A crisis doesn’t wait for a press release. In today’s media environment, reputational risks can emerge, and escalate, long before traditional monitoring tools catch them. Communications teams that rely solely on historical reporting are often a step behind. The solution? Predictive crisis intelligence: spotting risks early, before they trend, so your team can act proactively. 

To truly transform your media analysis, it’s essential to understand how the media ecosystem has changed. AI-generated summaries, niche content creators, and synthetic media amplify narratives at speeds that outpace traditional verification. In 2026, narrative intelligence is becoming the “new crisis command center,” using AI to detect disinformation, deepfakes, and coordinated amplification before they harm brand reputation. Brands that monitor only mentions or sentiment risk missing the early signals that matter most. 

Predictive intelligence works by identifying patterns and anomalies before they hit mainstream coverage. A sudden uptick in social chatter around a sensitive topic, subtle shifts in stakeholder framing, or early circulation of misinformation are all potential precursors to a larger crisis. The advantage is clear: by the time these signals reach the headlines, the narrative may already be difficult to control. 

This proactive approach is reinforced by the rise of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). As AI becomes a default source of information for journalists, consumers, and creators, the brands cited most often by authoritative outlets are those that appear in AI-generated summaries. Communications teams can now use predictive insights not just to respond to risks, but to shape the narrative before AI and digital amplification decide it for them. 

Technology alone isn’t enough. Insights are only valuable when actionable. Predictive alerts must be tied to business priorities, and communications, risk, and executive teams need to collaborate so early warnings translate into strategic decisions. Scenario planning, informed by predictive data, allows teams to test messaging, engage stakeholders, and prevent reputational crises before they start. 

Predictive crisis intelligence allows communications leaders to move from reactive and to defensive to proactive. It enables teams to anticipate narratives, protect brand reputation, and maintain trust in an increasingly complex media environment. 

At PublicRelay, we provide communications leaders with AI-driven media analysis that surfaces risks before they trend. If you’re ready to move beyond just monitoring, connect with us to see how predictive insights can work for your team. 

Corporate communications leaders are navigating a moment of rapid change. From AI to reputation strategy to the evolving role of earned media, the conversations at this year’s Corporate Communications & Brand Summit made one thing clear: the function is being asked to prove its value in new ways. 

I spent the day listening in on panels, audience Q&A sessions, and networking with communications leaders across industries. The most heavily attended discussions tended to revolve around three themes: the growing importance of reputation, the real role of AI in communications, and the challenge of understanding influence in a fragmented information environment. 

Here are a few of the ideas that stuck with me. 

Belief, purpose, and the role of communication 

One theme that came up repeatedly was the idea that communication shapes belief. One speaker shared a simple but powerful example from inside their organization. Their CEO addressed employees and framed the company’s evolution not by saying what the company was becoming, but by clearly stating what it was no longer. That clarity helped employees understand the direction of the business and created alignment around a shared “North Star” purpose. 

Messaging is no longer just about storytelling; it helps define a brand’s identity. When leaders articulate purpose and values with clarity, communications becomes a mechanism for building belief internally and externally. 

Reputation is still the license to operate 

Another widely attended session featured Sarah Scruggs Brandt from American Chemistry Council, who put reputation in stark terms: “Reputation is our license to operate.” 

For industries that face skepticism or misunderstanding, reputation management is not just a brand exercise; it is fundamental to business viability. She referenced the well-known Warren Buffett quote that “it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it”; a saying that reflects the reality many communications teams face today. 

Brandt also highlighted how misinformation continues to shape public perception of entire industries and that because of this, communications teams play a critical role in educating stakeholders and ensuring that accurate information reaches the right audiences. 

In other words, reputation is not something that can be managed passively. It requires constant attention, monitoring, and proactive engagement. 

Earned media is gaining ground again 

Another interesting discussion focused on the relative effectiveness of paid versus earned media. Several speakers suggested that paid media is becoming less effective at influencing audiences in the way it once did. Instead, earned media and credible third-party voices are regaining importance. 

For communications teams, this reinforces the value of building strong media relationships and understanding where credibility actually lives. Audiences increasingly trust independent voices over brand generated messages. 

This shift is also forcing teams to think more deeply about stakeholder mapping. One audience member asked about identifying the most influential voices in a rapidly changing information ecosystem. The response highlighted a real challenge facing the industry: influence changes quickly, and communications teams are still learning how to track it. 

With large language models and AI powered search changing how information is surfaced, many teams are still experimenting with how to identify which sources and voices matter most. The consensus seemed to be that strategies will evolve as AI platforms mature, and the ecosystem stabilizes. 

AI is everywhere, but humans still matter 

Unsurprisingly, artificial intelligence was one of the most popular topics throughout the event. Bill Walsh from AARP shared a particularly practical perspective on how his communications teams are actually using AI today. 

He noted that one of the most effective ways to convince leadership to invest in AI tools was simply to show them real outputs. Demonstrating what AI could produce helped move the conversation from theory to action. 

