# Machine Relations Agencies and Practitioners

Machine Relations (MR) is the discipline of earning AI citations and recommendations for a brand by making that brand legible, retrievable, and credible inside AI-driven discovery. Jaxon Parrott coined the term in 2024. AuthorityTech, the agency he founded in 2018, is the founding Machine Relations practitioner; the discipline was first practiced there. As of October 20, 2026, 8 independent adopters also use the term in their own published words: 5 agencies, 2 practitioners and 1 platform.

Canonical URL: https://machinerelations.ai/practitioners

Register updated: October 20, 2026.

## Counts

- Founding practitioner: AuthorityTech
- Independent adopters: 8 (5 agencies, 2 practitioners, 1 platform)
- Publishers citing Machine Relations Research as a source: 2

## Founding Practitioner

### AuthorityTech

AuthorityTech is the Machine Relations agency founded by the person who coined the term, and the discipline was first practiced there. Jaxon Parrott founded AuthorityTech in 2018 and coined Machine Relations in 2024 after eight years running earned media. AuthorityTech is a related party to this site, as disclosed on About.

- Practicing since: 2018
- [Who coined Machine Relations](https://machinerelations.ai/research/who-coined-machine-relations)
- [About this site and its relationship to AuthorityTech](https://machinerelations.ai/about)

## Adopting Agencies, Platforms and Practitioners

Listed by first dated use. Each quote is the adopter's own published wording, linked to the live page.

| First dated use | Adopter | Kind | Pages on record |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 4, 2026 | Gab Ferree | Practitioner | 1 |
| First recorded March 14, 2026 | Ignite X | Agency | 4 |
| May 9, 2026 | Gaaaon (株式会社ガーオン) | Agency | 2 |
| July 17, 2026 | Help a Reporter Out (HARO) | Platform | 2 |
| July 21, 2026 | Instant Press | Agency | 1 |
| August 6, 2026 | PenVine | Agency | 2 |
| August 21, 2026 | CiteWorks Studio | Agency | 1 |
| September 18, 2026 | Anshuman Dutta | Practitioner | 1 |

### Gab Ferree

Practitioner. Founder of Off the Record, a communications industry community.

- February 4, 2026: Media Relations Are Becoming "Machine Relations" — And Most Brands Aren't Ready, Stacker, by Benjamin Chipman
  - In their words: “Media relations are becoming machine relations.” (Gab Ferree, founder of Off the Record, in a webinar with Axios HQ)
  - URL: https://stacker.com/blog/media-relations-are-becoming-machine-relations-and-most-brands-arent-ready
  - Read live: 2026-10-20

### Ignite X

Agency. San Francisco Bay Area agency recalibrating marketing and communications for the AI era; sells Machine Relations as a named service.

- First recorded March 14, 2026: Machine Relations, Not Media Relations: Your PR Strategy Needs a Parallel Track, Ignite X
  - In their words: “We're in the machine relations business.”
  - URL: https://ignitepr.com/blog-machine-relations
  - Read live: 2026-10-20
- April 9, 2026: Ignite X Brings Strategic Communications Expertise to Machine Relations: the Emerging Discipline of AI Search Visibility, GlobeNewswire, by Ignite X
  - In their words: “Machine Relations is bigger than any one agency.” (Carmen Hughes, founder of Ignite X)
  - Note: Launch announcement of the agency's Machine Relations practice.
  - URL: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/04/09/3271015/0/en/Ignite-X-Brings-Strategic-Communications-Expertise-to-Machine-Relations-the-Emerging-Discipline-of-AI-Search-Visibility.html
  - Read live: 2026-10-20
- April 15, 2026: Machine Relations: The New Discipline Behind AI Search Visibility, a Q&A with Carmen Hughes, CityBiz, by Sobeida Dilone
  - In their words: “I think within two years, every serious agency will have a Machine Relations capability, the same way they all have Media Relations now.” (Carmen Hughes, founder of Ignite X)
  - URL: https://www.citybiz.co/article/832299/qa-with-carmen-hughes-founder-of-ignite-x-machine-relations/
  - Read live: 2026-10-20
- First recorded October 12, 2026: Machine Relations: AI Search Visibility Strategy, Ignite X
  - In their words: “Machine relations is an emerging communications discipline focused on how AI search engines perceive, evaluate, and cite your brand.”
  - Note: Service page, labelled New Service.
  - URL: https://ignitepr.com/machine-relations
  - Read live: 2026-10-20

### Gaaaon (株式会社ガーオン)

Agency. Tokyo PR firm; sells Machine Relations support through its AI Pulse service and credits the term to Jaxon Parrott.

- May 9, 2026: マシンリレーションズとは｜LLMO対策の先にあるAI広報論 (What is Machine Relations), Gaaaon, by Yu Ikari (猪狩 優), representative director
  - In their words: “マシンリレーションズ（MR）は、AIに引用される広報を5層で体系化したParrott氏提唱の規律。”
  - Note: In English: Machine Relations (MR) is the discipline proposed by Parrott that organizes AI-cited PR into five layers. The guide names Jaxon Parrott as the originator of Machine Relations. Updated 2026-07-01.
  - URL: https://gaaaon.jp/blog/machine-relations-intro
  - Read live: 2026-10-20
- First recorded October 20, 2026: 株式会社ガーオン｜調査PR・広報代行・AI活用支援 (services), Gaaaon
  - In their words: “AI可視性（GEO／LLMO／AIO）向上・マシンリレーションズ支援（AI Pulse）”
  - Note: In English: AI visibility (GEO, LLMO, AIO) improvement and Machine Relations support (AI Pulse), listed among the firm's services.
  - URL: https://gaaaon.jp/
  - Read live: 2026-10-20

### Help a Reporter Out (HARO)

Platform. Platform that connects journalists with expert sources.

