Human Pitches Still Beat AI Pitches, HARO Data Shows
Human Pitches Still Beat AI Pitches, HARO Data Shows
A new HARO report put real numbers behind what many PR pros already suspected: human-written pitches land far more often than AI-generated ones.
Online, October 15, 2026
Artificial intelligence has made its way into media pitching, but a new report from Help a Reporter Out (HARO) suggests the human touch still matters most. Of the more than 2 million pitches HARO analyzed, 79 percent had some human involvement, HARO CEO Brett Farmiloe told EIN Presswire. The remaining 21 percent were entirely AI-generated.
What the data shows
- 79% have a human hand: HARO analyzed more than 2 million pitches and found 79 percent had some human involvement; 21 percent were entirely AI-generated, roughly 420,000 pitches.
- 3x more likely to land: Human-written pitches were about three times more likely to get featured than pitches written entirely by AI, according to HARO's analysis.
- 35% filter out AI: 35 percent of journalists have switched on HARO's filter that blocks pitches flagged as AI-generated. The filter is off by default.
- 42 pitches per request: Connectively, HARO's sister platform, sees an average of 42 responses for every journalist request, a sign that volume alone rarely wins.
Most journalists I speak with say that they can tell when a pitch is AI generated or not, just from a blink test.
ā Brett Farmiloe, CEO, HARO
Farmiloe's advice to publicists follows the HARO acronym itself: be Helpful, be Authentic, be Relevant, be On time. Authentic doesn't mean avoiding AI entirely. It means the pitch that goes out has to clear a bar higher than what a generic AI draft would produce on its own.
Where AI answers pull their citations
- Editorial sources: ~67%
- Brand-owned content: 1.7%
From the Featured AI Citation Report, cited in the HARO interview
Featured AI Citation Report, by the numbers
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Audits run | 405 |
| Brands covered | 378 |
| Buying questions asked | 1,983 |
| Citations traced | 22,881 |
| Domains identified | 11,499 |
| Median domain authority | 37 |
| Citations to DA 80+ sites | 31.2% |
| Citations to DA under 40 sites | 34.5% |
The pattern matters for communicators, Farmiloe said: media mentions help with model mentions. Earned coverage from independent editorial outlets showed up far more often in AI answers than content brands publish on their own sites.
HARO's safeguards
- AI detection on every pitch: HARO partners with Pangram to screen every submission and runs added checks for fully automated senders.
- Human review before send: Every journalist request is reviewed and approved by a person, and websites must meet a minimum Moz domain authority of 20; about 32 percent of requests are rejected at that step.
- A ban every 23 minutes: HARO bans an account roughly every 23 minutes for spam or terms-of-service violations. An AI score alone never triggers a ban.
About Featured
Featured is an AI-powered public relations platform that matches founders and experts with journalist requests to secure earned media coverage. Featured and HARO are sister brands under the same leadership.
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