As Ads Hit AI Search, HUNTER: Hi⁵ Bets on Proof and Context
If you work in PR or marketing, you can feel the ground shifting under search.
Generative AI is quickly becoming the default interface for discovery. People aren’t just “Googling” anymore; they’re asking ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity what to buy, what to cook, what to wear or which doctor to see. Now, those same AI systems are beginning to integrate ads directly into the answer experience.
On the surface, this all sounds familiar: search + ads = performance. But what’s happening under the hood is much bigger, and it’s why we chose this moment to launch HUNTER: Hi⁵, our GEO framework for communicators and marketers to win in the agentic era.
Because as ads hit AI search, we’re betting on something deeper than media plans: proof and context.
AI search isn’t a results page. It’s an information layer.
Traditionally, search has generated pages of links. Generative AI generates a synthesized answer from an agent acting on your behalf.
Behind that answer is an information layer made up of:
Earned stories
Owned content
Product pages
Listings/directories
FAQs
Reviews
Social chatter and Reddit communities
And yes, ads
When agents “think,” they start from a foundation of structured, credible information they’ve been trained on; plus, what they can currently crawl and verify. That’s where PR and communications leaders should be leaning in hard. Because even as ads arrive inside AI answers, the systems themselves are still trying to decide:
What’s true? What’s useful? And who should I cite as the source?
Those questions are answered in your information layer, not your ad buys.
Ads will influence attention. They won’t replace credibility.
Let’s be realistic: ads in AI search will matter. They’ll shape what’s seen first. They may bias which brands get exposed or trialed. Performance teams will be thrilled!
But here’s the catch:
Agents don’t just need a brand to be visible.
They need it to be credible, machinereadable and contextually relevant.
If your brand is visible in an ad unit but invisible in the information layer (no structured proof, weak FAQs, unlinked coverage, messy/conflicting signals), your search marketing is sitting on a shaky foundation. Think of it like building a layer cake on a soggy bottom.
In other words: You can’t outspend a lack of earned relevance.
This is the thesis behind our HUNTER: Hi⁵ framework. Even as ads on AI search take shape, compete for attention and report short-term wins, agents will still reward context. And context lives in your earned, owned and structured proof.
Why we launched Hi⁵ now
For the last six months, our team has been in “teach” mode. We’ve led more than 25 GEO trainings across beauty, fashion, food, tech, health and retail clients. Those sessions weren’t sales pitches; they were working sessions.
The more we watched agents evolve (and the more we saw early ad integrations test, fail, and test again), the clearer the opportunity became: As ads flood the surface of AI search, brands that win will be the ones whose information layers are undeniable.
We built HUNTER: Hi⁵ to operationalize that truth.
What Hi⁵ actually does (beyond the acronym)
Hi⁵ is our five-step framework for making brands legible and credible to AI systems—ads or no ads. It’s designed to build the information layer that agents rely on:
HUNT for visibility and white space
HIGHLIGHT the brand’s story for maximum machine-visibility
HOOK LLMs with the right media outreach
HALO reach across earned ↔ owned
HOLD your position as a preferred source
To measure impact, we track Answer Visibility Rate, Citation Share and Domain Authority over time. Our partners (LLMtel, The Marketing Cloud, Muck Rack’s Generative Pulse, Mira Studio from Meltwater and Scrunch) help us see how agents’ treatment of the brand evolves over time, so we can defend gains even as ad formats and ranking signals change.
The point isn’t to “hack” AI search. It’s to teach agents who you are, what you know, and when you’re the right answer, so when ad units show up, you’re still sitting on top of a strong, credible foundation.
Earned and owned as the backbone of the agentic era
We’ve been here before in different forms. When social feeds introduced ads, organic still set the context for what resonated. When search ads exploded, SEO and content still determined who “deserved” to be there, long-term.
AI search is no different; just more compressed and more opaque. In this environment:
Earned media injects third-party proof and narrative into the information layer.
Owned media translates that proof into structured, query-ready answers.
Structured content like data blocks, FAQs and clear how--tos help agents verify and cite you.
Paid will still have a role. But it will sit alongside, not instead of, the editorial and owned signals that tell agents: This company, person or brand is a legitimate, trustworthy answer in this context.
As ads roll into AI answers, the brands that win won’t be the ones who simply spend the most. They’ll be the ones whose proof and context are impossible for agents to ignore.
That’s the bet we’re making with HUNTER: Hi⁵, and it’s one PR and comms leaders are uniquely equipped to win.