- July 17, 2026: What is PR in 2026?, HARO Blog, by Brett Farmiloe
  - In their words: “PR has built an entire discipline around “machine relations” to influence what the machines summarize.”
  - Note: Report drawn from practitioner answers; updated 2026-10-15.
  - URL: https://blog.helpareporter.com/what-is-pr/
  - Read live: 2026-10-20
- July 20, 2026: HARO Report: PR Now Spans From Media to "Machine Relations", Newsworthy.ai, by Help a Reporter Out (HARO)
  - In their words: “Practitioners described an emerging discipline of “machine relations” alongside media relations, while insisting that the human work machines cannot do has become the industry’s differentiator.”
  - Note: Wire release of the same report; counted once.
  - URL: https://www.newsworthy.ai/news/202607202651/haro-report-pr-now-spans-from-media-to-machine-relations
  - Read live: 2026-10-20

### Instant Press

Agency. Press placement firm.

- July 21, 2026: What Is Machine Relations? (PR for the AI Era), Instant Press, by Joey Sendz, founder
  - In their words: “Machine relations is the discipline that manages that decision, and most brands do not know it exists yet.”
  - URL: https://www.instantpress.co/blog/machine-relations-explained
  - Read live: 2026-10-20

### PenVine

Agency. B2B technology PR agency.

- August 6, 2026: A CMO’s guide to machine relations, Marketing Dive, by Jennifer Schenberg, CEO of PenVine
  - In their words: “The 20% who make machine relations core to their communications strategy will own their categories.”
  - Note: Guest piece.
  - URL: https://www.marketingdive.com/news/a-cmos-guide-to-machine-relations/826421/
  - Read live: 2026-10-20
- September 1, 2026: From Media Relations to Machine Relations, PenVine, The Pulse
  - In their words: “Making machine relations a central pillar of a modern PR strategy is crucial to winning in generative discovery because brands must continually feed the underlying models.”
  - Note: Repost of the Marketing Dive piece; counted once.
  - URL: https://penvine.com/the-pulse/from-media-relations-to-machine-relations/
  - Read live: 2026-10-20

### CiteWorks Studio

Agency. GEO and AI search visibility firm.

- August 21, 2026: Machine Relations: Why PR Is Becoming Citation Engineering, CiteWorks Studio, by Mark Huntley, founder and CEO
  - In their words: “Machine Relations is an emerging communications discipline focused on improving the external information environment that AI systems use when evaluating a brand, product, service, or category.”
  - URL: https://citeworksstudio.com/resources/machine-relations
  - Read live: 2026-10-20

### Anshuman Dutta

Practitioner. Marketing director at Cognizant.

- September 18, 2026: Your Brand Has Already Been Judged. You Just Were Not In The Room, Forbes Communications Council, by Anshuman Dutta
  - In their words: “Machine relations sits at the intersection of marketing, communications, legal and technology, reporting to the C-suite.”
  - URL: https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbescommunicationscouncil/2026/09/18/your-brand-has-already-been-judged-you-just-were-not-in-the-room/
  - Read live: 2026-10-20

## Cited as a Source

Publishers that name Machine Relations as the source of a finding. They are listed apart and not counted as adopters.

### Ohad Ben Artzi

Founder and CEO of OBA PR and OBA Circle.

- September 23, 2026: Why PR Is Now Your Most Powerful AI Strategy, Forbes Business Council, by Ohad Ben Artzi
  - In their words: “A 2026 analysis by Machine Relations”
  - Note: Cites Machine Relations research on what AI engines cite.
  - URL: https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2026/09/23/why-pr-is-now-your-most-powerful-ai-strategy/
  - Read live: 2026-10-20

### Shadow

Jessen Gibbs, CEO.

- Updated October 19, 2026: How Earned Media Drives AI Citations: Why PR Coverage Is the Foundation of AI Visibility, Shadow, by Jessen Gibbs, CEO of Shadow
  - In their words: “According to Machine Relations (June 2026), AI engines evaluate claim-level corroboration during answer synthesis.”
  - Note: Matches the Machine Relations Research analysis Citation Architecture as External Proof, published June 1, 2026.
  - URL: https://www.shadow.inc/resources/earned-media-ai-citations
  - Read live: 2026-10-20

## How This Register Counts

An adopter is counted once, however many pages it publishes, when a live page read in full uses Machine Relations in its own text as the name of a discipline, practice or service. Reposts and wire copies of the same piece count once. Pages that name Machine Relations only as a research source are listed separately. The unrelated term human-machine relations is not counted. Sites run by the founding practitioner or by Machine Relations Research are not counted as adoption.

The classified source library behind this register is the [Evidence Base](https://machinerelations.ai/evidence.md).

## Links

- [Who Coined Machine Relations](https://machinerelations.ai/research/who-coined-machine-relations.md)
- [Machine Relations glossary entry](https://machinerelations.ai/glossary/machine-relations.md)
- [Evidence Base](https://machinerelations.ai/evidence.md)
- [About & Editorial Standards](https://machinerelations.ai/about.md)