The overall message was not that AI replaces communicators, in fact, the opposite came through clearly. Every speaker emphasized the need for a human in the loop. 

AI tools are great for assisting with tasks like copy editing, content drafting, or scanning large volumes of information. Some teams are even using AI to personalize digital newsletters for specific audience segments. 

While AI tools certainly have their place in today’s workflow, strategy, judgment, and context still belong firmly in the hands of communications professionals. 

The communications function is evolving 

Stepping back from the individual sessions, the bigger picture was clear. The role of corporate communications continues to expand. 

Communications leaders are now expected to shape corporate purpose, manage reputation risk, interpret complex information environments, and guide organizations through emerging technologies like AI. 

The conversations at this year’s summit certainly reflected that shift. The most impactful sessions were not about tactics alone. They focused on influence, credibility, and how communications leaders can translate reputation into tangible business value. 

For communications leaders, the takeaway is simple: the function is not just supporting the business anymore; it is helping define it. 

With communications shaping strategy at every level, knowing how to measure and navigate reputation and influence is more important than ever. Let’s continue the conversation.

This post was written by Darren Sleeger, SVP of Strategic Partnerships at PublicRelay and attendee of TCB’s Corporate Communications & Brand Summit.

The Evolution of AI in Media Analytics

As you dissect the landscape of media monitoring and analytics solutions available to your team, it’s important to understand how Artificial intelligence has fundamentally reshaped media analytics. What began as automated monitoring and keyword tracking has evolved into real-time pattern recognition, predictive modeling, and generative summaries delivered in seconds. 

For communications leaders, this acceleration is powerful. AI can surface trends across thousands of outlets; flag sentiment shifts instantly and analyze coverage at a scale that would be impossible manually. 

But in 2026, speed alone is no longer a competitive advantage. 

The real differentiator is interpretation. 

This new era is not about replacing analysts with automation. It is about moving from simple insight acceleration to interpretation intelligence; combining machine scale with human expertise to deliver context-rich, decision-ready intelligence for communications teams and executive leadership. 

The Promise (and limits) of AI in Media Analytics 

AI-driven media analytics tools have matured rapidly. Today’s systems can cluster narratives, identify anomalies in coverage, detect emerging themes, and predict momentum before stories reach peak visibility. 

This level of automation allows communications teams to monitor earned media, digital publications, broadcast, newsletters, and social conversations continuously and comprehensively. For enterprise organizations navigating global reputational risk, that coverage is essential. 

However, AI models operate on probabilities. They recognize patterns in language, but they do not inherently understand strategic nuance, industry dynamics, or executive intent. 

A model may classify coverage as neutral when it subtly undermines leadership credibility. It may identify a spike in volume without recognizing whether it represents reputational threat or strategic opportunity. It may summarize a narrative without capturing the underlying shift in stakeholder expectations. 

In other words, AI can identify what is happening. It cannot fully explain why it matters. 

That responsibility still belongs to humans. 

Why Interpretation Intelligence Matters 

Interpretation intelligence goes beyond dashboards and sentiment charts. It connects coverage trends to reputational drivers, distinguishes noise from signal, and translates narrative shifts into strategic implications for leadership. 

For communications leaders, this distinction is critical. Executive stakeholders do not need more metrics. They need clarity. They need to understand how emerging narratives affect business strategy, competitive positioning, investor confidence, and stakeholder trust. 

In the AI era, accuracy is not just about correct tagging. It is about meaningful interpretation within the broader industry and cultural landscape. 

Building a Human + AI 2.0 Framework 

To move from automation to interpretation intelligence, communications leaders should focus on three integrated pillars. 

Acceleration Through Automation 

Leverage AI and machine learning to monitor vast media ecosystems in real time. Automation ensures comprehensive coverage, rapid anomaly detection, and early identification of emerging topics across competitors and industry conversations. 

This foundation provides the scale necessary to compete in today’s media environment. 

Validation Through Human Expertise 

AI-generated classifications and summaries should be reviewed and refined by experienced analysts. Human validation ensures that sentiment, narrative framing, and reputational drivers are accurately captured. 

This step reduces misinterpretation and builds confidence in the data presented to executive leadership. 

Interpretation for Strategic Decision-Making 

The final layer is where true value emerges. Analysts synthesize AI-driven findings into strategic intelligence, connecting narrative shifts to business priorities and long-term reputation goals. 

Instead of reporting what happened, interpretation intelligence explains what it means and what to do next.

Beyond Real-Time Monitoring 

In 2026, media analytics cannot stop at real-time tracking. Communications teams must anticipate what is coming next. 

PublicRelay’s AI-driven Horizon Scanning is designed to support this evolution. By combining machine learning with expert human analysis, Horizon Scanning identifies emerging and evolving themes and narratives across competitors, industries, and broader cultural moments. 

