Sectors
Capabilities
Specialisms
Everyone in comms has been grappling with how to exploit Generative AI’s potential since ChatGPT arrived on the scene (and some of us well before then). We’ve been rapidly adapting, building AI and constantly exploring the new tools to do even better work even more efficiently.
It’s relentless.
While we absolutely have to innovate faster than ever, and some pretty fundamental changes are on the horizon, I’m firmly convinced that AI is positive for comms – or at least for the best comms pros and agencies – as it puts so much more emphasis on all the qualities that make us special: judgement, experience, interpersonal skills, understanding of context (and more).
So it’s quite refreshing that the move towards AI search is clearly a good thing as it brings into sharp focus, the stuff we do really, really well and validates what we’ve always known matters – top tier media coverage and outsized share of voice now directly impact your brand’s visibility on AI platforms.
Generative Engine Optimisation isn’t something new we have to panic-learn. Yes – it’s got big implications for search with 60% of search queries not ending in a clickthrough. Agencies need to understand it, develop a proposition around it, and factor it into integrated strategies. But, when the vast majority of AI-generated brand references now stem from PR-driven earned, shared, and owned content – and when clicks on blue links are nose-diving – the main focus should actually be on doubling down on what we do best.
GEO is the art (and growing science) of ensuring your brand appears in AI-powered search results – the kind served up by ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot. And the kind that have fundamentally changed how we search for and receive information.
Unlike traditional search which throws up a series of links, AI-powered results can be rich, conversational answers generated from everything the AI knows. Crucially, that knowledge comes from what it’s already learned about the brand from trusted, high-authority sources: national news titles, credible trade media, industry white papers, forums and respected platforms.
So if a potential buyer asks “Who are the most innovative cybersecurity companies in the UK?”, they’re not getting a page of links, they’re getting a much more nuanced point of view. And whether or not your brand is part of that answer comes down to GEO.
What this means finally the world of search is starting to catch up with what great PR has always done best: build reputation, reinforce messages, and place brands in the conversations that matter.
I’m far from an SEO expert, and there are people way better placed to go into detail about SEO and how it’s also evolving. But in the most simple terms, SEO was about links, keywords, and technical hacks. Brands had to try find ways to make meaningful stories fit within a framework built for robots.
Whereas GEO is about language, context, credibility and frequency. It rewards clarity over cleverness. And – thankfully – it’s shaping an environment where consistent, strategic storytelling beats keyword stuffing.
GEO is shifting the spotlight to the kinds of things we’ve always cared about: repeated brand mentions in the right places (usually top tier media); consistent association with key themes and values; subject-matter credibility and sharp, clean writing.
Brands absolutely need to keep optimising for traditional search – not least given how much AI overviews still hallucinate – but now need to ensure they’re doing all the right things to ensure they feature in AI-generated answers.
1. Obsess over message clarity
We’re constantly impressing on clients the need to tighten their messaging. GEO makes even more critical. If you want a generative engine to associate your brand with “reliability”, “innovation” or “sustainability”, make sure you’re saying it, and being heard saying it, again and again.
2. Go big on high quality, impactful coverage
AI trusts the sources humans trust. That means top-tier media and influential specialist publications. So invest heavily in everything it takes to land coverage with these titles – acute awareness of what will pique their interest, close media relationships, endless creativity, and dogged persistence.
3. Find and partner with credible voices
Bring respected experts into your content strategy. Engage the right influencers. Help senior leaders build visible profiles in the conversations that matter. Be present – and consistent – across multiple touchpoints.
4. Structure for sense
The AI can’t read between the lines. So help it out. Clear structure, smart summaries, bullet points and plain English are vital. Somewhat ironically, be very careful how you work with AI to help create your content as the bland business-speak blurb it churns out will not help.
5. Bridge the marketing gap
Comms folk need to get closer to their marketing colleagues. GEO lives at the intersection of brand, SEO, PR, and digital. We don’t need to become experts in all four – but we do need to collaborate to ensure that existing and emerging strategies mean brands perform as well as possible across all disciplines.
6. Factor in the platforms that AI search favours
Mainstream media and respected trade outlets are extremely important, but so are community-driven platforms like Reddit and other forums where real people are asking real questions and giving honest answers. (Wikipedia also has an significant influence.) If your brand is regularly mentioned in these spaces – authentically, and in the right context – it sends a powerful signal to generative engines. That doesn’t mean brands should start posting threads or gaming communities. But it does mean being aware of how your brand appears (or doesn’t) in those environments – and working with partners who know how to engage credibly in those spaces without blowing the trust.
7. Rethink measurement – it’s about signals, not just stats
Traditional PR metrics like volume, reach or AVEs (let’s hope not) don’t tell the whole story anymore. In a GEO world, what matters is the signal strength your brand is sending into the ecosystem: consistency of messaging, frequency of association with key themes, and presence in credible conversations. We need to rethink how we measure visibility and influence – not just where you appear, but how you’re interpreted.
To come back to that Economist quote… I’d rarely describe what we do as “old school”, but those skills I reference in the intro are so valued still. What it actually said was: “Another unexpected winner is old-school public relations. As consumers switch from search-engines to chatbots, brands need to persuade LLMs to speak highly of them. The most effective way to do that is to influence the sources that the model pays most attention to.”
The compelling thing about GEO is the heightened emphasis on smart, strategic comms with earned at its heart, meaning brands have to be double down on influencing how they’re perceived across multiple platforms. Which, in turn, means they need what we do more than ever: not just headlines, but meaningful mentions; not just content, but credibility; not just reach, but relevance. It comes down to helping clients show up with real authority and not just on the front page of the FT – still amazing – but in the generative search results that people are now trusting with their questions.
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