Public relations and media will be the last to become unemployed in the AI era

Key claim and context

In a WeChat essay republished on Huxiu (虎嗅), columnist Yang Ding Frank (杨丁Frank) argues that public relations and journalists are among the professions least likely to be made redundant by artificial intelligence — provided they focus on creating new, on-the-ground information rather than reprocessing existing data. The piece was written against a backdrop of rising white‑collar anxiety after a widely read blog from Citrini Research warned about “the consequences of surplus intelligence.” It has been reported that the panic prompted many professionals to reassess job security; Yang’s counterargument is that PR and media survive by producing incremental information that AI cannot easily manufacture.

Why field reporting matters

Yang’s central point is simple: interviewing is the core value of both PR and journalism. Human reporters and PR people generate fresh, context-rich material from business floors, farms and communities — sources that feed and correct AI models. Short videos and algorithmic content expanded the supply of media workers, but often at the expense of depth. MiDiA has reportedly projected global creator numbers rising to 1.1 billion by 2032, yet quantity did not equate to quality. If AI primarily draws on credible, original reporting, then rigorous media and proactive PR will become more valuable, not less.

Winners, losers and shifting budgets

The author predicts a harsher fate for shallow advertising and rote middle management. Advertising’s shallow “broad-stroke” work, Yang argues, is easier to automate and will see budgets shrink; it has been reported that some companies are already redirecting funds from short-form ads toward PR and long‑form content to influence AI decisioning. Meanwhile, mid-level managers who merely pass orders without direct engagement are most exposed — AI project tools can widen a single leader’s span of control, reducing the need for redundant layers.

Geopolitics and practical takeaways

Geopolitical factors — from export controls on advanced chips to sanctions affecting access to Western AI models — will shape how quickly automation penetrates China’s media and PR sectors, because model access and compute power matter. Still, Yang concludes that in the near term public relations and serious journalism enter a “golden age” where fieldwork, face‑to‑face reporting and the ability to create new information are the best defenses against automation. Who wants a robot to soothe the public’s soul? For now, audiences and clients appear to prefer the human touch.