Rather than focusing solely on current coverage, Horizon Scanning surfaces early narrative signals, competitive positioning shifts, and developing storylines that may influence stakeholder perception in the months ahead. 

The Competitive Advantage of Human + AI 2.0 

Organizations that rely exclusively on automation risk oversimplification. Those that rely solely on manual analysis risk missing scale and speed. 

Human + AI 2.0 bridges that gap. 

By combining AI-driven acceleration with contextual human interpretation, communications leaders can improve media analytics accuracy, identify reputational risks earlier, align messaging with emerging narratives, and demonstrate measurable impact to leadership. 

Want to learn more about out Human + AI approach? Contact us here. 

Communications teams have the incredible responsibility of managing their company reputation across all forms of media. What may appear to be a simple task spans a seemingly infinite number of online outlets, print publications, and social sites with constantly changing discussions.

Not only that, but conversations around your brand can move at algorithmic speed, making it difficult to decipher how your brand is represented and, more importantly, how that representation is shaped by sophisticated machine interpretation. In 2026, reputation management must account for not just what is said, but how it is synthesized, summarized, and surfaced by AI systems before audiences have even seen the original coverage. 

What is Reputation Management?

Reputation management is the act of influencing or controlling public perceptions of a company. Managing your reputation is both active and reactive and is shaped by three types of coverage: earned, paid, and owned media. Paid media relates to advertising, earned media encompasses traditional media coverage and social discussions, and owned media refers to content published by your organization, like your company website, blog, and social media.

What Does Reputation Management Look Like in 2026?

With the increasing shift toward digital media and artificial intelligence, the practice now requires consideration of traditional, online, broadcast, social, and AI-influenced discovery platforms. 

Managing your reputation is both active and reactive, shaped by three types of media: 

• Paid media, which includes advertising and sponsored content. 

• Earned media, encompassing traditional media coverage, online publications, and social discussion. 

• Owned media, referring to content published by your organization, like your website, blog, executive content, and social channels. 

In the AI era, these elements work together in new ways. A piece of earned media may end up summarized in generative AI results; your owned content may be interpreted and surfaced by AI assistants in ways that affect brand perception before a human even sees it.

Why is Reputation Management Important?

In an era when consumers are more informed and skeptical than ever, and younger generations control more purchasing power and influence, staying visible and relevant is crucial. 

But the rules of visibility have changed. In 2026, many people no longer discover brands through traditional search alone; AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and other generative systems summarize information and recommendations in ways that can define your brand before a user ever clicks through.

Because AI systems synthesize and summarize content, any inaccuracies, outdated information, or negative narratives seeded in older content can be amplified. Reputation isn’t just what people read; it’s what machines tell people about your brand. That makes it vital to manage not just the content itself, but how it is interpreted by algorithmic models that power discovery and decision-making.

The factors influencing brand perception now extend far beyond the scope of typical business operations. They include corporate governance, social and environmental responsibility, executive credibility, and now, AI visibility and generative search narratives. Investing in reputation management ensures that your company is represented favorably not only by traditional media but also in the AI-powered experiences that increasingly shape stakeholder views.

Steps to Build a Reputation Management Strategy

Building a reputation management strategy begins with identifying your reputational drivers, the key aspects that construct your brand’s identity. After determining the topics that drive your brand’s coverage, implement a data-based strategy to track your key messages and understand how AI systems are interpreting them. Monitoring competitor coverage can also help your team anticipate trends and develop internal strategies for AI-era crisis response. 

Identify Your Reputational Drivers

Start by identifying the key factors that drive your company’s reputation. At PublicRelay, we have developed a framework of seven essential reputation drivers that can be applied or adapted to any company: products and services, business strategy, workplace, leadership, corporate social responsibility, financial performance, and government relations.

These drivers work together to help paint a cohesive picture of public perception and should be tailored to represent your company and industry. In the age of AI, reputational drivers should also account for how your organization is represented in machine-generated contexts, not just in human-read narratives. For example, leadership credibility now includes how AI systems portray executives when answering queries about your organization.

Your team may not yet know the full breadth of the drivers that comprise your corporate reputation in this AI era. Tracking key industry competitors and monitoring how narratives about them show up in generative search results are excellent ways to understand the reputational drivers of both competitors and larger organizations. 

Monitor Your Coverage Using Real-Time Data Analytics

One of the most effective methods for ensuring that your messaging and earned media are consistent with your reputational goals is using real-time analytics. Tracking the volume, tone, and sharing of media output that mentions your company can help you determine how often your key messages are discussed, the sentiment surrounding them, and how readers engage with your coverage.

With AI-powered results now influencing discovery and perception, it’s critical to monitor not only traditional media and social platforms but also how your content and third-party mentions are being synthesized by generative search tools. A narrative that appears neutral in raw coverage could be framed negatively when interpreted by AI models.

Real-time analytics allow your team to pivot and adapt messaging in response to public interests, political activity, and global events. However, it’s important to balance automated sentiment analysis with human context and oversight, as AI interpretation can misread nuance or cultural context without careful configuration.

