What's next for PR? HK industry players on the new trust equation

Communications professionals across Asia are entering a pivotal new era, as artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly becomes a more accessible and practical tool. This shift presents both challenges and opportunities, empowering communicators to expand their roles as strategic builders of trust, insight, and human connection.

According to the white paper AI Adoption Among PR Professionals in Asia 2025 by One Asia Communications (OAC), practitioners across the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly embracing AI with strategic intent, optimism, and a strong sense of responsibility. 

Over half actively use AI daily, while others have limited experience, often experimenting with free tools. India and Malaysia show broader integration in media analysis and content, while Hong Kong is more cautious due to time, budget, or lack of clear frameworks.

Overall, 58% of respondents view AI as a positive influence on the communications field, while 80% highlight the need for formal training in its use. The most common applications include content creation, trend analysis, and performance tracking—alongside a growing emphasis on ethics, transparency, and data privacy.

Let's hear from PR professionals MARKETING-INTERACTIVE spoke with across Hong Kong on what are their top priorities in the coming year. 

Sofia Yip, head of brand, Gen Z Lab APAC lead, Edelman Hong Kong

Today, 80% of people trust the brands they use more than government, media, NGOs, or even employers. Even as economic headwinds tighten consumption and consumer attention spans shrink, this trust shows brands still hold strong potential to lead.

That potential starts with grasping emerging generational realities, such as Gen Z's demand for unfiltered authenticity and the untapped potential of the 55+ demographic. Monetisation will span tailored products and experiences for these groups—from FMCG, travel, and finance to wellness across all walks of life. Younger audiences are moving away from conspicuous consumption toward choices rooted in brand promise.

The 55+ segment commands 50% of global consumer spending power yet faces insufficient tailored experiences to match. In the very near future, we'll see a surge of market initiatives targeting all these— brands that haven't started exploring or investing in it now will find themselves playing catch-up too late.

Building on these shifts, AI remains the hot topic as a tool to amplify them: While it can accelerate many tasks, one thing large language models (LLMs) still struggle to replicate is an earned mindset—the ability to craft culturally resonant ideas that spark emotion and make headlines. AI guarantees speed, but not the depth, nuance, or originality required for compelling storytelling and meaningful engagement. These earned ideas also feed Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), shaping how brands are discovered in an increasingly AI-driven landscape.

Earned ideas that nail cultural nuance won't just survive—they'll continue to define the winners.

Crystal Wai, managing director, 5ives Communications 

“The next major shift will be the move from visibility to meaningful relevance. As AI-driven discovery replaces traditional browsing behaviours, audiences are becoming more discerning and values-led. PR will no longer be only about mass exposure; it will be about crafting narratives that feel authentic, culturally grounded, and deeply resonant. Brands will need to earn attention through purpose-led stories instead of relying on broad reach.

While AI will naturally integrate into daily PR workflows — from smarter monitoring to accelerated content development — but the real focus isn’t on adopting every new tool. It’s on using technology to enhance creative thinking, sharpen strategic clarity, and free up humans to do what machines cannot: understand emotion, culture, and context. The winning formula will be AI-enabled efficiency paired with human intuition. My priority is to humanise communications in an AI-first world. That means deepening community connection, working closely with trusted creators, and ensuring every brand story is anchored in purpose.” 

Carol Yeung, managing director, Golin Hong Kong 

PR is increasingly shifting from reputation-building to ROI-driven communications. Brands now demand quantifiable business impact—business conversion, lead generation, and customer acquisition metrics. This elevates PR from a support function to one of the core business growth drivers, requiring teams to be more integrated with marketing efforts and understand data analytics alongside traditional storytelling.  

We're becoming a fully AI-integrated agency. In September this year, we launched "First Answer"—our AI visibility platform helping brands dominate AI search results. This is based on a critical insight that up to 90% of AI-generated responses are pulled from earned media sources. As consumers increasingly rely on AI for recommendations, brands must optimise for AI discovery, creating a new discipline alongside traditional SEO. 

Following our Hong Kong office's double-digit growth in 2025, we're continuing our upward trajectory with strategic investments in AI infrastructure and training, talent acquisition, and refreshed service offerings such as AI optimisation and integrated communications solutions. We're balancing growth ambitions with operational excellence to ensure sustainable expansion. 

Art and culture remains one of the key growth drivers. We're seeing two powerful trends: art becoming more accessible in Hong Kong with broader public appreciation, and brands increasingly using art to convey narratives and nurture emerging talent. As Hong Kong solidifies its position as Asia's cultural hub—driven by major international exhibitions—we're expanding our portfolio supporting institutions such as Tai Kwun, Hong Kong Arts Development Council, PMQ, Hong Kong Design Centre, and corporations entering this space. 

Charles Lankester, EVP, global reputation, Ruder Finn Asia 

There are three. First, the growing in-sourcing (aka pinching) of smart agency talent. Clients are building “in-house agencies” very effectively for much of the “ongoing” communications work.   

Second, greater and greater reliance on agencies for complex, difficult assignments that need proven experience. Crisis, litigation, brand strategy and reputation advisory are all areas where our phone does not stop pinging.   

Third, proof of value. This is always the holy grail of PR, but the vast array of new tech is already making the fluffy stuff far more measurable and granular.

