The PR Winter: Why Burson and Edelman are Shrinking in the Age of AI
The "Golden Age" of the mega-agency is officially on ice. As 2025 draws to a close, the industry’s two biggest titans—Burson and Edelman—are grappling with a reality that looks less like a "pivot" and more like a structural collapse. Burson’s parent company, WPP, has seen its stock hit a 16-year low, while Edelman’s U.S. revenue has cratered by nearly 8%. The message is clear: the traditional model of charging premium fees for "junior-heavy" labor is being cannibalized by autonomous technology.
The primary culprit is the destruction of the billable hour. For decades, firms like Edelman built their margins on the backs of account executives who spent dozens of hours on manual tasks like media list building, press release drafting, and coverage reporting. Today, "Agentic AI" can perform these tasks in seconds for pennies. Clients are no longer willing to pay for "execution"; they are demanding "intelligence discounts," forcing agencies to slash headcounts to maintain any semblance of profitability. WPP alone has shed over 7,000 jobs in the last year, a direct reflection of a business model that is losing its core currency: human time.
Furthermore, the "AI-first" tools these agencies are desperately launching—like Edelman’s ArchieAI or Burson’s Reputation Capital—create a strategic paradox. By building tools that make their teams 30–50% more efficient, they are effectively building a machine that reduces their own revenue. Unless these giants can successfully move to "value-based pricing"—charging for a high-stakes outcome rather than the hours spent achieving it—they will continue to shrink. In 2025, the industry isn't just fighting a recession; it is fighting a fundamental loss of relevance as AI commoditizes the very "content" that once made them billion-dollar empires.
