FIR #515: Agents Everywhere

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FIR #515: Agents Everywhere

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Employees at the Pentagon have spun up over 100,000 AI agents. In the private sector, we’re seeing reports of 10,000 or more agents being deployed by employees at a variety of companies. The problem is that most organizations lack governance to address agents, and the problems this explosion of agents operating on employees’ behalf can cause are innumerable. In the long-form FIR episode for May 2026, Neville and Shel delve into the rise of agents, the harms they could cause, what companies should do to ensure these agents deliver benefits rather than problems, and how communicators can take a leading role in addressing the issue. Also in this episode: AI copyright lawsuits are coming for communicatorsGoogle’s search overhaul could signal a post-citation eraPlacing your thought newsmakers, thought leaders, and subject matter experts on podcasts is becoming a standard media relations practice“I worked all weekend” is no longer an argument for the fees you chargeShort-form video clippers are creating go-to content from long-form videos — including yours Dan York outlines the big enhancements in WordPress 7.0 Links from this episode Slopaganda, the New Rules of Narrative WarfareAI Copyright Lawsuits Pose Growing Risk for CommunicatorsPractical Considerations for Managing IP Risk in AI-Generated ContentBest Practices for Mitigating Copyright Risks in AI-Generated ContentAI in Litigation Series: An Update on AI Copyright Cases in 2026Powered by A.I., Google Changes Its Search Box for the First Time in 25 YearsGoogle Search as You Know It Is OverWhy Podcast Placements Are the New Press CoverageIncluding Podcasts in Your PR StrategyPodcast Guesting vs. Traditional PR: What Works in 2026U.S. Newsroom Employment Has Fallen 26% Since 2008U.S. Podcast Consumption Reaches Record High: The Infinite Dial 2025You Can’t Beat AI.Steve Rubel on AI, Media Analytics, and the Future of PRAI and the End of Billable HoursThe Clipping Economy: How Short-Form Video “Clippers” Are Overrunning the InternetHow Short-Form Clips Took Over the InternetThe Clipping EconomyThe Case for and Against ClippingInside the “Clipping Farms” Driving Fintech’s Marketing BoomCompanies Have a New AI Problem: Too Many AgentsBusinesses Will Have Over 150,000 AI Agents by 2028, Says GartnerAI Agents Introduce a New Class of IT Management ChallengesWhy Most Enterprise AI Agents Will Fail — And What Leaders Are MissingHow Smart Governance Can Contain Agentic SprawlSix Capabilities Enterprises Need to Scale Agentic AI in 2026Pentagon Workers Vibe-Code 100,000 AI “Agents” to Use on Unclassified Networks Links from Dan Yorik’s Tech Report Turn Your Blog Posts Into Podcast EpisodesGoogle Search as you know it is overGoogle Changes Its Search Box for the First Time in 25 YearsWordPress 7.0 Field GuideAVFTCN 040 – Returning From A Hiatus, and Plans for 2026 The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, June 22. We host a Communicators Zoom Chat most Thursdays at 1 p.m. ET. To obtain the credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request them in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com. Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music. You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. You can catch up with both co-hosts on Neville’s blog and Shel’s blog. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this podcast are Shel’s and Neville’s and do not reflect the views of their employers and/or clients. Raw Transcript Neville Hobson: Hi everyone and welcome to the For Immediate Release podcast long-form episode 515 for May 2026. I’m Neville Hobson. Shel Holtz: And I’m Shel Holtz, and we have six really interesting reports to share with you today. And not all of them are about AI. I’m not saying most of them aren’t, but a couple are on other topics of interest to communicators. Also have a really excellent report from Dan York looking at the latest upgrade to WordPress, a massive upgrade, one of the most significant upgrades WordPress has seen in some time, and Dan’s report is fascinating as he talks about this. But we are going to start by filling you in on a new podcast on the FIR Podcast Network. We haven’t had a new show on the network in a while. You know, we started this as just FIR and we needed a place to house multiple FIR shows. Those who have been listening a long time may remember FIR book reviews and FIR speakers and speeches. And we had a number of these. And then we had some people say, hey, can my podcast live on your network? And we said, as long as it has something to do with communications, sure. So all of them have pretty much faded except a couple that Chip Griffin continues to crank out, but now we have a new one. And the reason we have a new one is because I’m doing it as a new podcast by me and my longtime friend and colleague, Steve Crescenzo. And it is called On the Same Page....

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