Autumn was a busy time for the Einsteinz team, with back-to-back events offering sharp insights into the changing comms landscape. From Unmade’s humAIn AI conference to The Misfits’ Cairns Crocodiles and IBR’s Gen AI Summit, one message came through loud and clear: AI is reshaping how brands are discovered, understood, and trusted — and PR is at the centre of that shift.
As generative tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews become go-to sources of information, the way brands show up is being redefined. These platforms don’t rely on your website — they draw from credible third-party sources: media articles, analyst commentary, expert opinions, and community forums. If your brand isn’t being referenced there, you’re invisible in AI-driven discovery.
From Clicks to Citations
With more than 60% of Google searches now ending in zero clicks, attention is shifting from websites to AI-generated summaries. These summaries often cite earned media, not your homepage. Brand impact now depends on being referenced in the sources AI deems trustworthy. That’s where PR becomes essential — not only for awareness, but for shaping how your brand is recognised and understood across the broader information landscape.
Distributed Influence Needs Distributed PR
Influence today is fragmented. Yes, mainstream media still matters, but so do Reddit threads, YouTube channels, Substacks, niche newsletters, and trade blogs. Effective PR reaches across this web of platforms, ensuring your brand shows up wherever your audience, and the algorithms, are paying attention.
In this environment, PR is actively building the trust signals that LLMs rely on to generate relevant, credible answers.
Reputation: The New Ranking Factor
Search used to be about keywords and backlinks. Now, AI is forming associations between brands and ideas based on consistency, context and credibility. That means showing up in the right places, with the right framing, repeatedly.
This shift marks a fundamental reset. Leading brands know this and are backing strategic communications so they’re part of the conversations shaping both human opinion and machine-driven outcomes.
In this new landscape, PR isn’t playing catch-up. It’s simply doing what it’s always done best—shaping the story.