The rise of artificial intelligence has flooded media pitching with low-quality outreach, making it noisier and less effective, according to Brett Farmiloe, founder and CEO of Featured, the company that owns Help a Reporter Out (HARO) and Connectively. In a recent interview on Majestic's SEO in 2026 podcast series, Farmiloe detailed how platform data reveals a clear shift toward the need for personalized, high-quality pitches over mass AI-generated ones.
"Less is more in 2026, in terms of being an outreach specialist," Farmiloe said. "What we've seen is that AI has made it incredibly easy to reach out to more people, and it's made it more noisy and less effective as a result." Featured's platforms, which connect journalists with sources, have witnessed this trend firsthand. Farmiloe noted that the winning pitches are not those sent in high volume but those with genuine relevance and insight. "The outreach that I'm seeing winning on our platforms is the folks who aren't sending out a higher volume of pitches, but they're sending out a higher quality of pitch," he explained.
Farmiloe traced the decline in quality to the widespread adoption of AI in outreach, which he says was a key factor in HARO's transition to Featured's ownership. "The reason why HARO ended up in our ownership in the first place was a decline of quality and trust within the system, and a lot of that was targeted through the adoption of artificial intelligence," he said. In response, Featured has implemented AI detection and quality scoring for every pitch submitted through its platforms. Journalists can now see these scores and filter out pitches that are entirely AI-generated with a single click.
Beyond quality, Farmiloe addressed the misconception that being first to respond guarantees success. "It's not necessarily being the first in line, but it's being at the top of the line with the best credentials and the most helpful response," he said, summarizing the HARO framework: helpful, authentic, relevant, and on time.
Looking ahead, Farmiloe highlighted a shift in how brands measure their visibility. "In 2026, the metrics are changing. AI visibility scores are one thing that we're seeing more and more innovators measure against," he said. "It's really around: Is my brand visible in AI and LLMs?" He encouraged marketers to focus on this new frontier, which he calls "the new front page of the internet."
For practitioners, Farmiloe emphasized the enduring value of knowledge sharing. "The key takeaway is that you have knowledge to share, and that knowledge is highly valued by journalists and publications. Find a way to share that knowledge, and if you share your knowledge in a meaningful way, it will benefit your business," he said. The full episode and transcript are available at Majestic's SEO in 2026 podcast series.
