The rise of generative AI search is giving earned media its most powerful role in a decade. Here’s how to take advantage.
By Meg McEvoy
In a world dominated by dashboards, UTMs, and ROI spreadsheets, it’s easy for traditional PR pros—especially those with roots in journalism or writing—to feel like we’re wearing tweed vests, thumbing cigars, caricatured in storybooks. In other words: relegated and irrelevant. We’ve been in the meetings where someone asks if the reporter can add a tracking link to the story (they usually can’t). We’ve fielded awkward requests to attribute exact dollar values to PR “hits.” And we’ve seen great coverage go underappreciated because it didn’t show up in a lead-gen attribution model.
But the tide is shifting. It’s debatable whether Bill Gates ever actually said “If I was down to my last dollar, I’d spend it on PR.” But we think he’d be likelier than ever to say it today. The new era of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is moving the spotlight back toward what PR does best—and that’s a good thing.
GenAI Search Is Rewriting the Rules
Generative search, powered by AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews, doesn’t just regurgitate search engine optimized landing pages. It synthesizes answers from sources it trusts—and increasingly, that means high-quality, earned media and authoritative research.
Case in point: OpenAI has formal partnerships with publishers like The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal (via News Corp), The Financial Times, Le Monde, and Axel Springer (which owns Politico and Business Insider). This means when users turn to ChatGPT for insights, it draws from these earned media sources directly, making placement in these outlets more visible—and more valuable—than ever before.
Why PR Belongs at the Center of GEO Strategy
This new paradigm gives PR teams a clearer role in digital strategy—and for once, it’s not about trying to back into attribution through convoluted tracking.
Here’s why we’re thrilled:
- PR is front and center again. The best answers in generative search aren’t ad copy. They’re sourced from trusted journalism, credible expert interviews, and thoughtful commentary—exactly what PR generates.
- You can win “outside the algorithm.” GEO levels the playing field. Instead of competing on backlinks and SEO hacks, brands can gain visibility by simply being cited in smart, credible places.
- It favors original thought and data. Proprietary research, thought leadership, and sharp points of view are the new SEO. PR has always helped clients craft and share these narratives—we just needed the algorithm to catch up.
So What Should Brands Do Differently?
This isn’t about abandoning SEO or performance marketing. It’s about layering in a new kind of strategy that aligns with how information is increasingly being surfaced.
Here’s how to future-proof your PR efforts for generative AI search:
1. Run GEO-Optimized PR Campaigns
Prioritize earned placements in media outlets with formal licensing deals or visible citation patterns in GenAI models (e.g. FT, Reuters, WSJ, AP, The Verge, TechCrunch). These are more likely to influence generative search results.
2. Start Thinking Like a Research Company
Proprietary data is gold in this environment. Surveys, white papers, customer insights—these all serve as source material for GenAI. The more original your data, the more likely you’ll be cited. And, yes, your PR team can help design the research and pitch the findings.
3. Choose Your Identity With Intention
Especially for startups, it’s time to go beyond generic SEO keyword lists. In a world where GenAI creates an answer from a blend of signals, specificity matters. Define the exact language you want to be known for—and then back it up with media, messaging, and thought leadership.
4. Write for Humans, Be Cited by Machines
In a sense, PR is being rewarded for what it’s always done best: crafting useful, credible, human-centered stories. You don’t need to game the system—you just need to be interesting and reliable enough that the system chooses you.
5. Final Word: This Is the Heyday—If You Let It Be
In the new era of GEO, PR is no longer the frosting at the top of the marketing cupcake. It’s the baking soda: without it, you can’t lift.
At LIMELIGHT, we integrate performance marketing strategies with optimized PR to help brands show up meaningfully in the conversations that matter—whether those conversations happen between people, or between people and AI.
GEO search offers a chance to let PR do what it does best: elevate ideas, build trust, and position companies as thought leaders. This shift might just be the best thing to happen to PR in years.