Develop Data-Based Strategies for Crises That Threaten Reputation

Tracking your company messages and those of your peers can also help shape your approach to crisis communications. When negative publicity threatens your brand’s reputation, you can use data from the experiences of competitors faced with similar crises in the past to inform your response. Whether the move is to remain quiet as coverage passes or issue a carefully worded statement, competitive tracking can give you the foresight to deftly maneuver potential challenges.

Identify the Threats Worth Addressing

Negative articles about your brand will inevitably be published from time to time, but not all bad press is worth addressing. Coverage may warrant a response if published by a high-reach outlet or if it garners significant social sharing, as both factors can snowball into additional mentions or amplified AI interpretation. 

Social engagement is especially important, as sharing spreads articles across websites and increases the chance that those narratives will be pulled into AI models’ training data or responses. Predictive analytics can help your team spot topics with high potential virality before they surge, allowing you to prioritize interventions. 

Start Managing Your Reputation Today

Reputation management is one of the greatest responsibilities of PR and communications teams. While paid and owned media are internally controlled, earned media now interacts with AI-driven systems that shape how your organization is understood. A strong reputation strategy in the AI era combines traditional media monitoring with AI-aware analytics, narrative intelligence, and real-time insight. 

With AI tools evolving quickly, communications teams must track how their brand is portrayed across every channel and how generative systems interpret that narrative. Predictive alerts and generative engine optimization (GEO) enable teams to spot risk days or weeks before issues become visible to broader audiences. 

To learn more about how PublicRelay can help manage your reputation in the AI era, click here. 

In today’s always-on media environment, reputation is no longer shaped by a handful of headline moments. It is continuously formed, and reformed, by thousands of stories, posts, and perspectives across traditional and social media. For communications leaders, the challenge is no longer whether reputation matters, but how to measure it in a way that drives smarter decisions and tangible business outcomes.

This is where the next frontier of reputation measurement begins.

From Media Monitoring to Media Reputation

Media reputation is a brand’s standing in the media, driven by both the visibility and significance of coverage and the impact that coverage has on brand credibility. Crucially, recent stories and the perspectives of key stakeholders—employees, investors, policymakers, healthcare providers, customers, the media, and consumers—play an outsized role in shaping that reputation.

Traditional media monitoring tools tell you what was said. But they rarely explain what actually matters. Volume, impressions, and basic sentiment fail to capture how specific stories, outlets, authors, and topics meaningfully influence how a brand is perceived right now, and where that perception is heading next.

Introducing the Media Reputation Score

PublicRelay’s Media Reputation Score is designed to close that gap. It is a proprietary, data-driven metric that quantifies a brand’s media reputation, so communications teams can improve execution and actively influence reputation outcomes.

By leveraging GenAI alongside the expertise of experienced analysts, PublicRelay ingests, enriches, segments, and analyzes millions of traditional and social media articles and posts. This approach surfaces emerging narratives and evaluates their sizing, velocity, and impact at scale and with precision.

The result? Agile insights that moves beyond dashboards and into decision.

What the Media Reputation Score Enables

At its core, the Media Reputation Score provides clarity in complexity. It translates sprawling media ecosystems into insights leaders can act on. Key capabilities include:

• Performance Measurement: A clear, high-level snapshot of current reputation, grounding executive conversations around risk, opportunity, and performance.

• Reputational Driver Analysis: Identification of the specific stories, topics, outlets, and authors that are disproportionately shifting reputation, positively or negatively.

• Stakeholder Opportunity and Risk Identification: A focused view into how different stakeholder groups currently perceive the brand and how those perceptions are changing over time.
• Benchmarking (Peer, Industry, and Aspirational): Contextual understanding of how your reputation compares to competitors and the broader sector, separating company-specific issues from industry-wide dynamics.

• Campaign ROI Calculator: Insight into how campaigns, announcements, or issues moved reputation and what the score would have been without them.

• Tie to Business Outcome Data: Connecting media reputation to broader business objectives, enabling communications to demonstrate strategic value.

Answering the Questions Leaders Actually Ask

What makes the Media Reputation Score especially powerful is how it aligns to real-world leadership questions like:

• What does our current reputation suggest about how we are perceived right now?

• Which stories or outlets are driving week-by-week shifts in perception?

• Which journalists truly influence how we are viewed by investors or policymakers?

• How is sentiment evolving over time and what does that signal about our trajectory?

• Are we closing the reputational gap with peers, or falling behind?

By isolating the stories, authors, outlets, and topics that matter most, communications teams can move from reactive reporting to proactive reputation management.

Why This Matters Now

As scrutiny intensifies and stakeholder expectations rise, reputation risk and opportunity are accelerating. Leaders need more than anecdotal evidence or lagging indicators; they need a forward-looking, defensible way to understand how media is shaping credibility and trust in real time.

The Media Reputation Score represents a shift from measuring noise to measuring impact. It empowers communications leaders to explain why reputation is moving, what is driving it, and how to influence it next.

