At the upcoming 23rd International PRO PR Conference, taking place from 26 to 28 March, Farzana Baduel will be one of the speakers. Farzana is a specialist in global strategic communications, with a focus on positioning organisations and nations on the international stage. She is the President-elect of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) for 2025 and the CEO of Curzon PR, an award-winning London-based strategic communications consultancy working with governments, corporates, and foundations worldwide.
She is also a Resident PR Expert at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, where she advises leaders and entrepreneurs on global communications and reputation management. Farzana has received numerous industry recognitions, including being named on the PRWeek Power List and Provoke Media’s Innovator 25 for EMEA.
What challenges is the PR profession currently facing?
One of the biggest challenges the PR industry faces today is the rise of artificial intelligence. AI is transforming the way we work, both enabling and disrupting. Many agencies and freelancers who once relied on content creation, such as writing press releases, blogs, and speeches, now find that clients are turning to AI tools for first drafts. As a result, practitioners are often expected to deliver far more for far less, editing AI-generated material rather than producing original work.
This has also affected the talent pipeline. Since the introduction of tools like ChatGPT, we have seen a notable reduction in entry-level roles being advertised. The concern is that if organisations don’t bring in juniors now, they will face a shortage of skilled account managers and directors in a few years’ time. AI may take on administrative tasks, from minute taking to research and media list generation, but it cannot replace human judgement, creativity, or relationship building.
There is also an ethical dimension. Issues of bias, misinformation, data protection, and intellectual property remain unresolved. Meanwhile, the media landscape itself is shifting. We have long optimised for search engines, but now audiences are finding information through large language models. This means PR professionals must start thinking beyond SEO and toward GEO, which is generative engine optimisation, to ensure visibility within AI-driven platforms. It is an exciting yet fragmented environment, and practitioners are under pressure to keep learning and adapting quickly.
What is the position and role of PR in relation to management in the United Kingdom?
In the UK, PR has traditionally been seen as tactical, focused on media relations or campaign execution. But I believe we are entering a golden era for public relations, one in which our strategic value will finally be recognised.
The role of PR lies at the intersection of management, communication, and reputation. We help organisations identify the gaps between internal realities and external perceptions and bridge those gaps through strategy and storytelling. In an age of AI, disinformation, and hyper-transparency, this role becomes even more critical.
If we embrace AI as a support function rather than fear it, PR professionals can spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time providing strategic counsel, advising on risk, crisis, horizon scanning, and ethical decision making. This marks the evolution of PR from a tactical service to a management function.
You are coming to the PRO PR Conference as the President of the world’s leading organisation for certification in public relations. What will be your key messages?
My key messages are threefold:
- Champion lifelong learning: In an age defined by technological acceleration, continuous professional development is not optional; it is essential.
- Champion professionalism: Through accreditation and chartership, we raise standards and demonstrate the value of PR at the highest levels.
- Champion representation and understanding: IPR teams reflect the diversity of the audiences they serve, and we must make the case for PR not only within our industry but to society.
Everyone is talking about artificial intelligence and the business challenges it brings. What is your perspective?
AI is an extraordinary tool that brings both opportunities and risks. On one hand, it enhances productivity and insight; on the other, it fuels the spread of misinformation and disinformation at unprecedented speed and scale.
With generative AI, the cost of producing content, true or false, has dropped dramatically. This means we are entering an era of information pollution, where distinguishing truth from fabrication becomes harder. The PR industry has a vital role in countering that, promoting media literacy and ensuring that communication remains rooted in integrity, accuracy, and ethics.
The biggest challenge is not AI itself but how society chooses to use it. We must build organisations and publics that are media literate, responsible, and resilient.
In your opinion, what skills should a PR professional possess today?
Today’s PR professional must possess hyper curiosity, contextual intelligence, and empathy. They need to continuously learn, unlearn, and relearn as technology and culture evolve.
They must understand data but also human behaviour. They should be strategic thinkers who can interpret complex environments and adapt communication strategies across multiple, ever changing channels. Above all, they must remain ethical, adaptable, and driven by purpose, qualities that machines cannot replicate.
As one of the global leaders in the PR industry, how do you see the future of the profession?
I am an optimist. I believe we are entering a golden age for PR, one where our strategic importance is fully recognised. Reputation is now a key asset on the balance sheet, and communication is central to leadership.
We are seeing more PR professionals joining boards and taking up non-executive directorships, and communication skills are increasingly a core requirement for CEOs. The rise of the Chief Communications Officer demonstrates this growing influence.
But to sustain this momentum, we as an industry must continue to make the case for PR outside our own echo chamber, showing how our work underpins trust, mitigates risk, and drives sustainable success.
