Featured Opens Always-On PR Workflows to Free Users, Expanding Access to Media Opportunities

Featured, the AI co-pilot for PR, announced that its always-on PR automations, Featured Workflows, are now available on every plan, including Free. The 12 workflow types monitor journalist requests, HARO queries, podcasts, bylined article opportunities, speaking events, awards, media mentions, competitor coverage, and AI visibility on a user-defined schedule, delivering matched results by email or Slack. The move, announced by the Scottsdale-based company, opens a capability previously limited to paid subscribers to any user, a shift that could affect how small businesses and startups approach public relations.

The significance for Texas businesses is straightforward: PR monitoring has traditionally been a cost center reserved for agencies or well-funded marketing departments. By placing Workflows on the Free plan, Featured removes that barrier. Free users can run workflows until they hit a daily usage allowance, after which workflows pause and resume when usage resets. Paid plans, Lite at $29 per month and Pro at $79 per month when billed annually, offer higher allowances. For founders and small teams across Texas, this means the recurring research that surfaces media opportunities can now be automated at no cost, freeing time for the human judgment that remains essential.

Adoption data suggests the feature is already gaining traction. Since Workflows went live on June 16, 2026, users have created 467 workflows, which have completed 26,239 runs and surfaced 93,012 matched opportunities, with 93% of runs finding at least one match, according to Featured's Workflows Usage Report. Those figures indicate that when monitoring is automated, users consistently discover relevant opportunities they might otherwise miss. The report's findings underscore the potential for small businesses to compete for media coverage without dedicating staff hours to daily searches.

Setting up a workflow is designed to be simple. Users can go to featured.com/workflows, select a workflow, and fill in three fields: what to look for, when to receive it, and where to send results. Alternatively, they can type a single sentence into Featured Chat, such as, Send me HARO requests about small business finance every morning in Slack. Workflows are configured in plain language rather than search syntax, with scheduling options including hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or a custom cadence. Results can be delivered by email or to a connected Slack channel.

Crucially, Featured Workflows stop at the opportunity. They monitor and notify but do not automatically contact journalists, podcast hosts, publishers, or event organizers. A human remains in the loop to review each opportunity and decide whether and how to respond. That distinction matters for industries where authenticity and relationship-building drive results. It also addresses a common concern about automation in PR: the risk of spammy outreach. By keeping a person in the decision seat, Featured positions its tool as a research assistant rather than a replacement for judgment.

"PR opportunities can come up at any time, and manually searching for them every day is difficult to sustain," said Brett Farmiloe, CEO of Featured. "PR agencies already pay for monitoring. Most founders and small businesses never set it up. Putting Workflows on the Free plan means anyone can decide what to monitor and how often to hear about it, and Featured does the recurring research. Automation stops at the opportunity. A person still decides whether it's relevant and what to say."

For Texas's startup and small business ecosystem, the implications are practical. Access to media coverage can build credibility, attract customers, and support fundraising. Tools that lower the cost of finding those opportunities could help more Texas companies tell their stories. Featured also owns and operates HARO and Connectively as standalone products, giving it a broad view of the journalist-request landscape. As AI-driven visibility becomes a new front in PR, monitoring how brands appear in tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini adds another layer of relevance for businesses navigating a changing media environment.