How PR drives AI Visibility

Recent research by Muck Rack shows that close to 90% of AI visibility is now driven by earned media. That’s organic publicity gained through third-party endorsements rather than paid advertising, and it appears in AI Search results. Earned media includes news coverage, customer reviews, and word-of-mouth (user-generated content), which are earned through quality, reputation, or PR efforts. Because it’s earned rather than bought, it is seen as highly credible and trustworthy.

This exposure in AI Search is proving cost-effective and crucial for enhancing brand visibility and SEO. In short, the opportunity for PR is huge and NOW. 
SEO agencies and PR agencies are both clambering to upskill their teams, create tools and define propositions to go to market. Last year, we got ahead of the curve by joining forces with Noble Performance to develop our Earned Visibility Score^TM. More and more industry events are discussing this opportunity, and it was a hot topic at the recent PR Moment GEO conference in London, where we captured some powerful insights.

The future of the press release

The humble press release is now, arguably, more important than ever, as the LLMs cite them as a point of authentication. It’s highly recommended that they are uploaded to your company site, with a stable URL and date/time stamped.

The only question mark around this topic is who now writes the release – surely an AI agent, given 10 example releases, should be able to write a decent draft?

We would argue that this is still a craft that requires a human touch. After all, LLMs are only as good as the data added to them.  

Where are the LLMs pulling from?

Our own research into AI visibility, something that we call Earned Visibility, shows that coverage is valuable to your brand being cited and even mentioned in AI Search results, but not all earned media is equal in the eyes of LLMs. Articles in higher-tier publications are returned more often as trusted sources, such as BBC News, The Guardian, Reuters, etc. 

However, there is no gold standard; it depends on the type of organisation you are and your aims as to which publications would be most suitable for earned media. The bullseye is not the same for everyone. 

In terms of user-generated content, this is a hot topic and a moving beast; one month, Reddit is undisputedly number one across any category, the next, Wikipedia, it’s revolving doors. However, there are a core 6-10 sites that do frequently surface or discuss content deemed as ‘trusted’ by most large language models. Those are Wikipedia, Reddit, Tech Radar, Medium, Substack, with LinkedIn very recently becoming a top source. 

The future of the media industry

According to March 2026 data from Press Gazette‘s top 50 English-language news sites, 40 out of 50 sites saw year-on-year declines in traffic, indicating widespread declines across the industry.

Despite earned media boosting visibility for organisations and investment in PR growing, there is still a disconnect between AI Search and Media. The value of this is still being recognised, and the industry hasn’t caught up yet. There’s no revenue flow from AI tools to media at the moment, and we predict that there’s a battle to be had here in the coming months. 

In the meantime, journalist teams continue to get smaller than ever, while their output is arguably bigger than ever. 

The changing role of the PR practitioner

Once we pitched to editors, now it’s algorithms. It’s not enough to be sensationalist anymore; content needs to be backed by evidence. AI rewards articles that show you as knowledgeable and an expert in your sector. Recycling old content won’t cut it. 

Thinking about what algorithms give a preference for also means that when we pitch now, we need to provide way more assets. Your story isn’t just going into print any more. To be visible far and wide, you need to provide more imagery and definitely video to enable coverage.

Where to start and what to do next

Measurement has always been broken in the PR industry, with arbitrary numbers of reach, OTS, and PR value. Historically, it’s been difficult to prove the value of PR and secure budget for it. However, your Earned Visibility Score^TM gives you a robust measurement and proof that securing coverage is worth it.

We recommend that you audit your Earned Visibility to benchmark your current position before engaging in a PR campaign and monitoring the improvement that comes from that. Click here to request an audit.