Global Women in PR opens 2026 Annual Index with new AI focus
Global Women in PR (GWPR) has opened its 2026 Annual Index for responses, inviting women across agency, in-house, freelance and consultancy PR roles to participate in what the organisation describes as the only global survey tracking the experiences of women in public relations and communications.
The Index, conducted annually since 2019 in partnership with Opinium Research, adds a new section this year examining artificial intelligence. The AI module will explore how tools are being used across content drafting, campaign measurement, research, graphics generation and recruitment assistance, as well as the concerns women in the sector hold about the technology's longer-term effects.
What the 2025 data showed
Prior-year results give context to the 2026 edition. The 2025 Index found that the share of respondents reporting male-dominated boardrooms fell from 61% in 2024 to 51% in 2025, a notable single-year shift. Despite that movement, 85% of 2025 respondents said more action was still needed to secure greater boardroom representation for women. The study also flagged persistent barriers including caring responsibilities, inflexible working, limited transparency in promotion processes, and a reduction in visible diversity, equity and inclusion commitments from employers.
Susan Hardwick, co-founder of GWPR, said the 2026 AI section was a direct response to changes already under way in the profession. "AI is already changing the way PR professionals work, but we need to understand what that means for women's careers, skills development, entry-level opportunities and future leadership," she said. "AI brings enormous opportunity, but we must make sure it does not create new barriers or widen existing inequalities."
Co-founder Loretta Ahmed, speaking to the survey's particular relevance for the MENA region, noted that communications firms across the Middle East and North Africa were adopting new technology quickly. She emphasised the risk that AI adoption, if unmanaged, could disproportionately reduce pathways for women entering the profession.
AI and the talent pipeline
The concerns captured in the 2026 survey design reflect a broader debate across knowledge-work industries. AI-assisted content generation raises questions about whether early-career practitioners will have fewer opportunities to develop editorial and strategic judgement through hands-on work. Similar issues have surfaced in legal, financial services and consulting sectors, where junior roles traditionally provided the training ground for future leadership.
For the PR industry specifically, the stakes are sharpened by its existing gender-representation challenges. If AI tools are adopted unevenly across seniority levels, or if the technical skills required to deploy them effectively are concentrated among workers who already have greater access to training budgets, the effect could reinforce rather than reduce existing disparities.
GWPR has not stated when full 2026 results will be published, beyond "later this year." The survey is open globally, with the organisation noting that regional participation, particularly from MENA, is important to ensuring results reflect the full breadth of the global PR workforce.
The Index findings, when published, will sit alongside a growing body of industry research on AI and workforce composition. Regulators and standards bodies including the EU AI Act provisions on high-risk automated decision-making in recruitment and the UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission guidance on algorithmic hiring tools are increasingly relevant to how communications firms deploy AI in people processes.