Shaper CollectiveFrequently Asked Questions
How Shaper Collective works, who it serves and how an engagement starts.
The Firm
What kind of firm is Shaper Collective?
Shaper Collective is an AI-native PR firm in Washington, DC, founded by Ben Newman in November 2025. It is an agency of agents: AI agents listen, draft and measure, and people keep the strategy and the final call. It serves trade associations, companies, developers and utilities on the public side of an issue, alongside lobbyists and government relations teams.
Who should hire an AI-native PR firm?
Organizations whose fight plays out in social feeds and AI answers: trade associations, companies and their leaders, causes and candidates, and developers of local projects. Agents listen, publish and learn from the response every day, and people make the final call. If a few private meetings will settle your issue, start with your government relations team.
What is AI-native public relations?
Public relations built around AI agents from the ground up. At Shaper Collective, agents listen to public conversations, create content and learn from audience response every day, inside guardrails the client sets. The goal is unchanged: earn attention for a message where public opinion forms. That now includes social feeds and AI answers.
Where is Shaper Collective based, and who founded it?
Shaper Collective is based in Washington, DC. Its founder is Ben Newman, whose background is on the About page.
Who does Shaper Collective work with?
Organizations with a stake in public opinion: trade associations, companies and business leaders, and developers and utilities. The About page says what each one comes to Shaper Collective for.
What does Shaper Collective offer?
Four services. Agentic Social Media earns distribution for a message through a network of agentic personas. SENSE is a weekly issue-space intelligence brief. Amplified Judgment is a framework for AI transformation, from the CEO to the line. Thought Leadership is a weekly LinkedIn program in a chief executive’s own voice. Each service page answers its own questions.
Can Shaper Collective check what AI assistants say about an organization?
Yes. The AI-answer audit asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google’s AI answers a fixed set of questions every month and scores each answer.
Getting Started
How does an engagement start?
With a conversation about the issue, the audience, the objective and the deadline. Get in touch to begin.
Does Shaper Collective publish prices?
Prices are set in conversation, once the objective and the scope are clear.
What falls outside Shaper Collective's work?
Legal and election-law advice, polling, paid-media placement and any promise of electoral outcomes.
Where can I read Shaper Collective's thinking?
Insights collects Shaper Collective’s essays and reports. The Influence Model is Ben Newman’s weekly newsletter on how AI is reshaping the tactics of influence in Washington.