How can brands stay visible in the age of AI search?
Tarun Deo Founder and Managing Director, Progressive Communications
Almost two thirds of web searches end without any click, according to Bain & Company research released earlier this year. With the growth of AI searches and summaries, we’re rapidly entering an era where people don’t scroll through ten blue links on Google. Instead, they ask a question and get one answer. So how do you get AIs to include your brand?
AI learns from what’s out there
Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude aren’t magic oracles. They’re built on mountains of text, from news articles, academic papers, reputable websites and social media chatter.
This means everything you (and others) put out about your brand is teaching these systems how to describe you. If your company is consistently mentioned as a credible, authoritative voice in your space, there’s a good chance you’ll make it into those answers. If you’re invisible? The AI will skip you.
And let’s be clear, if you’re misrepresented online, AI will happily spread that mistake to anyone who asks. At scale.
Thought leadership is training data
Thought leadership used to be about building trust with human audiences, but its role has expanded to training LLMs. When you place bylined articles, expert commentary or interviews in respected outlets, you’re not just reaching readers, you’re feeding the language models that will generate tomorrow’s answers about your industry.
Earned press coverage now enables your executives’ expertise to literally shape how AI describes your sector, and your place in it.
Your owned content matters too
Earned media is critical, but your own channels are also part of the training data. Ask yourself: If an AI visited your website, would it know what to say about you?
Good owned content isn’t just marketing fluff. It’s structured, clear, and useful. Think strong headlines, logical flow, detailed FAQs, white papers, and service pages that actually explain what you do. Your website should read like a source a journalist could quote.
If your website is vague, confusing, or full of buzzwords, you’re not just turning off human readers, you’re making it harder for AI to represent you accurately. Brands that invest in clear, well-structured, authoritative content aren’t just helping customers. They’re making sure AI understands them, too.
Was this article written by a chatbot? No, but did I get one to optimise it for AI? You bet I did. Shorter paragraphs, clear sub-headers. It’s not my natural style, but you write for your audience and that audience has changed.
The shift from links to language
Marketers have obsessed over backlinks for years. SEO has been the holy grail for a long time, but AI-assisted search is rewriting the rules. LLMs don’t just care about who links to you. They care about who talks about you and what they say.
Context matters. Authority matters. Even unlinked mentions in respected publications carry weight. If your messaging isn’t clear, credible and consistently reinforced across quality sources, don’t expect to show up in the answer box.
It’s less about links, more about language.
New risks, new responsibilities
The other side of the coin is that LLMs can hallucinate. They can mix you up with a competitor. They can dredge up outdated, inaccurate, or misleading information.
Brand monitoring can’t stop at social media mentions and Google rankings anymore. It needs to include what AI is saying about you. Reputation management in the age of AI means catching and correcting those errors before they become the answer everyone sees.
Renewed value for PR
PR and communications professionals are not just trying to reach readers anymore, we’re training the systems people trust to answer their questions.
After years of decline and consolidation in traditional media, coupled with the scattering of attention driven by new media, this is a massive opportunity for PR teams to add renewed value for organisations.
If you are interested in learning what steps your company can take to increase its AI visibility, get in touch with our team at hello@progressive-comms.com for a free AI visibility audit.
