Meltwater rolls out chatbot interface; Public Relay hires Brendon O’Donovan; roundup of PR software briefs; new surveys of journalists
Generative AI is changing search. That change is starting at the foundation.
For example, traditional search was built on backlinks. Google understood before anyone else that links (or backlinks) on the web were a vote of confidence. The more links a site earned, the more likely it was that the content was useful and relevant. So, they ranked it for related queries.
In contrast, generative AI is built on language. That’s changing not just search, but the way we interact with all kinds of software. We are increasingly ‘chatting with software’ to get the desired result instead of touching or pointing and clicking.
It wasn’t that long ago that touchscreens changed our behavior, too. When my daughter was very young, she approached our plasma screen TV and tried to interact with it like an iPad. Plasma obviously lost the technology race to LCD, but for her, it was an interesting moment to see how a newer interface had shaped her expectations.
We’re all going to have moments like that with chatbot interaction. Chatbots seem to me a prerequisite for a voice interface, and chatbots are exploding.
And now on with the PR Tech Sum.
1. Meltwater rolls out chatbot interface
On the heels of similar announcements from Signal AI and Dazzle, Meltwater says it added a “chat-based interface” to its product called “Mira.” According to the announcement:
“Unlike traditional GenAI tools that assist with one-off tasks like writing social posts or summarizing articles, Mira uses intelligent AI agents to simplify complex, multi-step processes, drastically reducing time spent on routine work.”
So instead of clicking around inside the platform to find what you are looking for, you just type in a question as you would on ChatGPT:
“By surfacing conversational insights and recommendations, Mira eliminates the need for cumbersome Boolean searches, dashboard navigation, and even deep platform expertise. It empowers users with the knowledge, tools, and speed they need to make informed decisions without the guesswork, immediately.”
This is in line with a broader theme in PR software, and perhaps technology, where more and more people are ‘chatting with robots’ to interact with software. Meltwater was pondering the possibility of a voice interface for its software years ago, and I would imagine having an effective chatbot is a potential path toward that end.
Meltwater got a short video demo of Mira posted here.
2. Public Relay hires Brendon O’Donovan
It’s been several years since I’ve heard much out of Public Relay, a pure-play media monitoring software company. They’ve had a couple of small product announcements in 2020 and 2021, and they took investment from a PE firm in 2021.
Now the company has gone out and hired Brendon O’Donovan as SVP of Product Solutions and Innovation. I worked with Brendon years ago at Vocus, when he was a product manager for PRWeb. He later went to work on TrendKite, a hot startup in the media monitoring space, which was eventually acquired by Cision for $225 million in 2019.
Brendon was a key player in developing the earned media attribution. In a sentence, they applied the same tracking technology advertisers were using to media relations. It would tell you if someone read a news article your company was mentioned and later took an action on your website, such as downloading content.
That technology became the basis for Cision Impact and had some novel applications for retargeting – a tactic that could be very useful for comms folks who work on cross-functional teams with marketing. This particular feature never seemed to get the traction it deserved (retarging people who read bona fide news coverage you were mentioned in? My goodness! Yes, please!) and from my perspective, sort of died on the vine post-acquisition.
Public Relay seems to be gearing up. The company has made several executive hires in 2025 across customer success, product management and promoted a new CFO from within its ranks.
3. PR software briefs
- Stop the presses. Muck Rack partnered with GlobeNewswire to provide press release distribution through the Muck Rack platform.
- Many tongues. UNICEPTA, a media monitoring tool that combines tech and human analysis, says it signed an expanded agreement with its customer, the European Commission. “PRophet will provide real-time media insights across all 27 EU member states in 32 languages,” according to a press release. UNICEPTA is part of PRophet, once a standalone media pitching tool, and now the name of a division of products for communicators commercialized by the holding company Stagwell.
- IR acquisition. Investor relations firm Equiniti completed its acquisition of Notified from West Technology Group. Notified develops software for PR and IR professionals and was melded out of software assets previously owned by NASDAQ, including GlobeNewswire and a separate startup with the same namesake.
- Counting pennies. Cision raised $250 million in additional debt financing. This adds to the $2.5 billion in existing debt Cision reportedly has on its books. The company sold off one small piece of software, which it shuttered last year. No sale price was listed, but I’d speculate it was a six- or perhaps low seven-figure number. It also said it finally rolled out its CisionOne product globally, nearly two years after piloting the product in the UK.
4. Comms surveys, data and reports
- Is AI part of journalism? More than half of the 3,000 journalists polled by the media team at Cision are using generative AI tools. However, “72% worry about factual errors in AI-generated PR content.”
- Or is AI a threat to journalism? More than half of the 2,000 reporters (57%) surveyed by Pressat, a press release service based in the UK, worry AI may replace their jobs. If that happens, about “60% worry AI will erode human identity and autonomy in journalism.” It’s not entirely doom and gloom: 26% believe AI could enhance investigative journalism.
5. PR tech and comms tech reading
- Comparison shopping for comms tech. Propel compares itself to Muck Rack, Prowly, Signal AI, Agility and others. It’s worth pointing out that Signal AI is focused on monitoring, while the rest of these products are what I consider “all-in-one” PR software products.
- PR software price comparisons. Prowly compares an estimated average price tag for PR software with Muck Rack, Meltwater, Propel, Agility and others.
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Here’s the list of companies I’m watching and here’s how to get on my radar if you are a vendor. And head’s up! I plan to revise this list in the next couple of months and will be inviting vendors to participate.
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Will chatbots be the primary interface for PR software [PR Tech Sum No. 61]
Image credits: Google Gemini and respective vendors
