Why PR is Becoming More Essential for AI Search Visibility

In the AI Search Era, Visibility Starts with Reputation

See why PR (Public Relations) is now a core tactic for optimizing brand presence in AI answers. Public relations is no longer just a supporting tactic; it’s becoming a central strategy for brands aiming to maintain visibility in the age of AI search.

AI-powered search engines increasingly rely on brand mentions, reputation, and authority signals gathered from across the web—areas where PR excels. In this evolving landscape, the question isn’t whether PR matters to search—it’s how much PR now leads the charge.

AI is Changing Human Content Discovery Habits

The rise of AI-powered search engines is radically transforming how people discover information online. Traditional “blue links” on Google’s search results pages (SERPs) are being replaced by:

• AI-generated summaries like Google’s AI Overviews.
• Conversational interfaces such as ChatGPT and Claude.
• Standalone AI search platforms like Perplexity AI and Bing Copilot.

ChatGPT alone has seen remarkable growth, doubling its user base in the past six months and reaching 400 million weekly active users by February 2025. Its web search capabilities are now considered a killer feature.

Google, too, is no longer the same search engine it once was. The platform is embracing AI search, introducing features like AI Overviews and AI Mode. These AI Overviews appear on billions of searches daily, showing that users are increasingly relying on conversational answers rather than scrolling through multiple search results.

The Zero-Click Phenomenon: A Growing Challenge

Meanwhile, the “zero-click” phenomenon—where users find their answers without clicking on a website—is expanding. This trend further reduces the value of traditional organic listings.

Zero-click searches now account for approximately 60% of all Google searches, according to a recent SparkToro study.

Traditional SEO focuses on driving organic search referral traffic to websites. However, optimizing for AI search is about ensuring your brand authority surfaces within the context of answers and summaries.

On the other hand, people still click through from AI answers to websites. This highlights the importance of combining strong brand storytelling with strategic PR efforts to maximize search visibility.

How LLMs Surface Content Differently from Traditional Web Search

AI search engines prioritize entities such as brands and people, alongside reputation and authority signals gathered across the web. These factors complement traditional SEO elements like backlinks and content relevance. This shift means brands must optimize not just for keywords but also for contextual reputation and entity prominence.

On the other hand, evidence suggests that large language models (LLMs) may still rely on traditional SERPs for data. A 2024 study found that up to 75% of links surfaced in Google’s AI Overviews come from pages ranking in the top 12 organic search results. This demonstrates a continued reliance on established authority while introducing greater emphasis on entity recognition in Google’s AI algorithms.

Even when AI models look beyond high-ranking SEO material, they often turn to the same authoritative sites favored by traditional search engines. While the overlap isn’t 100%, it’s significant enough to shape your earned media coverage strategy. The sources prioritized by AI search engines typically include:

• Timely and authoritative news websites.
• Reputable industry publications.
• Knowledge platforms.
• Discussion forums.

These are the types of media properties PR firms traditionally cultivate close relationships with.

What AI Search Means for the Role of PR

Historically, PR complemented SEO by earning high-value organic backlinks, securing brand mentions, and building credibility through media placements. Coverage in reputable outlets drove organic traffic and strengthened domain authority, influencing Google’s ranking factors.

Today, classic PR tactics are being reimagined for the AI era. PR-driven mentions in high-authority media now influence both human readers and AI training models. As Fractl’s Kelsey Libert notes:

“While earning backlinks from high-authority sites was once the golden ticket to building domain authority, trust signals, and rankings, that’s no longer necessarily the case. LLMs don’t ‘rank’ content the way Google does. They don’t crawl and index live web pages. Instead, they generate responses based on pre-trained data, considering word frequency, contextual relevance, and surrounding content.”

While AI search heavily relies on training data, some models also draw on real-time web information. Emerging technologies like RAG-integrated AI agents may soon further reshape these dynamics. Many leading AI search solutions, such as Google’s AI Overviews, are built on data from existing search engines.

Others, like Perplexity AI, operate more independently, prioritizing high-quality, frequently searched topics based on user behavior. Orbit Media’s Andy Crestodina explains:

“PR pros are perfectly positioned to help brands become discoverable through AI. The goal is a large, visible digital footprint, but with AI, it’s more about providing rich, descriptive content that the AI can understand and recommend. It’s less about traditional links and more about ensuring your brand and expertise are well-represented in text.”

