Will GEO change PR?

PR has often been considered a dark art. And for many, it is..a little. 

But the advent of AI is making PR a lot more scientific - and I’m not talking about just multiplying results by three to talk to its impact. 

Why? 

Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO).

Gartner's 2026 predictions highlight that AI-driven discoverability will be a major shift for comms teams over the coming 12 months. Despite this, it won't change the core of what PR does - which has been to work with organisations to create compelling stories and narratives. 

What will change is how press lists are built and how content is disseminated to appeal to the appetite of LLMs, with more consideration given to the style and format of content. 

That’s because earned content placements in the media are exactly what LLMs are feeding off; they love the predictable structure of a press release, the nuanced human insight of a thought leadership piece, curated owned data. 

An Muck Rack analysis found that 84% of links cited by AI are from earned media. This is because of their accessibility (i.e., less likely to be blocked by web crawlers), deep sector expertise, and more structured formatting, which is easier for AI models to digest. Newswire coverage also ranks highly in LLMs. 

With ChatGPT reporting around 1 billion monthly active users globally (and that's before Claude, Gemini and Copilot are even added to the mix), it is clear that many of us are turning to these tools not only to use as a co-worker but as a starting point for research and recommendations. 

What matters when it comes to GEO?

The natural next step is for brand involvement - particularly when it comes to recommendations - so AI mentions and referrals are becoming a whole lot more valuable. 

This means taking a closer look at your earned content strategy and building a sustained content pipeline which will boost those referrals, mentions and AI citations. 

At their core, AI tools prefer content that is easy to read, summarise and trust, so the best content types include:

• Direct answers: Content should get to the point up front and limit the inclusion of jargon.

• Clean & logical formatting: Listicles, bulleted content and Top 5’s perform well.

• Semantic structures on your website: Keep ‘About us’ and ‘FAQ’ pages clear and tagged so web-crawling AI tools can instantly understand the content.

• Focus on high authority sources: Include owned, original and well-cited information that is verified and reflects real-world experience. Stay well away from unverifiable data hallucinations. 

• Keep the human voice: Pieces should use conversational phrasing written in a natural and informative tone. 

Will GEO kill the traditional press list?

Press lists have their place in the world, but where there will be change is in the daily mechanics of PR rather than the craft itself. 

Whether it is content living on a company website or placements in key trade media or LinkedIn, LLMs are drinking up all of these beautiful content assets and feeding them into their insights, which they pull out when the right prompt is inputted

Press lists will therefore stop being built around prestige and start being built around whether a title gets crawled, is cited, and is trusted by LLM models. This means a well-read trade publication with clean structure has the potential to outrank tier-one national placements that sit behind a paywall and can't be scraped.

In turn, this will also change the approach to pitching, which will shift from "will this get picked up" to "will this get picked up in a form an LLM can lift cleanly". There is a benefit to media too, as they will be approached with shorter, better-signposted content, which means they don’t need to add their own spin to make the content ready for their site

Finally, reporting to the board stops being a clippings book and starts including a line on AI mentions and citations alongside coverage, which means PR teams need a new fluency: knowing which outlets the models actually trust, not just which ones the CEO reads over breakfast. 

Is your content strategy ready for the GEO era?

While many have already embraced an AI future from a comms perspective through the creation of prompts and playbooks, there must also be a concerted effort beyond automated workflows towards earned content output.  

For those who are on the AI content bus, be mindful of how you are using the content, the level of human overview you are giving to it and also whether you are passing off AI content as human created. Not only could it leave you a target for the upcoming EU AI Act Article 50, but also have somewhat of an impact on your GEO strategy. 

….

What does your earned content pipeline look like? Is it consistent and does it feature a blend of styles that will resonate with what LLMs like to consume?

If your organisation could benefit from a content audit and more formal strategy, get in touch and we can discuss the routes to get your content GEO ready. 

Drop me a DM or reach out at hello@brassneckhq.com.