Signal AI’s recent investment came in handy as it acquired Memo, bringing its readership data to Signal clients. Meanwhile, publishers are seeking new readers with several AI licensing deals, including a $USD 50 million per year AI licensing deal between Dow Jones and Meta. Product launches this month reflected the same AI-first momentum: from Onclusive launching a unified platform built on a single intelligence layer, to Muck Rack embedding AI visibility scores directly into media outreach workflows. It appears the industry is moving from experimenting with AI to embedding it at the operational core.

February saw the signing of a NATO contract by a Brandwatch and Blackbird.AI consortium, while Gartner’s Communications Predictions report defined how CCOs should be thinking about AI answer engines, measurement budgets, and disinformation risk through to 2029. On the financial side, Pulsar Group’s FY2025 trading update confirmed growth. Lilypath, a platform founded by senior alumni of Omnicom, Talkwalker, and the PR technology community to help executives understand and manage how AI systems interpret their professional authority.

January brought a significant development in industry collaboration with the launch of MT Connect, a platform enabling media monitoring organisations to trade content across markets, while research from Cision, Meltwater and the Reuters Institute all highlighted the impact of AI. The Edelman Trust Barometer revealed 70% of people globally have retreated into an “insular mindset”, unwilling to trust those with different values, and publishers told Reuters Institute they expect search traffic to plummet 43% over the next three years as AI answer engines reshape content discovery.