Brett Farmiloe
brett@featured.com
© 2026 Featured. All rights reserved.
Featured Research · August 2026
These figures come from HARO, Featured’s journalist-request network. Here is how those pitches are written, how journalists choose to receive them, and how requests and accounts are reviewed.
21%
of pitches submitted through HARO are written entirely by AI.
“More than one in five pitches submitted through HARO are written completely by AI — and journalists are about three times more likely to use a human-written pitch instead.”
21%
One in five pitches is written entirely by AI
More than one in five pitches submitted through HARO are written completely by AI.
35%
A third of journalists now block AI-generated pitches
More than one-third of journalists now choose to block AI-generated responses when submitting a request.
23 min
A user is banned every 23 minutes
HARO bans users primarily for spam and violations of its terms of service.
32%
Nearly a third of journalist requests are rejected
Nearly one-third of journalist requests are rejected during the approval process after reviewing the journalist, publication, and request for quality and legitimacy.
~3×
Human-written pitches are far more likely to be used
Human-written pitches are about three times more likely to be used by journalists than AI-generated pitches.
Journalists are about three times more likely to use a human-written pitch than an AI-generated one. More than a third now block AI-generated responses when they submit a request.
Pitches. Pitch figures cover responses submitted through HARO. A pitch is counted as entirely AI-generated when the submission is classified as written completely by AI, with no meaningful human authorship. Use rates compare how often journalists use human-written pitches versus AI-generated pitches.
Journalists. Journalist blocking is the share of journalists who opt to exclude AI-generated responses when they submit a request.
Review. Ban frequency is the average interval between HARO account bans, issued primarily for spam and terms-of-service violations. Request rejection is the share of journalist requests declined during Featured’s approval review of the journalist, publication, and request for quality and legitimacy.
Featured matches you to HARO and journalist requests in your beat — and helps you send a human pitch, the kind journalists actually use.