The Future of Reputation Measurement

The next frontier of reputation measurement isn’t about more data; it’s about better answers. With agile insights at scale, grounded in both advanced AI and human expertise, the Media Reputation Score gives organizations a clearer line of sight between media coverage and reputation outcomes.

For communications leaders tasked with protecting and building trust, that clarity isn’t just valuable; it’s essential.

Want to learn more about the Media Reputation Score? Contact us to learn more.

By Alyson Atwell, Director of Marketing, PublicRelay

As geopolitical uncertainty and rapid technological change continue to reshape the landscape, communications leaders are being called on to do more than ever before. Chief Communications Officers are increasingly being seen as protectors of their brand and reputation and are earning a bigger seat at the executive table as a result.

Recent industry polling shows many leaders expect their communications and PR budgets to grow next year, but with that comes heightened scrutiny and pressure to prove value. Whether your budget is expanding or tightening, vanity metrics alone will no longer suffice. To make the most of your budget in 2026, communications leaders must rethink how they measure and demonstrate their impact.  

So, what should leaders prioritize in 2026? Here are five key areas to consider during your planning: 

1. Anchor Communications Strategy to Business Objectives

The most effective communications strategies start with business alignment. Leaders should clearly tie PR and communications efforts to organizational priorities such as growth, risk mitigation, regulatory readiness, or brand differentiation. When the function is framed as a driver of business outcomes, not just visibility, it becomes easier to justify investment and defend budgets at the executive level.

2. Embrace Budget Fluidity and Scenario Planning

2026 will demand more flexibility than ever before. Rigid annual budgets are giving way to more fluid models that allow teams to reallocate spend as risks, opportunities, and narratives shift. Communications leaders should plan for multiple scenarios and ensure they can quickly pivot resources toward crisis management, executive visibility, or emerging platforms as needed.

3. Build Business and Data Fluency Across the Function

With greater influence comes greater expectation. Communications leaders must speak the language of the business, using data to explain not just what happened, but why it matters. This includes moving beyond volume-based metrics to insights around audience reach, message penetration, sentiment, and reputational risk, data that resonates with CFOs and CEOs alike.

4. Prepare for AI Search and the Rise of GEO

As AI-driven search and generative engine optimization (GEO) reshape how information is discovered, earned media is becoming even more critical. Credible third-party coverage plays a growing role in how brands show up in AI-generated results, making strategic PR investment essential for long-term visibility and trust.

5. Invest in Reputation and Brand Resilience

In an era of constant scrutiny, reputation management is no longer reactive; it’s foundational. Leaders should use data to identify gaps in audience reach, understand where narratives are forming, and proactively build brand credibility before issues arise.

Driving Real Value in the Year Ahead

As communications leaders head into 2026, the mandate is clear: budgets may be growing, but expectations are growing faster. Increased influence and visibility bring an opportunity to redefine how communications proves its value. By tying strategy to business outcomes, remaining flexible, and investing in smarter measurement, leaders can position themselves to guide their organizations through uncertainty.  

At PublicRelay, we help communications teams turn data into actionable insights that demonstrate real impact. Contact us to learn more.

By Alyson Atwell, Director of Marketing, PublicRelay

In our last post, we covered why Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is a long game: AI assistants are answering questions directly, zero-click behavior is surging (nearly 60% of searches now end without a click!), and PR is finally pulling its weight in search rankings.

Now the question is: What do you actually do about it?

The job is no longer just “drive every query to our site.” It’s to map where answers are coming from and ensure your brand shows up in those “source-of-truth” nodes. Here is a practical, comms-led strategy to stop yelling into the void and start becoming the answer.

1. Start with Intent, Not Channels

Before you debate “Press Release vs. Blog,” ask: What questions must we answer, and where are those answers living today?

We generally see two big intent patterns:

• “What is the best…?” queries: These lean on social proof. AI cites reviews, forums, and communities like Reddit, Quora, LinkedIn, and G2.
• “What does this company do?” queries: These lean on authority. AI looks for clear corporate sites, “Top Platforms” lists, and high-authority media.

The Play: Don’t just chase the biggest logo. Target the ecosystem the AI trusts for your specific topic. Interestingly, don’t sleep on press releases. Studies show wires and business media frequently appear in AI citations. Treat them as “source-of-truth nodes” rather than just vanity metrics. A boring, well-structured explainer in a trusted mid-tier outlet is often more valuable for GEO than a flashy, hype-heavy interview.

2. Turn Your Content into “Citation Bait”

AI models love structure. They want evidence, not marketing fluff. You need to treat your comms assets—from press releases to executive quotes—as structured evidence.

Format for the Machine:

• Be Answer-First: Lead with a direct 1–3 sentence answer, then follow with context and example.
• Use Q&A Blocks: Literally write “Q: What is [Category]? A: [Definition]” in your releases and product pages. It makes it easy for bots to lift discrete answers.
• Chunk It: Keep sections to 200–300 words with descriptive subheads like “Why this matters for CISOs”. Models don’t read linearly; they scan for specific intents.

