PR for the age of AI search

Search is changing. Customers, investors, partners and even journalists are increasingly asking platforms such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity and Claude to recommend companies, explain technology and identify credible experts.

That changes what it means to be visible online.

Being found online used to mean ranking highly in search engine results (SEO). Now, businesses need to be understood by the large language models (LLMs) and AI-powered search tools that are fundamentally reshaping how people discover information and make decisions.

FieldHouse has a deep understanding of this, and helps ambitious technology companies and investors build the authority, relevance and third-party validation needed to earn a place in those answers.

What is Generative Engine Optimisation?

Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is the process of improving the accuracy and prominence with which a company, product, or spokesperson appears in AI-generated search results.

Traditional SEO focused on making a website rank for relevant keywords. GEO considers a much broader information environment. When generating answers, AI search platforms now place significant value on media coverage to produce results. This means what other people say about your company can be just as important as what you publish yourself.

Businesses wanting to feature as the cited answer in an AI response need PR to appear in the press outlets – newspapers, trade magazines, and online publications – that the likes of ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude think are credible. Around 60% of searches now end directly on the AI summary without people clicking through to websites, proving that the way we find answers has fundamentally changed.

Why earned media matters for AI visibility

LLMs do not understand a business solely through its own marketing materials. They encounter companies through news articles, interviews, opinion pieces, industry commentary, research and other independent sources.

Strong earned media and content can help create a clearer and more credible digital footprint around a company. Gartner found that AI engines heavily favour earned and organic content, with over 95% of cited sources being non-paid and 27% coming directly from earned media.

An isolated mention will rarely transform how a business appears in AI-generated answers. But sustained, relevant coverage can reinforce the relationship between your company and the topics on which you want to be known.

Crucially, this isn’t just about securing national, tier-one media like The Financial Times or The Telegraph. These are often behind a paywall, and while this doesn’t completely stop GEO it does complicate how information is surfaced. What’s important is considering the entire web ecosystem. Niche trade titles and smaller industry publications all feed directly into GEO, playing just as vital a role in training LLMs and shaping your AI visibility.

GEO and SEO work together

GEO is not a replacement for SEO. A technically sound website containing clear, accessible and useful information remains essential. The strongest strategies combine the two.

However, optimising your own pages is only part of the picture. AI-generated answers frequently synthesise information from multiple sources. A company that makes ambitious claims about itself but has little independent recognition may struggle to demonstrate authority. PR builds the credibility, and wider information environment, that helps both people and AI systems understand why your business matters.

How can FieldHouse support your GEO strategy?

We identify the questions your target audiences are asking and the areas where your business has the expertise and credibility to provide valuable answers. This allows us to define the topics, messages and language that should consistently be associated with your company and its spokespeople.

Emerging categories and complex technologies are particularly vulnerable to misunderstanding. If your positioning varies significantly across your website, media coverage and external profiles, AI-generated descriptions may be incomplete or inaccurate.

That’s why it’s important to develop clear, distinctive, consistent messaging that explains what you do, why it matters and where you fit within the market.