Every significant change in digital marketing from search engines to social media has created a new wave of optimisation techniques. AI is proving no different.
The emergence of Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) has prompted a rush to discover the latest prompt engineering tricks and technical shortcuts that might improve visibility in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Perplexity. While some of those experiments are useful, they risk distracting organisations from the much bigger opportunity.
The organisations that are consistently surfaced by AI aren’t there because they have discovered a clever optimisation tactic. More often, they have spent years building a strong public profile through credible journalism, authoritative content and a clear market position. AI is simply reflecting that body of evidence.
That should feel familiar to anyone working in public relations.
For years, PR professionals have focused on helping organisations become recognised authorities within their sectors. Through media relations, thought leadership, research and reputation management, the objective has always been to create independent evidence that gives audiences confidence in a brand. Increasingly, those same signals are helping AI systems understand which organisations deserve to be included when they generate answers.
AI can only work with the evidence that’s available
One of the first questions many organisations ask is whether they appear when someone asks ChatGPT about their sector.
Prompt testing certainly has its place, but the output is only one part of the picture. The more valuable question is whether enough reliable information exists for AI systems to build an accurate understanding of the organisation in the first place.
Are independent media writing about the business? Are industry publications referencing its expertise? Does the website clearly explain what the organisation does? Are its claims supported by evidence that exists beyond its own marketing materials?
It is important to ask those questions because large language models aren’t the creators of authority, they simply interpret the authority that already exists across the public domain.
This thinking underpins the AMEC GEO Principles, which encourage organisations to look beyond isolated AI responses and instead assess three connected areas: the strength of their reputation, the discoverability of their content and how that information is ultimately reflected in AI-generated outputs.
Taken together, they provide a much more realistic picture of AI visibility than prompt testing alone.
Reputation has become part of digital infrastructure
For years, organisations have tended to separate PR, SEO and content into different disciplines with different objectives. AI is bringing those worlds much closer together.
Technical optimisation is still important. AI systems need websites that are well structured, easy to crawl and rich in useful content. But technical performance alone doesn’t explain why one organisation is consistently referenced while another is overlooked. Credibility has become equally important.
Our own research suggests that more than three quarters of AI-generated brand references are influenced by earned, shared and owned content. High-quality journalism, trade media, expert commentary, social discussion and authoritative owned content all contribute to the information environment that AI draws upon.
That reflects something PR Agency One has believed for many years. Creative communications generate attention, but their real value comes from building authority and creating measurable commercial outcomes. As AI increasingly becomes another route through which customers discover brands, reputation is no longer simply influencing human audiences; it is shaping how machines understand organisations too.
Measuring AI Visibiliyt
One of the challenges with GEO is that visibility varies between AI platforms, prompts, markets and even different times of day.
That makes measurement more important than ever.
Rather than relying on occasional prompt testing, organisations need to understand how communications activity influences visibility over time. That means looking at the relationship between brand awareness, reputation, search performance and commercial outcomes.
This is exactly the thinking behind PR Agency One’s Creative Effectiveness philosophy and our OneEval framework. Communications should never be measured purely by the volume of coverage generated. The real question is whether that coverage strengthens reputation, increases discoverability and ultimately contributes to commercial performance.
AI visibility is becoming another important outcome within that wider measurement picture, rather than a standalone objective.
Building authority takes time
Some organisations will inevitably look for quick wins, but the brands that are likely to remain visible as AI develops will be those investing consistently in their reputation rather than chasing individual tactics.
That means producing original research that others reference, building relationships with respected journalists, developing recognised subject matter experts. Publishing content that genuinely helps customers understand complex issues. Creating case studies that demonstrate real expertise. Maintaining websites that are clear, structured and easy to navigate. These activities aren’t new, but with the search landscape increasingly focused on LLM outputs, they are creating new value.
The same communications programmes that improve reputation, increase brand visibility and support commercial growth are increasingly helping AI systems identify which organisations deserve to be recommended.
In many ways, GEO reinforces something that effective public relations has always understood: sustained visibility is earned through credibility. The stronger and more consistent the evidence surrounding an organisation, the easier it becomes for both people and AI systems to understand, trust and recommend it.
