How PR shapes what ChatGPT says about your brand
Search behaviour is changing at a rapid rate. In today’s fast-paced, digitally driven world, when someone wants to find a product, compare a service or understand an issue, their first stop is no longer a search engine results page, but a conversation with AI.
For brands looking to build awareness of their products, services and USPs, and drive buying intent, visibility in AI responses has quickly become a core KPI.
That is where the discipline of Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) comes in. While this seems like a relatively new term, the reality is that AI platforms are being led by many of the same signals that strategic PR has always been built on: earning credible editorial coverage, ensuring consistent expert positioning, and crafting a clear, authoritative narrative to get your message seen by the right people.
So, how can brands navigate this shift? As clients look to navigate AI visibility, we’re here to explain how PR and digital PR strategies can directly influence whether, and how, your brand shows up in AI-generated responses.
What is the relationship between PR and AI?
Generative AI is redefining the ways brands are searched, discovered and discussed online, with users seeking recommendations, summaries and comparisons from platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity as a key step in their decision-making process.
In PR, that means brand visibility is no longer limited to search rankings, media coverage, or owned channels. Today, it is increasingly important to integrate AI strategies into wider communications plans, to ensure that your brand is prominently and positively referenced in the AI responses it needs to be in.
What is AI visibility?
AI visibility is the degree to which a brand appears, is referenced, or described positively within AI-generated responses to relevant queries. It is distinct from web traffic and rankings, and is influenced heavily by credibility, authority and narrative consistency - all of which can be shaped and strengthened by strategic PR activity.
Why is AI visibility important for brands?
As AI technology evolves and expands at pace, it has an increasing influence on a brand’s online visibility and the behaviour of AI search users.
Generative AI platforms are now being described as the new intermediaries of trust - directly influencing how a brand is mentioned, cited, recommended or linked to online - with a significant impact on how a user then responds and interacts with that brand.
Research has shown that:
The average AI search visitor is 4.4 times as valuable as the average visitor from traditional organic search, based on conversion rate (Semrush)
Two thirds of B2B buyers use Gen-AI to research and evaluate vendors or suppliers (Magenta)
In the UK, about 30% of online searches now show AI overviews, and more than half (53%) of adults say they see these summaries often (Ofcom)
For brands seeking to protect their reputation, drive commercial outcomes, or shape market perceptions, AI visibility must now be a key objective of ongoing communications plans - otherwise you risk your competitors gaining a majority share of voice.
How do I know if my brand appears in AI responses?
AI visibility can be assessed by testing relevant prompts and analysing how often, and in what context, a brand appears in responses. This includes evaluating sentiment, positioning and comparative presence against competitors.
Experienced PR agencies, like Rewired, can offer the tools and strategic guidance to help you understand your brand’s current AI visibility, as well as identifying opportunities to strengthen its influence across gen-AI platforms.
How can PR help to improve AI visibility?
When providing answers to search queries, AI systems such as ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini and Perplexity synthesise information from across the web, prioritising sources that demonstrate authority, credibility and contextual relevance. This is similar to the E-E-A-T framework (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) that Google uses to assess the quality of online content.
This means that a multi-channel PR strategy can help to increase AI visibility for a brand through the following signals:
Securing authoritative editorial coverage within the outlets that AI assistants are scraping
Creating consistent and regular expert commentary that reinforce your message
Establishing a clear association between brand and topic
Providing credible third-party validation across multiple sources
Enhancing content with structured and accessible formatting
By delivering a strategy that incorporates these signals, PR can ensure your brand is accurately and strategically represented in synthesised responses - making it central to AI visibility.
What is GEO?
GEO is the process of ensuring that a brand’s expertise, positioning and authority are reflected in the responses generated by large language models (LLMs).
With the reputation of brands, products and services being increasingly shaped by content generated by LLMs, it’s important to understand how this information is created and presented, to best protect your brand and reach the audiences that matter.
Which PR tactics have the greatest impact on AI visibility?
Research by Hard Numbers has shown that editorial media remains the most influential source for AI platforms, making up 61% of the total responses generated by LLMs. Owned media - including brand-generated content, such as blogs and websites - generated a significant proportion (44%) of total responses.
To effectively optimise your content for AI, the approach should be multi-faceted:
Owned media (on-site): Blogs, Q&As, case studies, how-to guides and trend-based insights are all valuable digital assets that can help to optimise the breadth and depth of content on owned channels, and provide a bank of ‘scrapable’ information for LLMs that is relevant, accurate and up to date
Editorial: Securing earned coverage from media outlets that are most commonly cited by AI helps to provide credible third-party validation, and increase visibility of your brand in generated responses
Social media: The impact of on-site and editorial content can be amplified by LinkedIn, which has become one of the most authoritative sources for LLMs. Recent research found that LinkedIn is in fact the second most cited domain across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI mode - putting it ahead of Wikipedia, Youtube and every major news publisher (source: Semrush)
How can SEO and GEO work together?
Digital PR strategies are designed to support search engine optimisation (SEO) by improving visibility and rankings of websites within search engine results pages (SERPs), like Google. In contrast, GEO focuses on inclusion within AI-generated answers - optimising how a brand is described when an AI platform synthesises information in response to a user query.
At Rewired, we believe that SEO and GEO are complementary disciplines that can help our clients best maintain their brand voice, visibility and reputation online. When the two strategies work in tandem, clients benefit from improved rankings in the SERPs, as well as more prominent visibility on AI platforms.
A recent analysis of 25,000 real user queries found that websites ranking #1 in Google have a 25% chance of being cited in AI overviews, with citation probability declining as traditional rankings drop. This highlights the continued importance of digital PR strategies that are built on solid SEO foundations.
Traditional press activity continues to amplify impact and reinforce messaging offline too, so working with a PR agency like Rewired, which can deliver an integrated approach, is key to building awareness among your target audiences at every touchpoint.
Does AI visibility matter for all sectors?
Yes - AI visibility should be a consideration for brands across all sectors, as we see the increasing influence of AI platforms on a wide range of user queries and search behaviours among both consumer and B2B decision makers.
For example, in retail, AI-mediated recommendation tools increasingly influence product selection and conversion behaviour. In leisure and tourism, AI-generated itineraries can shape ticket sales long before a user reaches an online booking platform. While in corporate communications, AI systems summarise industry reputation and positioning based on available authoritative sources.
AI visibility is not just a concern for consumer brands either. A report by Magenta Associates found that B2B buyer journeys are rapidly evolving, with 45% of decision makers using AI tools as a core research channel - ahead of LinkedIn (41%) and industry publications (34%).
The responses returned by AI platforms are formed by key signals, drawing information from online sources that are accurate, relevant and credible. Therefore, the pillars of strategic PR activity - from thought leadership and expert commentary, to news releases and website copy - all contribute to the signals that influence how AI describes a brand, regardless of the sector.
How can I work with a PR agency to develop an effective AI strategy?
No algorithm can replace human judgment, creative thinking and relationship-building that sits behind great PR. AI may decide how a brand is summarised, but it's people who decide what's worth saying in the first place.
By devising a multi-channel AI strategy that supports your wider communications objectives, a PR agency can help you to influence how positively and prominently your brand appears in AI responses.
Rewired is experienced in delivering integrated campaigns across digital PR, traditional media relations, reputation management and strategic communications. Across our diverse client portfolio, we ensure that when AI tools interpret the landscape, our clients' narratives and messages are strong and focused. Our job is to help build brand stories that AI systems understand - and human audiences trust.
Are you looking to boost your brand’s AI visibility? Speak to Rewired