Public Relations Practitioners’ Role in the Artificial Intelligence Era: Evolving Toward Critical and Socially Responsible Practitioners

Recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have significantly reshaped public relations practice. As more practitioners integrate AI into their work, the traditional manager-technician role typology is undergoing significant redefinition. Thus, this study uses in-depth interviews with U.S. practitioners to investigate the resulting changes in scope, function, and professional identity. Findings reveal that practitioners’ roles are evolving toward a human-machine hybrid model characterized by AI fluency, ethical stewardship, and strategic interpretation of AI-generated outputs. This study argues that as AI integration accelerates, the managerial role must expand to include an ethical advisor role; applying a socio-technical systems (STS) theory reveals that AI does not merely add a new tool to public relations practice but necessitates a partial realignment of practitioners’ roles to balance AI adoption with social accountability. Synthesizing these insights, this study introduces a new framework that defines public relations roles in the AI era.