Golin, a global public relations agency with a 70-year history, is embarking on an ambitious transformation to become the world’s first fully AI-integrated PR agency by 2026. The company has appointed Jeff Beringer as its first-ever Chief AI Officer (CAIO) to orchestrate this sweeping change across the organization.
Beringer, a 20-year veteran of Golin, explained that the company’s AI journey began over two years ago with an incubator program exploring how emerging technologies could enhance client work. However, the rapid pace of AI advancement prompted leadership to ask a fundamental question: if they were starting the agency from scratch today, would it look the same? The answer was no, leading to the creation of a comprehensive transformation plan.
The goal is ambitious: by early 2026, every Golin employee—regardless of role, specialty, or seniority—will benefit from AI assistance in their daily work. The company is currently in what Beringer calls the “phase of enablement,” rolling out AI-powered tools to employees and strategizing AI implementation with clients.
Golin’s approach involves both strategic partnerships and in-house development. The agency partners with companies like Adobe, leveraging tools such as Adobe Firefly for creative work. Simultaneously, Golin develops specialized solutions internally, including an AI-powered influencer vetting system that can analyze up to 10 years of an influencer’s online presence to identify potential risks—a process that was previously time-consuming and less thorough.
Another innovative application is emotive content testing using AI and facial-recognition technology to gauge real-time emotional reactions to unpublished content, replacing expensive and time-consuming traditional focus groups.
Crucially, Beringer emphasized that Golin isn’t pursuing AI for automation but for “intelligence augmentation.” The company recognizes that public relations fundamentally requires a human touch, and clients want great human partners. The strategy focuses on freeing employees from routine tasks so they can spend more time on thoughtful, strategic work.
Golin is also expanding its capabilities by hiring in data science and data architecture to better leverage the vast amounts of data generated daily. The company’s success metrics prioritize efficacy over efficiency, focusing on improved client outcomes and employee engagement rather than simply cost reduction.
Key Quotes
Our executive leadership team asked ourselves, if we were starting this 70-year-old agency from scratch today, would it look the same? The answer was probably not.
Jeff Beringer, Golin’s Chief AI Officer, explained the fundamental thinking that drove the company’s transformation plan. This quote reveals how established companies are questioning their traditional operating models in light of AI capabilities.
Instead of AI and automation for everything, we’re at intelligence augmentation. What our clients really want is a great human partner.
Beringer emphasized Golin’s philosophy toward AI implementation, distinguishing between replacing humans and enhancing their capabilities. This approach addresses common concerns about AI eliminating jobs while acknowledging the irreplaceable value of human expertise in client relationships.
What’s different with AI is the speed at which clients have moved from being inspired to focusing on application. They want to see results, not promises.
Beringer compared AI adoption to earlier technology transitions like digital and social media, noting that clients are demanding practical outcomes faster than with previous technology waves. This reflects the maturation of AI from experimental technology to business-critical tool.
If AI helps our people spend more time on thoughtful, strategic tasks rather than routine ones, that’s a win.
The Chief AI Officer outlined Golin’s success metrics, prioritizing employee engagement and work quality over pure efficiency gains. This human-centered approach to AI implementation offers a model for how organizations can measure AI’s value beyond cost savings.
Our Take
Golin’s transformation strategy offers a compelling case study in responsible AI adoption that balances innovation with human-centricity. The emphasis on “intelligence augmentation” rather than automation addresses the most pressing concern about AI in creative industries—that it will devalue human expertise. By positioning AI as a tool that frees professionals for higher-value strategic work, Golin is making a bet that enhanced human capabilities will be more valuable than cost-cutting through automation.
The appointment of a dedicated Chief AI Officer reflects an important trend: AI integration requires executive-level orchestration rather than ad-hoc adoption. The quarterly phased approach and focus on employee enablement suggest a thoughtful change management strategy that could determine success or failure.
However, the 2026 timeline is aggressive, and the real test will be whether Golin can maintain quality and client satisfaction while undergoing such rapid transformation. The company’s willingness to develop proprietary AI solutions alongside partnerships shows strategic flexibility that may prove crucial as the AI landscape continues evolving rapidly.
Why This Matters
Golin’s transformation represents a watershed moment for the professional services industry, demonstrating how traditional businesses are fundamentally reimagining their operations in the AI era. The appointment of a Chief AI Officer and the commitment to full AI integration by 2026 signals that AI adoption is moving beyond experimentation into comprehensive organizational transformation.
This matters because public relations and communications have historically been considered deeply human-centric fields requiring creativity, emotional intelligence, and relationship-building—skills often cited as resistant to automation. Golin’s approach of “intelligence augmentation” rather than replacement offers a blueprint for how AI can enhance rather than eliminate human expertise in creative industries.
The speed of this transformation—from incubator to full integration in roughly four years—reflects the accelerating pace of AI adoption across industries. Golin’s clients, ranging from Adobe to Grubhub, are demanding not just AI inspiration but tangible applications and results, indicating that the market has moved past the hype phase into practical implementation. This shift will likely pressure competitors to accelerate their own AI strategies or risk being left behind, potentially reshaping the entire PR and marketing services landscape.
Recommended Reading
For those interested in learning more about artificial intelligence, machine learning, and effective AI communication, here are some excellent resources: