Public relations AI practices: Neoliberalism, field theory, and professional dispositions within an AI-mediated habitus

Public relations practitioners increasingly turn to artificial intelligence (AI) bots and agentic systems to enhance decision-making, build campaigns, and support stakeholder research. The growth in AI use, however, reflects pressures of neoliberalism influencing everyday practice. Neoliberalism is an ideology that embodies market ideals and a sense of technological inevitability. Within neoliberalism, practitioners may believe they are exercising a degree of autonomy in decision-making, while actually navigating a field pre-structured by market logic and efficiency goals. This article leans on primary theorists Foucault and Bourdieu to explore these AI practices. Interviews with practitioners ( N = 22 ) indicated that neoliberal patterns actively circulate within practitioner AI deployments. They are made apparent in narratives around AI as compulsory to remain competitive, as a mode of self-optimization, and as an efficiency and productivity multiplier. Yet findings revealed the importance of field dispositions (e.g., professional judgment, context, responsibility) within practitioners’ neoliberal habitus. These dispositions reflect the need for a unified approach — fusing human oversight, responsible risk management, and formalized governance — that may bolster professional work. This article concludes that, amid the absence of regulatory frameworks, field dispositions serve an important, even necessary, role for public relations AI implementation.