Before ChatGPT and their ilk took over all of our lives, the first thing that clients would ask us was: “How can I get on the front page of The New York Times?” Now, the question we frequently get is: “How can my brand show up on ChatGPT/Gemini/Claude?”
Interestingly, both of these questions have the same exact answer: It’s the tried and true methods that have always worked in PR. It takes a lot more effort now than it did back then. You have to mix and match your tactics in a way that you never had to (earned media is never enough nowadays), you have to get creative with the stories you tell to stand above the rest (data helps), and you can never put all of your media eggs in one basket. A healthy 360-degree approach is generally the best answer. But ultimately, it’s about telling the right story, not necessarily the best one, but the right one for the right time.
Any PR person who actually knows how to write a pitch that media appreciates will tell you the same. And all of the PR snake oil salesmen who always pop up with every new trend (Hello, NFTs! Hello, blockchain!) will try to sell you a bill of goods that are ultimately worthless. You cannot buy your way into AI search, though you can certainly try.
But if you want to show up in ChatGPT in the way that you actually want, you’ll need to build up your brand storytelling elements, one by one, and create that drumbeat narrative. This strategy is again no different than a traditional earned media strategy. But it does take more than it used to, and there are a lot more things to be weary of.
The latest shift comes with a large amount of risk. AI can confidently repeat low-quality information, misinformation, or AI hallucinations, especially when there’s a lot of noise online. We all know that AI is far from perfect and can frequently provide very wrong information in a way that Google Search rarely did. This is a serious issue that has to put all brand owners on their toes. But just like you could never fully scrub negative articles from Google, you can only train AI models to know more about your brand through traditional PR methods. This is where those snake oil salespeople will again try to get you to part with your money.
Reputation management is tricky and can be frustrating because you can’t always control your brand’s narrative. What you can control is the story you tell, and the information that you disseminate. Focusing on what you can control is where your brand will make the most impact. It’s why the industry is seeing a lot of job titles pop up where “storytelling” and “brand narrative” are front and center, as a recent Wall Street Journal article illuminated. These job titles are new but their roles are the same as it ever was: good old-fashioned PR.
A 2025 report from MuckRack claims that AI search pulls from recent articles, so maintaining a schedule of news announcements and content is key to ensure AI answers are pulling from recent and relevant articles (and again, not hallucinating).
The same report from MuckRack revealed that AI pulls from sources that it has access to, especially higher-credibility news outlets, reputable mentions, structured company pages, and consistent third-party validation. Again, all methods that come from traditional PR tactics.
Stay tuned for part 2 of this article where we’ll outline practical steps to create a strong PR brand narrative in the age of AI.