Optimize Your Evidence:

• Scope Your Quotes: Avoid generic praise. Use specific structures: “In 2025, [problem] costs [segment] roughly [impact]”.
• Explicit Data: Make sources linkable and clear (“According to [Firm] 2025 report…”) so the AI can verify the stat.

3. Exploit the “Freshness” Gaps

The biggest domains capture a huge share of citations, but they can’t cover everything. This is your opportunity. Models struggle with emerging topics and niche regulatory nuances.

The Play:

• Find the Gap: Use GEO tools or manual testing to see where current AI answers are thin, generic, or outdated.
• Refresh Aggressively: Brands with steady updates outperform sporadic spikes. Review your core “What we do” pages and explainers quarterly.
• Make Freshness Visible: Add “Last updated: [Month Year]” to key assets and pitch “New 2026 data” to show models you are the current authority.

4. Unify Your Team Around an Intent Map

Orchestration is hard because everyone sits in different silos (Web, Comms, Social), but the questions you need to answer and the outcomes are shared across teams.

Instead of assigning responsibility by channel, build a Shared GEO Intent Map:

1. Identify the 20–30 questions that matter most to your revenue or risk (e.g., “Is [Brand] good at [use case]?”)
2. Audit where you stand today: visible, weak, or nonexistent?
3. Assign levers:

• Comms: Secure quotes and data in AI-trusted outlets.
• Content: Write the deep-dive playbooks and “citation bait”
• Web: Handle the schema, FAQs, and site structure
• Social: Seed the answers in Reddit/LinkedIn threads where the AI looks for consensus

You can download our free GEO Intent Map Template here.

5. Quick Wins to Start Now

You can’t capture all the mindshare overnight, but you can start feeding better evidence into the models immediately. Here is your checklist for the next quarter:

• Rewrite Core Pages: Update 2-3 key product pages and your media kit to be “answer-first”.
• Add FAQ Sections: Put Q&A blocks in every new press release and thought leadership piece.
• Run a GEO Campaign: Focus one PR push specifically on outlets that appear in AI citations for your category.
• Start Tracking: Pilot a simple manual review or use a tool to track your visibility on priority questions.

GEO isn’t a new channel; it’s the infrastructure underneath all your channels. By balancing these quick structural wins with a long-term commitment to authority, you ensure that when the world asks about your category, you are the answer.

By Brendon O’Donovan, SVP of Product Solutions and Innovation, PublicRelay

AI has a huge impact on how you and your organization will create content, share information, and reach your stakeholders. In 2022, ChatGPT broke all user growth records by getting 1 million users in just 5 days after launch. Today, ChatGPT alone receives 5.4 billion monthly visits and only 20% of people report not using AI at all, with 35.4% of AI users using the tools daily. And they’re using it not just to generate content or to solve problems; they’re increasingly using it for researching answers to questions and for recommendations.

According to SEMRush, zero-click searches are now used by 80% of users for at least 40% of their searches globally. Additionally, almost 90% of queries that triggered an AI summary are informational. However, a recent study showed that the presence of an AI overview in search resulted in 34.5% lower clickthrough rate (CTR) for the top-ranking pages in those results. Another study from Brightedge confirmed this trend showing that year-over-year, search impressions were up by 49%, but CTRs fell by 30%. Simply stated: If users are now relying on AI summaries, they’re no longer clicking to your website, the earned media you’ve secured, your owned content, or your social content – at least not directly.

It’s not all doom and gloom; with all changes there are winners and losers, but there’s always opportunity.

What is GEO (and why should PR teams care)?

Before we go further, here’s a quick breakdown of the differences in the acronyms you’re likely seeing out there today:

Together, these represent a shift from ranking in search results pages to being a trusted source in AI-generated answers.

Why PR is More Valuable Than Ever

So, what does that mean for you as a communicator? It means your work is valuable and potentially gaining in value over time. Why? Generative AI favors:

AI pulls from trusted neutral sources. It avoids overly promotional and paid content. Platforms like Reddit, Linkedin Wikipedia, YouTube, and Medium dominate mentions and citations in LLMs. But go down the list a little further and you start to see media publications, like Forbes and Techradar – and even press release distribution sites. In other words, when you get outside of social and community sites, communications media sources show up frequently in citations. Earned media is finally getting the visibility and weight it deserves.

This probably isn’t news for you, though. GEO is hot right now. And yes — the hype has invited a flood of quick-fix vendors and vague promises. But communicators need real clarity on what actually works — and what needs to change.

This blog is the first in a series that will break down what PR teams must know to influence AI search, track results, and build a future-proof strategy to build credibility and mindshare in AI generated responses (I’ll keep the AI-buzzwords to a minimum to save your sanity — I promise).