AI Systems Rely on High-Quality, Context-Rich Signals

AI systems thrive on high-quality, context-rich signals when generating answers. Brand mentions in trusted publications are now critical for building topical authority and entity recognition. According to a recent analysis by Hard Numbers, approximately 61% of the signals informing AI’s understanding of brand reputation originate from editorial media sources.

Source: Reputation in the Age of AI, Hard Numbers.

Consistency plays a key role in cementing your brand association. When your brand consistently appears within specific contextual topics—such as creativity, reliability, accessibility, or innovation—AI systems learn to associate it with those values.

Similarly, research by Kevin Indig highlights that brand search volume strongly correlates with visibility in AI chatbot searches. This underscores the importance of using PR to build buzz around your brand name rather than focusing solely on product category keyword clusters.

This reinforces the argument that frequent mentions shape how AI perceives your brand. Influential mentions carry outsized importance, making it crucial to strategically select PR targets and remain active in conversations on trusted platforms.

Factors Contributing to Entity Authority in AI

Several specific factors contribute to how AI systems recognize and prioritize brands:

• Trustworthiness of the Mentioning Source: Mentions in trade publications and local news outlets hold more weight than those in brand blogs.
• Contextual Alignment: Mentions must consistently associate the brand with specific expertise or values.
• Structured Data Support: Brands backed by knowledge panels, Wikidata entries, and schema.org markup enjoy better recognition by AI systems.

Because AI search blends traditional ranking signals with newer, entity-based reasoning, strategic PR placements directly influence how AI “understands” and “recommends” brands.

Case Studies and Real-World Examples

In the coming months, we’re likely to see PR agencies—or hybrid PR-SEO agencies—release case studies demonstrating how earned media mentions boosted a client’s visibility in AI-generated answers. For now, insights from SEMrush provide a glimpse into domains currently enjoying more traffic referrals from ChatGPT than from traditional Google blue links.

These domains span industries and levels of mainstream recognition, suggesting their earned media coverage strategies have yielded significant results. For example, a software product designed for insurance appraisers has steadily garnered around 100 backlinks to its domain over the past two years, according to Ahrefs.

Software product for insurance – Backlinks according to Ahrefs

The company has secured far more media mentions during the same period, as tracked by Muck Rack Trends. This highlights the growing importance of combining backlinks with consistent, high-quality PR efforts to enhance AI-driven visibility.

How Marketers Can Adapt to the New Reality of AI Search Visibility

Future-Proofing Your Search Strategy

To future-proof your search visibility, marketers and SEOs must adopt a new mindset. Here’s how to effectively integrate PR into your AI search strategy:

• Collaborate closely with PR teams. SEO and PR can no longer operate in silos. Align on target topics, audiences, and messaging to create a unified approach.
• Prioritize high-quality mentions. Focus on media outlets and influencers that are seen as authoritative by both humans and AI engines.
• Build strong topical authority. Consistently secure coverage around core topics you want to dominate in AI-generated search results.
• Be quotable. Craft unique insights, data points, or provocative quotes that journalists and bloggers will want to cite.
• Focus on entity optimization. Ensure your brand is well-represented in structured data, Wikipedia, Google’s Knowledge Graph, and other trusted databases.
• Monitor your brand mentions. Use leading brand monitoring tools to track where and how your brand is referenced. These tools often provide ideas for additional coverage opportunities. Emerging solutions can also help track trends in AI answer visibility.
• Measure differently. Track upticks in branded search volume, direct traffic, and mentions in AI summaries. These metrics are becoming the new KPIs for search success.

PR is the Future of Search Visibility

AI search is reshaping the rules of discovery, elevating brand reputation, mentions, and authority over traditional SEO tactics. In this evolving environment, PR has transitioned from a supporting role to a central pillar of digital marketing strategies.

Brands that invest today in strategic, AI-savvy PR—earning influential mentions, building consistent topical authority, and proactively shaping their digital footprints across domains—will lead tomorrow’s search landscape.

The Shift Beyond Links and Keywords

The future of search isn’t just about links and keywords. It’s about being talked about accurately, contextually, and authoritatively in the right places and by the right voices.
In the age of AI, visibility begins with reputation. If your brand isn’t being mentioned, it simply won’t be found.

Conclusion: Embrace PR as a Core Strategy for AI Search Success

We’re witnessing a fundamental shift where earned media coverage and reputation management play pivotal roles in maintaining search visibility. By aligning PR strategies with the demands of AI-driven algorithms, brands can ensure they remain visible and authoritative in this new era of content discovery.
Stay ahead of the curve—integrate PR into your AI search strategy today!