South Africa, Feb. 3 -- Pitches started sounding eerily similar, lacking the spark that makes a story stand out in a journalist's inbox.

In 2025, PR professionals jumped on the AI bandwagon because no one wanted to be left behind, but we're now seeing that too many pitches are starting to sound the same.

Journalists aren't binning emails because AI wrote them; they're deleting them because they blend into the noise, stripped of that human touch that crafts a truly compelling narrative.

Finding that sweet spot

The problem isn't AI itself; it's treating it as a replacement rather than a collaborator.

Over-reliance has led to generic outputs, where creativity takes a backseat to convenience. However, 2026 is set to flip the script.

Thi...