SAN FRANCISCO — Sami McCabe, the founder and former CEO of global PR firm Clarity, has launched a new agency, Atrium, based on a proprietary technology platform that aims to enable in-house teams to rapidly incorporate AI into their workflow.

McCabe (pictured, left), who exited Clarity in January after growing it to more than $20 million of revenue and a team of 150, has been developing Atrium's technology stack with his cofounder – artificial intelligence and martech product developer André Carmo (right) – since his departure.

Atrium debuts with a team of six communications, marketing, and product development professionals across the US and Europe. The agency is already working with several clients, including German robotics company Neura Robotics and HR tech platform TalentDesk.

McCabe told PRovoke Media that Atrium aims to address longstanding challenges in the PR industry by “reimagining the effectiveness, velocity and reliability” of communications agencies. “For too long, the PR and communications industry has relied on perceived, not demonstrable value. In a world in which every other marketing channel is becoming more data-driven, precise, and measurable, our industry has conspicuously failed to keep pace.

“As a consequence, agencies are experiencing downward pressure on budgets because CMOs are more inclined to invest in channels that offer greater measurability and reliability.”

He said Atrium was built on an AI platform that ingests vast quantities of owned and publicly-available data to generate detailed insights, and then supports in-house communications and marketing teams by generating strategies, tactical execution plans and content in a way that is consistent with the style of the brand.

“Then it comes full circle, as we can tie the work back to results and start to prove the correlation between PR and business outcomes,” he said.

McCabe added: “CMOs are all looking for agencies that are doing a good job of adapting to this new reality. Atrium has been built as built as a tech business first, supported by human experts to provide strategic counsel and manage client relationships, with faster pace, greater scale and precision. We want our people to be doing the human, creative things that add value.”

He said the response from chief marketing officers had been positive: “The CMOs we are talking to are surprised by the pace at which we’re able to operate, and the quality we’re able to generate. It’s a total paradigm shift in terms of velocity – we can react so much faster to client briefs. Agencies of all kinds are going to need to respond to and adopt new technology. Those that win will adopt fastest and most thoughtfully.”