Since HARO (Help a Reporter Out) relaunched under Featured in April 2025, the service has sent over 100 million emails connecting journalists with sources. Newly released statistics from HARO's 2026 data provide a revealing look at how artificial intelligence, spam, and crowded inboxes are reshaping the dynamic between journalists and PR professionals.
The data shows that 21% of pitches submitted through HARO are entirely AI-generated, a figure that underscores the rapid adoption of AI tools in public relations. However, journalists are pushing back: 35% now choose to block AI-generated pitches when submitting requests. This filtering is not without consequence; HARO bans a user every 23 minutes for spam or terms of service violations, and 32% of journalist requests are rejected during the approval process due to concerns about quality and legitimacy.
The most striking insight is the effectiveness of human-written pitches. According to Brett Farmiloe, CEO of HARO, "Human-written pitches are about 3x more likely to get featured than AI-written ones." He attributes this to the credibility and relevance that human sources bring, noting that "the sources who stand out typically come from fully human teams who can provide credible information, respond to what the journalist actually asked for, and make the journalist's job easier."
HARO employs AI detection technology from Pangram to analyze every pitch, and journalists can report unhelpful pitches, triggering manual review. This layered approach reflects a broader trend: as access to journalists increases, earning their attention becomes more difficult. In increasingly crowded inboxes, relevance, credibility, and expertise are critical for sources to stand out.
The implications for PR professionals are clear. While AI can streamline response generation, it cannot replicate the nuanced understanding and authenticity that journalists value. The data suggests that a hybrid approach—using AI for efficiency but relying on human expertise for quality—may be the most effective strategy. As the volume of communication grows, the ability to provide genuine, targeted insights will become the key differentiator in securing media coverage.
For journalists, the ability to filter AI-generated pitches helps maintain the integrity of their sources, but it also means they may miss valuable insights buried in automated responses. The challenge is balancing efficiency with authenticity in an era where AI is becoming ubiquitous.
HARO's data serves as a bellwether for the evolving relationship between media and PR. With over 100 million emails sent in less than a year, the platform is a microcosm of the broader information ecosystem, where quality and trust are increasingly prized. As Farmiloe puts it, "As inboxes get more crowded, being helpful becomes the differentiator."
