How AI is reshaping PR discovery, trust and influence in 2026

AI-generated results are projected to overtake organic search traffic by 2028, sparking companies to reassess the impact of their owned and earned communications. Traditional Search engine optimisation (SEO) is evolving into something new: Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)

What is Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)?

Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is the practice of optimising content to be discovered, cited, and recommended by AI systems like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews. Unlike traditional SEO, which focuses on ranking in search engine results pages, GEO ensures your content is surfaced when AI models answer questions, generate summaries, or provide recommendations.

GEO focuses on making your content easily discoverable and citable by large language models (LLMs) through structured information, authoritative sourcing, and clear formatting that AI systems can reference. 

What impact is GEO having on discoverability?

The impact of GEO is having a clear impact on discoverability. When users ask AI models for recommendations, research, or information, these tools synthesise answers from trusted sources across the web without the user needing to visit your website. If your company, content, or expertise isn't being cited by these AI platforms, visible on authoritative websites, or appearing in the searches these tools conduct, you risk becoming invisible in 2026 and beyond.

Traditional SEO was all about climbing those search rankings. GEO is about ensuring AI models find your content, understand it, and feel confident enough to reference it when users ask a relevant question. Value is now driven by citations, recommendations, and contextual relevance in AI-generated responses.

How to optimise for generative AI

Here's how to make sure AI platforms actually find and trust your content:

1. Keyword research – start by understanding what questions people are actually asking AI tools. What topics does your audience want answers on? Understanding your visibility within LLMs by identifying search patterns, topic trends, and keywords will help guide your content strategy for LLMs.

   
   

2. Content development – AI models reward simplicity. Write clear, deliver easy to understand content which provides information quickly, making it easier for LLMs to surface and reference.

   
   

3. SEO – SEO isn’t a dead practice, it’s just evolved. A key part of any content strategy is creating rich, high-quality, fully SEO-optimised content for your website. To perform well with generative search AI, your writing should use clear, straightforward language instead of complex jargon. Using well-structured headlines, logical formatting, and clear contextual signals will also help search engines and AI models understand your content.

   
   

4. Website optimisation - Your website needs to work flawlessly. This includes optimising meta tags, improving page load speed, and enhancing mobile responsiveness to improve search engine visibility. Creating an overall better user experience for your website visitors.

   
   

5. Backlinks to your website – This is more important than ever. Working to increase the backlinks to your website from trusted sources. Search engine algorithms will further value the quality of content to offset the sheer amount of AI-generated content. This means securing high-quality backlinks from reputable publications is vital to your digital visibility. Focus on earning those quality links, not spamming for quantity.

   
   

6. Social media output - In some cases, Search Generative Experience ranks social media content, so it's important to create valuable thought leadership content in-feed to help increase your chances of ranking as a trusted source.

AI is reshaping the PR and marketing landscape

We're living through a fundamental shift in how people discover and trust information. AI is becoming the middleman between your content and your audience. The companies that adapt, that prioritise AI discoverability, authoritative positioning, and clear factual content, will stay visible and influential. The ones that ignore the shift? Will get left behind.

Our support

If you’re not familiar with your company’s performance across AI, speak to our team, and we can uncover how AI platforms describe and position your business with our AI discoverability Audit.

Quick takeaways:

• GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is about getting AI systems to cite and recommend your content

• AI-generated results are projected to overtake organic search by 2028

• Focus on clear, factual content that AI can confidently reference

• Quality backlinks from trusted sources are more important than ever

• Show up consistently with thought leadership across owned and social channels

• Technical website optimisation helps both users and AI find and trust your content