How AI Search Actually Works (The simple version)

Traditional search engines match keywords, links, and ranking signals. AI systems do something different:

So instead of sending users to the “best link,” generative search synthesizes the most relevant, trustworthy, and current information it can find and references trusted credible sources to base it’s response.

And that’s where PR-driven credibility becomes essential.

Structuring Content for Inclusion:

To be part of the results, though, it’s important that you write and target organic mentions that will match the intent of the query. For communicators like you, this means writing with clarity on what question the audience might ask—and making sure your content answers the intent with clear and organized structures that are technically sound and easy for AI to reference.

To surface in AI-generated answers, your content — and the mentions you earn — must:

The goal: make your insights easy to extract and confidently cite.

If your content meets the intent of a user query, generative search can feature your brand — even if you’re not winning traditional SEO rankings.

Community Matters:

In the world of GEO, community content, social signals and organic references still play a role like they did in traditional SEO.

That means community engagement is still a powerful lever: Generative systems still look at source authority, trust and linkage. So, PR-driven mentions and engagement on sites like Reddit, Quora, Instagram, X, and TikTok help. PR teams, like you, can lean into this by building forums, community FAQ content, interviews, podcasts and guest posts that lend credible context and help build your brand as an authority.

Why is GEO a Long Game for PR and Comms?

Simply stated: the signals to AI matter here, and that trust, relevance and credibility can’t be built over night. To win in generative search, PR must:

In other words, AI is basically Sting, now: every article you make, every expert quote you place, every trusted source you chase — AI will be watching you (hopefully).

How do you build the strategy and plan for this long game? Our next blog will share some concrete recommendations and strategies to focus your efforts, collaborate with your larger teams, and build toward long term success with some near-term wins.

By Brendon O’Donovan, SVP of Product Solutions and Innovation, PublicRelay

As the holiday shopping season approaches, affordability is once again at the center of retail media coverage. But this year, it’s taking on a different tone. PublicRelay’s analysis of earned media coverage for Amazon, Target, and Walmart from April through October 2025 reveals that affordability is no longer just a pricing story. It’s become a narrative about consumer survival, corporate responsibility, and strategic positioning in a volatile economic climate.

What’s Driving the Conversation: Sales Events, Tariffs, and Shifting Behaviors

Across all three brands, discount and sales events (such as Amazon Prime Day) generated the highest potential reach among affordability-related themes. With 52 million average potential impressions, these events are clearly where media and consumer attention converge.

Meanwhile, narratives about tariffs influencing pricing strategy and consumers seeking more value through memberships and early shopping continue to gain traction. This points to a growing awareness among journalists that affordability is more about the broader economic factors shaping how retailers plan, price, and promote than just about markdowns.

A Subtle but Significant Signal: Affordability and Health

Interestingly, while mentions of “affordability and health” were relatively few, they were the most widely syndicated theme, picked up by 46 outlets on average. This indicates that stories connecting price sensitivity with wellness or sustainability resonate strongly with syndicating publications, amplifying their visibility.

For communicators, this presents both an opportunity and a caution. Consumers and the journalists who influence them are increasingly scrutinizing what “affordable” means. Communicating discounts on healthy, sustainable, or responsibly sourced products will land far better than those tied to disposable or low-quality goods.

What This Means for Black Friday Communications

With consumer fatigue around endless promotions already setting in (CNBC reports “discount burnout”), retailers can’t afford to treat Black Friday like business as usual. Our data suggests this year’s event will be framed less as a celebration of deals and more as a reflection of economic reality. It will be a moment for retailers to demonstrate empathy, transparency, and purpose in how they communicate value.

Communications leaders should prepare for:

• Heightened media scrutiny of pricing tactics amid ongoing tariff impacts (as Retail Brew notes).
• Consumer skepticism toward excessive discounting or “deal fatigue.”
• Greater visibility for messaging that aligns affordability with health, sustainability, and long-term value.

Competing on Principles

Black Friday 2025 isn’t just about competing on price. It’s about competing on principles. Retail communicators who acknowledge the pressures consumers face, highlight the value behind their discounts, and position affordability as part of a responsible brand promise will be best positioned to win trust and strengthen reputation this season.

By Kay Kavanagh, Director of Research, PublicRelay

The PRDecoded 2025 conference in Chicago brought together the industry’s sharpest minds to explore one urgent theme: how communicators can navigate uncertainty in an era of accelerating change.

Below is a summary of the sessions I attended and a breakdown of the messages I subsequently took away from the event.

Across sessions led by agency leaders, brand executives, and researchers, I found one message expressly clear: the rules are being rewritten, and PR is better positioned than ever to lead.

1. PR’s Defining Moment Has Arrived

The opening “State of the PR Nation” conversation between Richard Edelman of Edelman and Chris Foster of Omnicom PR Group set an assertive tone.

Edelman made an impassioned call for communicators to seize what he called “PR’smoment”. By which he was saying the rise of earned influence in AI-driven search. With Large Language Models (LLMs) pulling heavily from earned and organic media, PR has a measurable impact on reputation and revenue. Reputation driven from earned media is now the lead.

