Who can we trust in 2026?

Happy New Year, friends! There will be plenty of time for positivity later, let’s start with some good old-fashioned doom and gloom. Depending on your sources, 2026 is shaping up to be the year that AI ‘finishes the job’. Human creativity is on the scrapheap, and our jobs are being automated into obsolescence. Trust is dead – from Popes in puffer coats to more sinister voice clone calls from ‘loved ones’ in distress, we can’t even believe what we see or hear anymore.

For those of us who work in and around the printing industry, the familiar ‘print is dead’ refrain is met with an eyeroll. But it’s not a misdiagnosis that is unique to print; catastrophes that never quite materialise as predicted are common across many disciplines. Take public relations and communications – SEO, social media, influencer marketing, and now generative AI are just some of the supposed final coffin nails for PR and comms. For those that have embraced advancement and explored how to incorporate and adapt to these innovations, or at least work closely and collaborate with those that specialise in these areas, the reports of PR’s death seem to have been greatly exaggerated.

However, in my view there is a key difference when it comes to the potential threat to PR and communications. PR’s core strengths, i.e., trust, credibility, context, and third-party validations, have never mattered more. In B2B in particular, trust is now the primary currency. Decision-makers are navigating increasingly complex buying journeys, higher risk, and more noise than ever before. They don’t just want information, they want reassurance.

I am almost certainly biased as a PR professional in the printing industry (and with the added caveat that I don’t really know any different), but we are lucky to have a good number of high-quality and reliable global trade media outlets. Having been a member of the trade press myself before moving into PR and communications and working with them closely since that move, I can say it’s not always easy. Following varied and far-reaching print markets and covering technology, business, trends, people, and more, often globally, while contending with shrinking editorial teams and tighter advertising budgets comes with its fair share of challenges.

But this trusted reporting and insight matters more than ever. Not just for people – the machines think so too. Well, not ‘think’, exactly, but you get my point. As AI tools increasingly become the portal to information, the sources they trust determine what we see. Large Language Models (LLMs) are much more interested in what others are saying about you than what you’re saying about yourself. They want to know what’s corroborated and what stands up to scrutiny.

A 2025 analysis from PR software platform Muck Rack of more than a million AI citation links found that a whopping 90–95% of AI citations come from earned media, so that’s journalism, trade publications, and independent reporting. Editorial media is firmly in the driving seat when it comes to the brand reputation signals that matter to LLMs. When recency is key, i.e. questions about latest trends or recent developments, journalism dominates even more strongly.

So what does this mean for trade media? Well, I can’t claim to have the answers, but in my view, AI is reinforcing its value. In B2B sectors like ours, in which buying decisions are often complex and considered, the credibility available from heavily indexed and frequently cited trade publications is significant.

So, if you’ve ever rolled your eyes at a ‘print is dying’ comment, seeing evolution and innovation where those not in the know see decline and downturn, I know you’ll open your mind when it comes to what is relevant to you in 2026. Perhaps because industry-specific trade publications are among the most cited sources in AI responses for niche B2B queries, being featured in the pages of the most relevant trade outlet for your market seems like a worthy endeavour.  

Or maybe it’s as simple as this: however we’re getting our messages out there, let’s put trust and authenticity front and centre in 2026. Amid the myriad opportunities and risks of the AI age, we can all raise a glass to that.