• by Bill Duggan , Yesterday

In advance of the upcoming Association of National Advertisers' (ANA) Advertising Financial Management Conference in Orlando, I had a wide-ranging conversation with PR Council President Kim Sample, who will be speaking at the event about the intersection of PR and procurement and the ever-increasing role of AI. 

Bill Duggan: What most excites you about PR in 2026?

Kim Sample: We are at an inflection point. The rise of AI-generated answers means that brands living only in paid media are becoming invisible at the moment of decision because AI answer engines are trained on trusted, earned sources, not ads. At the same time, CFOs and CMOs are finally recognizing that reputation is a balance sheet asset, not a soft outcome. For a discipline that has spent decades fighting for a seat at the table, that recognition is long overdue and it changes everything about how PR should be bought, measured, and valued.

Duggan: How is AI impacting the PR industry?

Sample: AI is dramatically compressing the time between detecting a signal and taking action. Our agencies are building workflows that move from insight to strategic recommendation in hours rather than days, while maintaining the human judgment that protects clients from risk. The firms that get this right will be able to operate with a speed and precision that changes what clients should expect from their agency partners. The ones that use AI only to cut costs are solving the wrong problem.

Duggan: How do PR Council members interact with client-side marketing procurement?

Sample: Honestly, not as well as any of us would like and that's exactly why I'm looking forward to this conference. When agency leaders, clients, and procurement teams are aligned around a shared definition of success, the results are measurably better. We call that alignment the magic triangle, but too often, procurement engages at the contract stage and steps back, which means the ongoing performance conversation never happens. Closing that gap is a win for everyone.

Duggan: What are the biggest benefits procurement brings to agency relationships?

Sample: Procurement has real leverage to improve outcomes. When procurement ensures that a brief presents a genuine business challenge, a measurable outcome, and a realistic budget, it sets the agency up to do its best work. They can also play an important early-warning role: flagging relationship friction before it becomes a performance problem. The agencies that work best with procurement treat them as a strategic partner, not a gatekeeper. The best procurement teams return the favor.

Duggan: What are the biggest challenges?

Sample: The most common challenge is when cost containment becomes the primary objective -- sometimes to a point that undermines the very outcomes procurement is trying to protect. The clearest example: successive rounds of negotiation that reduce senior talent involvement. Senior judgment is not a luxury in communications; it is the risk management function. When it disappears from a program, risk goes up, not down. A contract that saves money on paper while increasing exposure is not a good deal.

Duggan: Do you see a difference in how members work with procurement versus a decade ago?

Sample: Less than any of us would like, but I am genuinely optimistic that is about to change. PR budgets have historically been smaller than advertising, which means procurement has had less time and attention for our agencies. But as PR expands into influencer marketing, AI-driven earned media, reputation measurement, and multi-channel narrative strategy, the stakes are rising. Procurement teams that understand this new landscape will be better positioned to protect their companies and capture real value. 

Duggan: What are you most looking forward to at the ANA Financial Management Conference?

Sample: The audience. Procurement and finance executives are rigorous, outcome-oriented, and influential. They are making decisions about communications investments that have real business consequences. I’ll be there with two outstanding agency CEOs to share a modern framework for how to buy PR. What to ask for, what to measure, and what to protect in the contract. If we can shift even a few of these leaders toward a more strategic model, that is a win for agencies and for clients. That is what the best partnerships look like.

Duggan: See you in Orlando, Kim.