our piece on media relations. What in press releases themselves increases the chance of coverage is shown in our analysis 1,796 press releases in the age of AI.
Monitoring w 90 dni na przykładzie, z listą kontrolną
Przykład do wyobrażenia, nie opis realizacji. Producent B2B z trzema markami prowadzi media relations i chce wiedzieć, co z nich zostaje. W pierwszym miesiącu spisuje hasła (nazwa z odmianami, marki, dwa nazwiska zarządu, trzech konkurentów) i testuje dwa narzędzia na dziesięciu wzmiankach o znanym tonie. Według publicznych cenników z 24 września 2026 roku trzy hasła w prasie w IMM to 540 zł netto miesięcznie, a podstawowy plan Brand24 to 399 zł netto, czyli razem niecały tysiąc złotych plus czas zespołu. W drugim miesiącu firma ustawia alarm z właścicielem i jedną stronę porannego przeglądu. W trzecim porównuje swoją obecność z konkurencją i pierwszy raz sprawdza, co mówią o niej modele AI. Taki monitoring konkurencji w mediach często pokazuje więcej niż własne wzmianki.
Zanim podpiszesz umowę, przejdź przez listę. Każdy punkt powinien mieć odpowiedź „tak” albo termin, kiedy będzie.
Pytania do dostawcy są cztery i warto je zadać na piśmie. Ile minut mija od publikacji do pojawienia się wzmianki w panelu? Czy moje ręczne poprawki tonu zostają w raportach? Czy mogę wyeksportować surowe dane i połączyć je z danymi sprzedaży? Co dzieje się z danymi po zakończeniu umowy? Moment na zmianę przychodzi szybko: jeśli po dwóch tygodniach testu więcej niż połowa wzmianek w panelu to szum, zmień hasła albo narzędzie, zanim zapłacisz za rok. Pomiar efektów PR, który z tego wyrasta, porządkuje model opisany na stronie pomiaru PR według AMEC, a wskaźniki do raportu podpowie tekst z przykładami KPI. Gdy wzmianka okaże się fałszywym nagraniem, przyda się poradnik o deepfake’ach i ich rozpoznawaniu, a gdy burza zaczyna się w komentarzach, nasze zasady na kryzysy w social media.
- lista haseł z odmianami i wykluczeniami, sprawdzona na prawdziwych wzmiankach,
- lista mediów, które czytają Twoi klienci, z zaznaczeniem, które są najważniejsze,
- test tonu na dziesięciu wzmiankach o znanej ocenie,
- alarm z osobą, która go odbiera, także poza godzinami pracy,
- raport, który kończy się decyzją lub rekomendacją, a nie tylko liczbą wzmianek,
- comiesięczny pomiar tego, co o firmie mówią modele AI.
When to implement monitoring, and when a simpler solution is enough
Switch on continuous monitoring before a launch, campaign, board change or transaction, not after the first article that caught you off guard. A crisis alert only makes sense if it is clear who receives it outside working hours and what they do in the first hour. You will find a plan for such a response, quarter-hour by quarter-hour, in our piece on crises caused by deepfakes and false information.
A small local business that is rarely written about can start with free search engine alerts and a weekly manual review of reviews. When mentions exceed a few dozen a week or the company runs active PR, a manual review is no longer enough. Want to hand over monitoring together with interpretation and recommendations for the board? See how Commplace® runs media and brand monitoring. A broader overview of tools, organised by task rather than rankings, is in our overview of AI tools for business.
How companies waste monitoring data
More keywords and sources mean more noise. A team that wades through hundreds of irrelevant mentions every day stops reading the reports after two weeks, including the important ones.
A report saying “80% positive mentions” built on unchecked sentiment analysis can hide a growing problem. And a board decision based on such data is a decision based on chance.
A notification about a sudden spike in mentions that arrives on a Friday evening in a shared inbox is worthless. The crisis grows over the weekend and the company finds out about it on Monday.
Big numbers look good in a presentation but do not tell you whether customers changed their minds or whether enquiries came in. A PR budget defended with such numbers loses at finance’s first hard question.
A company may have clean media monitoring while ChatGPT is giving customers its old offer or allegations from years ago. Without this measurement the problem stays invisible until a customer mentions it.
Questions about monitoring we hear when clients choose a tool
How much does media monitoring cost?
It depends on the number of keywords, the type of media and the number of users. According to price lists checked on 24 September 2026, IMM charges PLN 180 net a month per keyword in a selected medium, and Brand24’s cheapest plan costs PLN 399 net a month. Add the team’s time for reviewing results on top of the subscription.
Ile kosztuje monitoring mediów dla małej firmy?
Mała firma, o której pisze się rzadko, może zacząć bez abonamentu: od darmowych alertów w wyszukiwarce i cotygodniowego przeglądu opinii. Gdy potrzebny jest stały monitoring internetu, najtańszy plan Brand24 kosztował we wrześniu 2026 roku 399 zł netto miesięcznie (299 zł przy płatności rocznej). Do ceny narzędzia dolicz czas osoby, która czyta wyniki i decyduje o reakcji, bo bez niej nawet najniższa cena abonamentu to pieniądze wydane na nic.
How is media monitoring different from internet monitoring?
Media monitoring usually covers traditional media and news sites, often with radio and television. Internet monitoring focuses on the web: blogs, forums, customer reviews and social media. Many companies need both, because customers and journalists read different sources.
What is sentiment analysis?
Sentiment analysis is the automatic assessment of whether a brand mention is positive, negative or neutral. It saves time when there are many mentions, but it gets irony, industry jargon and difficult subjects wrong, which is why a person should check a sample of the results.
Can media monitoring be outsourced to an agency?
Yes. A PR agency uses monitoring tools but delivers something different: selecting what matters, interpretation and a recommendation for action. At Commplace we run, among other things, daily media monitoring and reports with analysis for the board, also in English for international companies.
How quickly will monitoring detect a crisis?
A well-configured alert for a sudden spike in mentions notifies you within minutes to hours of the first online publications. As important as the tool is who receives the alert and whether they have a ready response plan for the first hour.
Do monitoring tools check what ChatGPT says about the company?
Most classic tools do not. Measuring AI model answers usually has to be done separately: using a fixed list of customer questions, repeated monthly in several AI tools. According to Muck Rack, 25% of PR professionals do this.
How often should you read a media monitoring report?
Alerts in real time, a short summary daily, a full report with interpretation once a month or once a quarter. The board needs conclusions and recommendations, not a list of every mention.
Sources
- SOURCE
- SOURCEIMM: How much does media monitoring cost? · as of 24 September 2026
- SOURCE
- SOURCEBrand24: pricing · as of 24 September 2026
Read next
Dostaniesz monitoring z interpretacją: co ważne, co z tego wynika dla firmy i kto ma zareagować, a do tego pomiar tego, co o firmie mówią modele AI. Pierwszy krok to wspólna lista haseł i źródeł.
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.