Twelve months ago, there were plenty of fraught conversations in PR circles about the impact AI would have on the industry. If ChatGPT can write a media release in seconds, does that make PR obsolete?
It's a reasonable question to ask, especially when AI's impact on business and everyday life continues to evolve at pace. But in recent months, the conversation has started to swing back in the other direction: what can PR do for AI? And that's a much more interesting proposition.
Millions of people are turning to these tools every day for recommendations, explanations and advice. In compiling their responses, AI platforms draw on credible third-party information to form an opinion about brands, organisations and people. They aren't just reading your website; they're looking much further afield.
These platforms look at news articles, what industry experts say, and what customers think - meaning your reputation and influence are more important than ever.
News stories have always helped shape reputation because when someone reads a positive article about you and what you're doing, it automatically carries more credibility than marketing or advertising. That's because someone independent decided it was worth talking about.
The rise of AI search makes this even more important. The companies and leaders that consistently appear in trusted media outlets, contribute meaningful expertise, and build a strong body of public evidence around their work are creating a digital footprint that both humans and AI models can understand.
This is where the relationship between AI and PR becomes almost yin and yang.
AI helps communications teams work smarter, analyse faster and uncover opportunities they may have missed. At the same time, PR helps create the information ecosystem AI relies on. One feeds the other. And the irony is that in a world increasingly filled with machine-generated content, genuinely human stories may become even more valuable.
For business leaders, this means AI reputation can't be treated as a technical problem alone. The organisations most likely to appear effectively in AI-generated answers are those already investing in media relations, thought leadership, expert commentary, and genuine reputation-building. The fundamentals of good PR haven't changed. If anything, they're becoming more valuable.
The brands that thrive over the next decade will understand that AI and PR are becoming deeply interconnected. AI is changing how information is discovered, but PR is helping determine what information gets discovered in the first place.
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