FleishmanHillard Democratizes AI Across Its Workforce

Global PR firm empowers employees to leverage AI through hands-on training and integrated platforms.

Published on Feb. 13, 2026

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FleishmanHillard, one of the world's leading PR consultancies, is transforming how it integrates AI across its workforce. Ephraim Cohen, the firm's global head of data and digital, reveals their strategy of democratizing AI expertise through hands-on training and access to frontier AI models. This bottom-up approach enables subject matter experts to develop innovative AI-powered solutions, rather than relying solely on a centralized technical team.

Why it matters

The communications industry is undergoing rapid technological change, with audiences fragmenting across traditional and digital channels. FleishmanHillard's approach offers a blueprint for how organizations can empower all employees to leverage AI, rather than creating a two-tier system of technical specialists and everyone else.

The details

FleishmanHillard's strategy centers on "hands-on keyboard learning" where all professionals, including seasoned veterans, re-engage with the basics of AI development. This includes learning prompting, building AI agents, and connecting them into broader solutions. The firm also provides access to major frontier models through Omnicom's platform and curates specialized knowledge bases to feed the AI systems. This enables subject matter experts to innovate, rather than relying solely on technical specialists.

  • FleishmanHillard began democratizing data fluency across the firm five years ago.
  • Omnicom, FleishmanHillard's parent company, initially paused employee access to ChatGPT to address security concerns before giving the green light to move forward rapidly.

The players

Ephraim Cohen

Global head of data and digital at FleishmanHillard, one of the world's leading PR consultancies.

Omnicom

The parent company of FleishmanHillard that oversees the firm's AI technology platform and security protocols.

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What they’re saying

“In the past, we usually had decades to prepare for technological shifts. This is at such a rapid pace that it's causing chaos. I do this full time, and I have a hard time keeping up with all the changes.”

— Ephraim Cohen, Global head of data and digital (Forbes)

“When you have the subject matter expert acting as the engineer, you get a better solution, both in terms of its usability and in terms of the output quality, and in terms of value to clients.”

— Ephraim Cohen, Global head of data and digital (Forbes)

What’s next

FleishmanHillard plans to continue expanding its AI capabilities and empowering more employees to leverage the technology across client work.

The takeaway

FleishmanHillard's approach to democratizing AI expertise across its workforce, rather than centralizing it with a few technical specialists, offers a model for how organizations can adapt to the rapid pace of technological change in the communications industry.