In a revealing statistic from the world of public relations, approximately 35% of journalists using HARO have opted to filter out pitches that are entirely AI-generated, according to Brett Farmiloe, founder and CEO of Featured, the company that owns HARO. Farmiloe shared these insights on the podcast Let's Talk PR & More, shedding light on how the industry is grappling with the rise of generative AI in media outreach.
"You've got some that prefer that nothing AI generated hits their inbox because let's be honest, plenty of stuff hits the inbox on their end," Farmiloe said. Featured operates HARO, a platform connecting journalists with expert sources since 2008, and Connectively, a searchable database of journalist requests. Every pitch submitted through these platforms is scored by AI detection, giving Featured a unique vantage point on how PR professionals are actually using AI tools—a dataset that is otherwise unavailable because platforms see submitted pitches rather than the workflows that produce them.
Approximately 21% of all pitches on the platform score as 100% AI-generated, Farmiloe revealed. Journalists receiving these pitches can enable a one-click filter to remove them before they hit their inbox. However, Farmiloe noted that this filter is not enabled by default, suggesting the true level of objection might be even higher. "I'd say it's even higher. Like I said, the submission form has that box unchecked by default," he said.
For journalists who leave the box unchecked, the AI score is delivered as a signal rather than a block. Pitches carry a color-coded percentage score and reach the journalist regardless, leaving the decision to them. Featured performs the detection through a partnership with Pangram, an AI detection company. Farmiloe was candid about the limitations, stating, "I think that there's opportunities for false positives. Models are advancing and they're becoming better and better."
Farmiloe attributes the high volume of AI-generated pitching to a strategic misreading of how the channel works. "I think the misconception that a lot of PR pros sometimes have when they approach a platform like HARO is that it's a numbers game," he said. He recommends a framework derived from the HARO acronym: be helpful, be authentic, be relevant, be on time. He relayed a blunt comment from a journalist that encapsulates the dynamic: "I don't want to hear from you until I want to hear from you."
The conversation also delved into broader shifts in the media landscape. Farmiloe said journalists he speaks with commonly report having eight sources of income, including work for multiple publications, Substack, and consulting. He pointed to newsroom contraction, the growth of independent media, and changes in publishing economics as factors driving journalists toward more entrepreneurial models.
This shift is changing what media relations looks like, he argued. As journalists build audiences and depend on the performance and reach of their work, PR professionals may need to think beyond securing a placement and consider how to help coverage reach an audience after publication. Farmiloe also questioned whether traditional metrics like domain authority are still sufficient to determine which media opportunities matter, especially as PR professionals increasingly consider how coverage can influence brands in AI-generated answers. "I think the evaluation part of PR is going through a transformational shift," he said.
These insights underscore the growing tension between efficiency and authenticity in PR, as AI tools become more prevalent. The full episode of Let's Talk PR & More featuring Brett Farmiloe is available here.
