Does anybody still Google?
AI is transforming the way people search for brands at lightning speed with Gartner predicting traditional search engine volume will drop 25% in 2026, due to the rise of AI Chatbots and other virtual agents.
Many businesses are spotting they’re not showing up in the large language models sprouting up like mushrooms, from Gemini, to CoPilot to ChatGPT.
If your brand isn’t appearing in AI-generated answers, GEO (AI search) is likely part of the problem but it’s also a visibility gap across the wider web.
And that’s where digital PR plays a critical role in helping your brand be memorable and chosen, not just in the old school Google search, but in AI search too.
Drawing on insights from the Digital PR Summit, alongside research into what AI is actually reading, here’s why this is happening and how to fix it.
TL;DR
- AI tools prioritise trusted sources and brand mentions, as well as rankings
- Most brands aren’t visible because they’re not being referenced in the right places
- Strategic digital PR is now essential to show up in AI answers
Why your brand isn’t showing up in AI answers
AI tools like ChatGPT and Google’s AI overviews don’t work like traditional search.
Yes, they rank your website, but they also pull and synthesise information from across the web to generate responses.
Research from Muck Rack into what AI is reading shows these systems favour:
- Trusted, authoritative publications
- Consistent brand mentions
- Credible, expert-led content
This was echoed at the Digital PR Summit where Ryan Law from Ahrefs highlighted that brand mentions, rather than backlinks, are now one of the strongest signals influencing visibility in AI search. An interesting assertion from a company that’s historically focused almost entirely on generating backlinks.
If your brand isn’t being talked about in the right places, AI has nothing to reference. And that’s where many brands are falling short.
Most PR isn’t built for this
Search has moved on. Most PR strategies haven’t.
They’re still focused on volume of coverage, or the number of links and traditional metrics.
But as James Brockbank from Digitaloft explained, these metrics show what you did, not what it delivered.
For example, are you being mentioned across the web in the right places? If you give us access to your traffic figures and quality of the traffic, that will help inform the PR campaign so we can map this against the coverage.
During the Summit’s journalist panel, editors and writers spoke about:
- The overwhelming volume of pitches
- The rise of low-quality, AI-generated content
- The need for relevance and usefulness
Vince Nero (BuzzStream) reinforced this with data showing smaller, highly targeted outreach lists consistently outperform broad campaigns.
And then there’s trust.
In the Faces of Fakery session, Rob Waugh from Press Gazette revealed how fake experts and AI-generated profiles have been used to place stories in major publications, damaging credibility across the industry. This problem has taken root, with journalist services being inundated with dozens of requests from fake experts daily.
The result?
- Journalists are more sceptical
- Verification processes are stricter
- Generic content is ignored faster
So while some brands may still be generating coverage, they’re not necessarily building the kind of presence that influences AI.
How Digital PR puts your brand back in the conversation
Here’s what makes the boat go faster now.
1. Be hyper-relevant, not just visible
Coverage only matters if it’s relevant.
That means:
- Aligning stories to your business priorities
- Targeting the right journalists and publications
- Matching the format and audience
As Vince Nero highlighted, many campaigns fail because they’re still too broad.
2. Build real credibility
In today’s business world, trust is a competitive advantage, especially when you consider the rise of AI generated content across the media.
Brands need to:
- Use real, verifiable experts
- Provide genuine insight
- Avoid generic or over-optimised commentary
The rise of fake experts has made journalists far more cautious and the news about fake experts’ nefarious activities sent shivers down our spines at Midnight.
And as scrutiny increases, credibility directly impacts whether your content is used and whether it’s trusted by AI systems and of course the journalists who decide whether to publish your content – or not.
3. Earn coverage in places that matter
Where your brand appears is critical.
AI tools prioritise:
- Authoritative publications
- Recognised media brands
- Consistent mentions across trusted sources
This aligns with the shift Ryan Law described when he explained your own website helps to determine whether you show up in AI/search results, as does how your brand appears across the wider internet.
Digital PR is what builds that presence. Interestingly, different LLMs favour different types of content based on their audience and data sources.
For example, CoPilot likes to read authoritative national and business media due to its professional user base, while others are fans of a broader mix including forums like Reddit and video content such as YouTube.
This means digital PR can no longer rely on a single channel. Brands need visibility across media, user-generated content and multimedia platforms to ensure they’re represented consistently across AI-driven search experiences.
4. Make your brand central to the story
A mention isn’t enough.
High-impact coverage includes:
- Headline mentions
- Strong positioning as an expert
- Clear messaging
As Laura Joint from Coverage Book explained, two pieces of coverage can look equal on paper but deliver completely different value. AI interprets this content and decides how prominently and positively you appear.
What this looks like in practice
At Midnight, we build digital PR strategies around influence and activity.
That means:
- Starting with what the business needs to grow
- Developing insight-led campaigns aligned to those goals
- Targeting journalists with precision
- Securing coverage that positions clients as credible experts
The result is visibility in the places that influence both human audiences and AI systems and traditional search engines.
Essentially, it’s writing for humans and for robots in today’s modern age.
What this means for brands
AI has made PR even more important than it already was – great news for us at Midnight!
As Mark Perkins from Creative Consultancy highlighted at the summit, the real challenge today is getting attention.
And that attention is now filtered through:
- Journalists
- Media platforms
- AI systems
If your brand isn’t being talked about in the right places, it won’t appear.
Educating the machines
Visibility today is about so much more than getting on page one of Google and it goes beyond educating your customers about your company.
You’ve now got to educate the machines too.
Whether you show up at all and how you show up in AI search is what will make the difference.
The companies that win will be the ones consistently mentioned, trusted and positioned as experts across the web.
About the author
Samantha Clark is an Account Director at Midnight. Having started her career in journalism, Sam transitioned into PR in 2005 and joined the Midnight team in 2020, leading several national B2B campaigns across insurance and professional services.
Want your brand to show up in AI answers and search results?
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