In terms of tech, we are developing a very cool product (let’s call in Project X-Ray for now) with a team of AI and data scientists. It will basically help clients identify trouble at the first ping with the goal of mitigating any reputational risk in real-time. Not 24 hours later. Example: Astronomer would have managed the Coldplay issue (much) better with X-Ray. 

Looking at money, we are going in pretty flat on revenues YOY but all signs are there are definite signs of growing optimism and activity. Our pipeline has tripled in the past four weeks as an example. 

Our one key area of focus? Partnership. We are very fortunate to have some of the brightest in the industry at Ruder Finn Asia: we know as our people are always getting pinched – see above! We are also honoured to be working with great clients where there is mutual respect, a shared mission and strong collegiality. Often even affection! When strong partnerships form the base of any business, careers thrive, great work is created and clients and colleagues see the results they achieve. 

Carbo Yu, regional executive director, Sinclair 

“The next wave reshaping PR is brand reputation at scale in the AI era. As AI levels the playing field on speed and reach, it also commoditises content and accelerates misinformation and AI hallucinations. The key differentiator for communicating with target audiences is whether content comes from verifiable, credible sources. Brands will compete on proof and usefulness, not just polish for views. PR is central to earning that trust while sustaining human-led creative flair in campaign and communications planning.     

PR now has one more stakeholder to manage:  AI agents. These AI systems prioritise authoritative and structured information. PR and communications teams should create the content that media, influencers and platforms can easily pick up, and that AI systems can reliably ingest and interpret.     

Owned websites matter more than ever with AI in the mix. Our owned domains should be the source of truth. When was the last time you refreshed your brand website and content?   

As for “new” tools, expect the market to prioritise a “human-in-the-loop-ai” approach. Teams will use AI model orchestration for research, multilingual content production that is both SEO and GEO optmised, and then elevate outputs with human judgement and creative direction. 

AI will obviously widen the upper funnel by increasing discovery and consideration. Conversion still happens when communications feel personal and trustworthy. The next big task for PR is to stay both discoverable and desirable, with culturally fluent storytelling that people can relate to and want to share.” 

Kate Kwan, managing director, Greater China, TEAM LEWIS

The next big wave will undoubtedly be AI, particularly in the space of content creation and the automation of audience targeting. These advancements are set to completely change how we deliver and measure results for brands. We have been constantly developing new offerings, including those in the space of AIO and AI-driven campaigns, which enable us to exponentially increase brand visibility among target audiences. On top of tracking and campaign automation and optimisation, AIO will continue to be an essential part of our integrated services.

As consumers increasingly turn to AI tools instead of using search engines for answers, we know that a well-executed AIO strategy will help to maximise a brand’s earned media results. for AI search results. Combined with a strong PR strategy focused on citations in credible and frequently cited publications, we will targets sources cited by AI models.   

We plan to increase our investment in AI marketing and creative engineering, building on the foundation we’ve established over the past several years. This is embodied in the launch of our Pacific Creative Hub (PCH), a state-of-the-art studio facility housing a team of specialists in creative design, UI/UX, website development, and video production in Malaysia last year. This not only supports the region but allows us to adopt a “follow-the-sun” approach with our studios in UK and the US to create content for clients regardless of time zone. 

IIn 2026, my primary focus will be supporting Chinese brands as they expand globally. Our new Shenzhen offering and strong expertise in the technology space, combined with our extensive global network means we are well-positioned to deliver comprehensive go-to-market strategies for these brands.

Kevin On, general manager, The Hoffman Agency, Hong Kong

Everyone will be looking for some shape or form of AI to do things better, faster and smarter. For the PR industry, the real shift isn’t about which AI tools to use—but how and where to apply them. Whether you're in-house or at an agency, GenAI should go beyond content creation. Think productivity as much as creativity. Clients expect smarter strategies and better time management. The value also lies in how AI and automation enhance teams, streamline operations, and impact the bottom line. Embracing this requires intentional experimentation and integration, and that’s the real transformation. 

In early 2025, The Hoffman Agency began rethinking brand visibility for the AI era—shifting focus from page rank to prompt power. As discovery increasingly happens through AI-generated answers, we asked: how do brands measure and improve that visibility? This led to the launch of GEDI (Generative Engine Discovery Insights), a platform that reveals how brands are represented in LLMs and what shapes those answers. The real winners in 2026 won’t chase fleeting engagement—they’ll build thought leadership and relevant stories that AI systems want to reference and amplify, which is our core strength as communication specialists. 

Technology is able to solve most business challenges and in 2026, we will only see more investments in AI and cloud infrastructure, workflow and business process automation, and human-centric tech that can enhance workforce productivity, collaboration and upskilling. This momentum means more work for our clients and our agency, which is a very encouraging sign. To anticipate this growth, we are also budgeting for additional headcounts, especially tech geeks, creative storytellers and people who are always asking ‘what next?’. 

As the leading integrated communication tech consultancy, our core competency and focus lie in making sense of complexity. From the complexities that come with geopolitics impacting supply chain and trade to helping businesses to discover the commercial benefits from GenAI to Agentic AI, there’s likely technology that needs explaining. This is where The Hoffman Agency will continue to focus on, and it’s what we do best. 

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