Foster echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that communicators must understand business fundamentals as deeply as they understand storytelling. “We own the story, and the story is the strategy,” he said, urging PR pros to lean into technology, not fear it.

Both agreed: this is not a time for timidity. It’s a time for PR to demonstrate its elasticity, its fluency in technology, and its ability to connect earned narratives directly to business outcomes.

2. Rebuilding Trust in a Skeptical World

In a panel on: Building Brand Trust in an Era of Skepticism, leaders from Feeding America, Conagra, and Allison shared a stark reality: trust is the most valuable — and fragile — currency brands hold.

Monica McCafferty of Feeding America argued that rebuilding it starts with authenticity. Conagra’s Jon Harris underscored the need to earn and sustain stakeholder trust consistently, noting that in an age of transparency, words alone no longer suffice.

The takeaway? As optimism fades in Western democracies, communicators must play a central role in restoring belief not through messaging spin, but through actions that align with brand purpose.

3. AI Is Reshaping the Communications Ecosystem

Several sessions reinforced that artificial intelligence is the next evolution of our craft, not the enemy

From Glenn Frates of PR Newswire calling for “information releases” structured to serve both human and machine readers, to Eileen O’Neill of Culligan reminding brands to “use data in smart ways,” the core message seemed to be: AI changes not what we say, but how we deliver and contextualize it.

Perhaps most eye-opening was Rob Bernstein of Ketchum’s presentation on Harnessing the Power of Search in the Era of Generative AI. He highlighted that GenAI represents the fastest technology adoption in history — 100 million users in two months — and it’s already redefining discovery.

In this “no-click search” world, GenAI doesn’t send people to your website; it becomes your website. Bernstein called it “the most powerful influencer of reputation,” urging communicators to analyze which stories are feeding algorithms and to optimize for visibility and sentiment.

His advice: Analyze → Interpret → Optimize. Because if you don’t answer questions about your brand, AI will, though you might not like the results.

4. Data Is the New Language of Reputation

In the Guardians of Reputation session, ADM’s Brett Lutz and Carma’s Orla Graham discussed how data is reframing reputation management.

Younger audiences, Graham noted, are deeply influenced by brand values. According to her, they don’t just buy products; they buy alignment. Lutz shared how ADM’s communications team uses data to make rapid strategic pivots, from reacting to political comments affecting corn prices to tracking how GenAI portrays their brand in search.

Similarly, in the session Reputation Is Currency, speakers described how their teams are investing in analytics and predictive modeling to quantify the business impact of communications,, underscoring how insights infrastructure now directly supports C-suite decision-making.

5. The Evolving Role of the CEO as Chief Communicator

The CEO as Lead Communicator panel and Kevin Warren’s keynote, Leadership and Aiming High, underscored the modern CEO’s role as a communicator first, operator second.

Warren, President & CEO of the Chicago Bears, shared how his decision-making philosophy, “player safety first” during the Big Ten’s pandemic-era challenges, stemmed from values-based clarity. Similarly, Monosol’s leaders spoke about agility and proactive signal detection as key to navigating crises like the “Tide Pod Challenge.”

The throughline: CEOs must not only embody transparency but also rely on communications teams who can sense emerging risks before they surface.

6. Strategic Responsiveness Is the New Crisis Playbook

In Cultural Flashpoints and the C-Suite, BMO’s Laura Micheli and Northwestern’s Jonathan Copulsky reframed crisis management as an ongoing cycle of intelligence and adaptation.

Copulsky drew parallels between brand resilience and military counterinsurgency strategy, emphasizing prediction, learning, and iteration rather than one-off crisis containment. Micheli shared how BMO’s culturally attuned campaigns, like #LoudBudgeting, turned potential financial anxiety into empowerment and relatability.

In summary: agility and foresight are foundational.

7. Influencers and Audiences Are Co-Creators of Trust

Finally, the Influencer Marketing Is the New Media session challenged the traditional view of influence.

GM’s Jessica Carmona and Burson’s Vikki Chowney argued that today’s most powerful influencers aren’t always celebrities.They’re the people who understand content and audience psychology. Chowney emphasized the importance of shared values and co-creation, while Reddit’s Adam Seligson noted that each platform requires a tailored, value-driven approach.

Basically, audiences can tell when brands “show up” authentically and they reward it.

PR Must Lead Through Change

PRDecoded 2025 made one thing clear: uncertainty is not the enemy, but complacency sure is.

Communicators are the guardians of reputation, the architects of narrative truth, and now, the stewards of how AI perceives our brands. The future belongs to those who blend creativity with data, courage with curiosity, and empathy with precision, and as partners to communicators, we’re ready to help.

This is PR’s moment to lead — not by reacting to the world’s uncertainty, but by shaping what comes next.

By Jim Key, VP of Enterprise Solutions, PublicRelay