Public Relations… Ten Years in the Future

This is a special audio time-jump episode. It’s an immersive journey ten years into the future to explore how public relations has managed three of the biggest challenges: the rapid rise of AI, the disappearing entry-level job, and the ongoing gender gap in leadership.

Doug and Farzana volunteer for a guided “time crossing” to see how the next generation of PR leaders navigated a decade of disruption. What they find isn’t just smarter tech, it’s smarter systems, layered cities, holographic hosts, and workplaces where AI and humans collaborate with clarity and conscience.

This isn’t an episode about how will we fix it, it’s about how they already did… and what we can start implementing right now.

Welcome to 2036

Listen For

5:01 How has technology reshaped the world of PR?

6:56 What does it feel like to communicate in a city designed to respond?

9:57 How does personalized media target people in real time?

10:36 What are holographic briefs and how do they change communication?

16:31 Are women finally stepping into more leadership roles?

17:44 How did society move beyond the culture war over being ‘woke’?

12:59 What’s changed most in how we communicate at work?

14:55 What does it take to guide AI with real nuance?

18:18 How is emotional labor being measured, and addressed, in the future?

19:02 What are the future rules of ethical communication with AI?

Doug

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Farzana

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Chapters

• 5:10 How has technology reshaped the world of PR?
• 6:56 What does it feel like to communicate in a city designed to respond?
• 9:57 How does personalized media target people in real time?
• 10:36 What are holographic briefs and how do they change communication?
• 12:59 What’s changed most in how we communicate at work?
• 14:55 What does it take to guide AI with real nuance?
• 16:31 Are women finally stepping into more leadership roles?
• 17:44 How did society move beyond the culture war over being ‘woke’?
• 18:18 How is emotional labor being measured, and addressed, in the future?
• 19:02 What are the future rules of ethical communication with AI?

Transcript

Emily Page (00:00):
Three challenges shape public relations today. Rapid AI transformation, fewer early career opportunities as entry level tasks become automated, and a leadership gap where women make up the workforce, but not top roles. Imagine visiting a future where these problems have been successfully addressed. What lessons would we bring back?

Farzana Baduel (00:28):
When the movie Back to the Future first arrived in theaters, it did more than give us a DeLorean and a lightning strike. It gave us a question disguised as entertainment, a question that sits inside every grownup who has ever looked at their younger self and sighed. Marty McFly did not ask to travel in time. He only wanted to survive adolescence. And when he stepped out of that car into 1955, he found himself standing inside a lesson no one escapes. We often tell ourselves that studying the past will help us understand the present. Teachers say it, historians underline it, and our wiser relatives slip it into conversations we were too young to appreciate at the time. But Back to the Future flipped the question on its head. What if the future could explain the present? What if tomorrow’s clarity could reach back and tap us on the shoulder today?

(01:25):
 Because in that story, Marty does not just pick up clues about his parents. He returns home seeing them differently, quicker to understand their fears. Gentler with their choices. Wiser about his own. It was not that he tripped the past that changed him. It was the way the future reframed everything he thought he already knew. And there is a quiet power in that idea. If we could stand inside tomorrow for even a few minutes, perhaps we would see which habits to keep and which ones are quietly tugging us off course. Perhaps we would look at our work and our relationships with a different kind of patience. Perhaps we would understand that some questions cannot be answered by looking backward, but they can be softened by looking ahead. So it is tempting to wonder what any of us might learn from stepping into our own future, not to rewrite history, but to understand our moment with the clarity that only tomorrow can offer. To see ourselves not as we were, but as we might become.

(02:32):
 And today, we try exactly that. We step into the idea, into that lens, and ask what the future might reveal about the work we do now. Today on Stories and Strategies. Great. God.

(02:55):
 Testing. One, two, three. Mic levels are good. You nervous?

Doug Downs (03:01):
Well, if you mean by nervous rereading the waiver three times, then yeah, I am nervous. I do not usually sign anything with a paragraph titled Unforeseen Temporal Turbulence.

Farzana Baduel (03:13):
You always get dramatic before a big moment. You know it is not danger, Doug. It is data with a dash of hope for humanity. Now here. We need to wear these sensory alignment glasses. Here you go. They help prepare the visual cortex for layered environments. Messages are not quite the same in 2035. They are different layers.

Doug Downs (03:38):
That sounds like a setup for a migraine.

Farzana Baduel (03:41):
Now, remember what they told us in 2035. You will see more than one kind of message at once. Some are physical, some are ambient signals, some are holographic or mixed reality reflections. And yes, a few are still technically VR, just woven into everyday space. Now, the glasses are going to help your brain sort them instead of crashing into all of it raw.

Doug Downs (04:05):
Ah, so future proof bifocals.

Farzana Baduel (04:08):
Think of them as training wheels for whatever we step into.

