Everhaze launches agentic AI solution Lú in the UK as PR industry rethinks the billable hour

Former Google AI adoption specialist Mike Dockery joins as Chief Revenue Officer to spearhead UK growth as agentic AI reshapes PR’s commercial model.

PR intelligence company Everhaze has announced the launch of its agentic AI solution Lú into the UK, as agencies move away from the traditional hourly billing model towards value-led and capability-based pricing. Everhaze combines PR intelligence with agentic AI capabilities to help agencies deliver a broader range of services without tying delivery to time.

To drive it’s mission of enabling new revenue layers for the PR industry, Everhaze has appointed former Google technology AI adoption specialist Mike Dockery as Chief Revenue Officer. Dockery brings more than 20 years’ experience working with large scale enterprises to adopt emerging technologies with Google, Qualtrics, Capita and Oracle. At Everhaze, he will lead the company’s UK commercial development, working with agencies to explore how changes in infrastructure and workflow can support new approaches to packaging, delivering and pricing PR capability based services.

The launch comes as the UK PR industry faces a trio of compounding issues including a talent crunch, a cost crisis, and increased demand for value-based pricing. 60% of UK agencies report skills shortages (CIPR, 2024) and 40% are carrying open vacancies, while agencies are raising fees to cover staff costs rather than to expand margins, with 41% increasing fees in the last 12 months and 45% expecting to do so this year. Yet the PRCA’s 2025 UK PR & Communications Census found that 45.4% of surveyed UK agencies are actively moving their pricing policies towards value-based models, as teams look to place greater emphasis on the value of the service delivered rather than the hours required to deliver it.

Lú acts as an operational PR intelligence layer, bringing together traditional and social media monitoring, media contacts, research, analysis and reporting. Accessible by dashboard as well as on the move via WhatsApp, Telegram and Slack, it enables agency staff and clients to access real-time intelligence by text, voice note or phone call. The system can monitor coverage, broadcast mentions, campaign performance and emerging narratives, while carrying out defined tasks such as media research, reporting, coverage books and briefing materials. Everhaze has identified 48 separate tasks Lú can carry out, including voice-directed text editing, media list creation and management, media monitoring, live reporting, press release drafting, coverage books and campaign analysis.

Founded in 2025 by former agency owner James McCann and Bank of America developer Cormac Glynn, Everhaze recently secured investment of €650k from three family offices and has successfully deployed the technology in the Irish market in recent months.

Commenting on the UK launch, James McCann, Founder and CEO of Everhaze, said:

“PR has traditionally been built around selling time. Agencies have had to account for the hours involved in research, monitoring, reporting and delivery, and clients have largely been charged accordingly. But as the way that work is delivered changes, the relationship between time and value becomes harder to sustain.

“We think the industry has an opportunity to move towards a capability-based model, where agencies can define, package and price the services they provide based on both the value of the expertise they deliver at a human level and the value of unique capabilities made available through new infrastructure. 

Also commenting on the UK launch, Mike Dockery, Chief Revenue Officer at Everhaze, said:

“Changing from a time-based model to a capability-based one is a significant challenge for agencies. It requires a different way of thinking about how services are structured, delivered and valued by clients.”

“My experience has been in helping organisations adapt their infrastructure and ways of working as technology changes what is possible. That is increasingly relevant to PR, where agencies have an opportunity to rethink the operational layer behind their services and build more scalable ways of delivering them. Our focus in the UK will be on working with agencies to understand where those changes can create new opportunities to package and price their capabilities differently.”

Photo: (L/R) Cormac Glynn, Co-Founder & CTO of Everhaze, James McCann, Founder & CEO of Everhaze, and Mike Dockery, Chief Revenue Officer at Everhaze, at the launch of Lú in Shoreditch. Photo credit: Natalia Ruszczuk