Doug Downs (04:12):
Sharbet is going to another boring conference with the same old presentations. Though honestly, I keep wondering what we are going to learn.

Farzana Baduel (04:23):
They call it a guided time crossing. Think of it as research meets time travel. And once we go, we will step into the real 2035 data. You can literally breathe it.

Doug Downs (04:36):
Yeah. So not just visuals. I mean, we are going. Temperature, air pressure, social noise.

Farzana Baduel (04:43):
Exactly. We are not sampling the future, Doug. We are going to be standing in it.

Doug Downs (04:48):
So we might land in a world where Taylor Swift is oldies. I am not emotionally prepared for that.

Farzana Baduel (04:55):
Maybe Dwayne Johnson is president. Yeah.

Doug Downs (04:58):
Maybe we will finally get to smell what the president has been cooking.

Farzana Baduel (05:01):
Here is what we are really after. One, how technology has reshaped PR. Two, whether AI made it harder for young people to break in. And three, if women finally have more seats in the C suite. Because these are the things we can start building now before the wave hits.

Doug Downs (05:20):
Amen. Okay. Three good reasons. And as much as I pretend to resist change, I would rather see it coming than trip over it.

Farzana Baduel (05:31):
Initiating synchronization sequence. Subjects hold still.

Doug Downs (05:36):
There is always a hold still right before history happens.

Farzana Baduel (05:39):
And you always talk through it.

Doug Downs (05:46):
Farzana.

Farzana Baduel (05:48):
I see it. That smell. Metallic. Like the city itself is exhaling technology.

Doug Downs (05:57):
My glasses just pulsed. Did yours?

Farzana Baduel (06:00):
Yes. They are adjusting to whatever signals are embedded here. Could be environmental data or those displayed messages I mentioned.

Doug Downs (06:10):
Great. So the future announces itself by flickering in my face.

Farzana Baduel (06:14):
How we used to talk about smart cities. This is not smart. It is sentient by design. Temporal anchor secured. Arrival confirmed in the year 2035.

Doug Downs (06:32):
I have spent 30 years telling other people how stories travel. The first breath here told me mine might be out of date. The air hummed, the light looked edited, and I had that familiar tug in my chest, the one that says, you are not in charge of this moment. You are just in it.

Farzana Baduel (06:56):
The skyline, every tower wrapped in light, but it is silent.

Doug Downs (07:04):
It is not glass. It is data. And listen, there is no honking. There are no engines rumbling.

Farzana Baduel (07:14):
The cars. Are they even making any noise?

David Olajide (07:22):
Welcome to 2035. Doug. Farzana. My name is David.

Farzana Baduel (07:28):
Your projection?

David Olajide (07:30):
Well, a hollow relay, yes. My physical body is in Lagos, Nigeria. This is my first time chaperoning guests from the past and my first time doing it as a light cast. Please forgive my flickering. I am still learning how to stand still when I am made of photons.

Farzana Baduel (07:51):
We are honored you crossed time and bandwidth for us.

David Olajide (07:56):
Happy to do it. Our institute tries to distribute opportunities across regions now. Holographic roles mean big projects are not limited to people based in the US or UK anymore. It keeps the work global. The way it should have been long before 2035. Now, shall we begin?

Farzana Baduel (08:17):
I have to ask you. The cars move like they are breathing. No braking, no hesitation.

David Olajide (08:23):
That is because you are in the downtown core. Human driven vehicles are not allowed here anymore. Too many mixed traffic collisions in the late 2020s. Downtown districts switched to fully autonomous fleets a few years ago.

Farzana Baduel (08:36):
These vehicles glide straight through intersections. Where are the traffic lights?

David Olajide (08:41):
Most of them were removed. Downtown relies on a coordinated grid. Mass transit and driverless vehicles negotiate movement automatically. It keeps the center quieter and cuts congestion, but not everyone is thrilled about it.

Doug Downs (08:56):
So outside the core, everything is still human driven?

David Olajide (09:01):
Not quite. Vehicle ownership in major cities has dropped to about 50 percent, but once you leave the metropolitan area, it jumps back up to 80 percent. Outside the city, the old infrastructure is still in full use. Taxi associations, courier drivers, regional transport unions, many of them oppose the downtown automation mandates. Some are still very upset.

Farzana Baduel (09:25):
So the calm is curated. Beautiful on the surface, but underneath the usual human noise, just quieter.

David Olajide (09:33):
That is a very honest version of it. Come. I will project ahead of you. There is much more I should show you.

Farzana Baduel (09:47):
David, what are those flickers at the edge of my vision?

David Olajide (09:51):
That happens when you are not wearing metal glasses. The plaza is filled with low grade mixed reality overlays.

Doug Downs (09:57):
Okay, but we are wearing glasses. Should they not clean up the shimmer?

David Olajide (10:02):
Yours are tuned to our local systems. They help you perceive layered signals, but they do not interpret our overlays. So you are seeing fragments. Pieces of what is meant to be complete.

Farzana Baduel (10:13):
So some of what we are seeing might be partial?

David Olajide (10:16):
Partial or perfectly accurate. Hard to tell without a sync to the city grid. Lagos moved to a similar grid last year. Still finding its rhythm. Holograms stumble through overlays sometimes. The city likes to tease us.

Farzana Baduel (10:32):
And those floating shapes, are they ads?

David Olajide (10:36):
We call them holographic briefs. Think of it as what came after VR and AR. Each one is specialized to whom it detects walking by.

Farzana Baduel (10:44):
Personalized persuasion. The marketer’s dream. The regulator’s nightmare.

David Olajide (10:49):
So personalized that it says, Welcome back, human. Charming. That is the default greeting when the system cannot match you to a profile. It assumes you are a returning visitor with wiped preferences.

Doug Downs (11:12):
Does everybody get a greeting?

David Olajide (11:14):
Yes. Though most people mute them. Information fatigue is regulated now.

Farzana Baduel (11:19):
Regulated how?

David Olajide (11:21):
There is a limit on unsolicited stimuli. If a sender exceeds it, they pay an attention fine.

Doug Downs (11:27):
Oh wow. So instead of drowning people in noise, you cap the noise. That actually sounds like progress.

David Olajide (11:34):
That is really the idea, Doug.

Farzana Baduel (11:42):
Even the walls look alive.

David Olajide (11:45):
It is biophilic film and adaptive lighting. It keeps brightness calmer for people inside.

Doug Downs (11:50):
He says that like it is normal.

David Olajide (11:53):
Gallagher is waiting in the main briefing room. He runs proof of truth.

Farzana Baduel (12:01):
In my late forties, I had made a career on persuasion with conscience. In this building, conscience had a floor plan. And as we walked down that bright hallway, I felt something I had not felt in years. I felt small, but in the best possible way.

David Gallagher (12:22):
Well hey, this is one of our monitoring rooms. My visitor friends from the past, you are going to love this. It is quiet most days, but that is how we know it is working. Back in 2025, I was a senior director in corporate communications. That job was a lot like juggling chainsaws. Fast, furious, and we had little to rely on but intuition. Not much process. No structure.

Doug Downs (12:52):
I remember those chainsaws.

Farzana Baduel (12:54):
Gallagher, from your perspective, what has changed most since our time?

David Gallagher (12:59):
The quiet. Cities feel calmer. Less engine noise. People move differently. And at work, we spend more time preventing fires using truth, structure, and humility.

Emily Page (13:50):
Gallagher, can you come to Bay Two? We have a small hologram flip on the city feed. False charity endorsement. I am running the trace.

David Gallagher (14:00):
Please excuse me.

Doug Downs (14:04):
She sounds young.

Farzana Baduel (14:06):
Young and grounded. Rare in 2025.

Emily Page (14:15):
Patched. The source was a misaligned avatar setting. No malicious intent. Restoring the authentic tag now.

Doug Downs (14:22):
Was that the city glitching, Farzana, or our glasses?

Farzana Baduel (14:27):
Let us hope it was the city.

David Gallagher (14:32):
Splendid work, Emily.

Emily Page (14:34):
Thank you.

Farzana Baduel (14:35):
Hello.

Emily Page (14:36):
You must be the visitors.

Doug Downs (14:49):
Emily, what did you study?

Emily Page (14:55):
Communications. And behavioral sciences. I also trained as a prompt engineer. Not just asking questions, but guiding systems to understand nuance.

Doug Downs (16:16):
Some of that clutter was just tradition pretending to be wisdom.

Farzana Baduel (16:31):
Gallagher, are women moving into leadership more easily now?

David Gallagher (16:38):
Some progress. Not enough.

Emily Page (16:56):
Young women felt squeezed between being excellent, being mentors, and being symbols.

Doug Downs (17:34):
What about woke? Is everything just more woke?

David Gallagher (17:44):
No. We stopped treating it like a culture war and started treating it like an honesty check.

Farzana Baduel (18:18):
Here in 2035, they name the weight women carry. They measure it. They fix it.

David Olajide (18:47):
Your window is open. Only a few minutes remain.

Emily Page (19:02):
Be precise. Be kind. Do not let the machine do all the listening.

David Gallagher (19:17):
We went through the quiet blackout. Small AI errors. Everywhere. All at once.

Doug Downs (21:14):
Fewer journeys. More honesty.

Farzana Baduel (22:07):
The future has better manners than we expected.

Doug Downs (22:26):
And maybe stop using authentic in every brief.