What Does GEO Mean for PR?
Public relations has always been about helping organizations earn attention, credibility and trust. Today, communicators are confronting a new challenge: influencing not only what people think, but also what artificial intelligence learns.
As generative AI platforms become increasingly important gateways to information, Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO, is emerging as one of the most significant developments in communications. Unlike traditional SEO, which focuses on rankings and search visibility, GEO focuses on how AI systems interpret, remember, synthesize and present information about brands, organizations and leaders.
According to Truescope media intelligence research, GEO represents a fundamental shift in visibility and brand positioning. Industry experts increasingly describe it as an evolution of communications strategy that requires practitioners to think beyond storytelling and begin considering how information is structured, validated and understood by large language models.
The market is already adapting. Adogy has positioned itself as a leading GEO agency, combining digital PR and AI search visibility strategies. Pattern recently introduced a GEO Scorecard designed to help brands understand how major LLMs perceive and describe them. Five Blocks introduced AIQ, a platform that helps communications teams understand how AI models are constructing narratives about their brands.
At its core, GEO raises an important question for communicators: If AI increasingly becomes the first place people turn for information, what does that mean for PR?
The question is not theoretical. During CommPRO's May 20 virtual town hall, AI and the New Reality of Reputation, communications leaders explored how AI is changing trust, visibility, discoverability and influence. One of the recurring themes was that communicators must now think beyond traditional audiences and media channels. AI platforms are becoming a new gateway to information, and increasingly, a new stakeholder in the reputation ecosystem. GEO is rapidly emerging as one of the disciplines designed to address that reality.
Several communications leaders shared their perspectives with CommPRO.
Linda Descano, CFA, Global Chief Integration & Marketing Officer at HAVAS Red, believes GEO represents a major opportunity for the profession and further elevates the value of earned media and trusted storytelling.
"GEO represents a fundamental evolution of PR—and we see it as a net positive for the industry. As AI search becomes the front door to discovery, earned media is no longer just about influencing perception; it’s about influencing what machines learn, cite, and synthesize. With the majority of AI citations coming from earned sources, PR now directly shapes inclusion in the answer itself.
This elevates the role of narrative authority. It’s not enough to tell a compelling story—we need to ensure it shows up consistently, credibly, and in formats AI systems trust and can process. In that sense, communicators are increasingly managing machine interpretation alongside human reputation. Further, while this introduces risks—like misinformation or invisibility—it ultimately reinforces the value of high-quality, fact-based storytelling. Trust is still the currency; it’s just being indexed differently.
For communicators, the mandate is clear: build AI-readable ecosystems, prioritize authoritative earned coverage, and actively monitor how narratives appear in AI search. Those who adapt won’t just protect their reputation—they’ll scale it."
Descano's observations reflect a recurring theme emerging throughout the GEO discussion: the growing importance of narrative authority. As AI systems increasingly rely on trusted third-party sources, earned media may become even more valuable than it has been historically.
Zareen Fidlon, EVP, Head of AI Innovation & Integrated Marketing at PAN, sees GEO as reinforcing many of the principles that have long defined successful communications programs.
"In my mind, GEO represents a meaningful and positive shift for PR as AI is increasingly becoming the first layer of discovery, interpretation, and recommendation. In many ways, it raises the importance of the core things PR has always been responsible for: credibility, authority, consistency, and trust.
As LLMs shape what gets surfaced and summarized, earned media, expert commentary, executive visibility, and third-party validation become even more important signals in how brands are interpreted and surfaced by AI systems, while also building trust and credibility with human buyers.
Overall, I see this is as a positive shift for the industry, but it will require PR teams to think beyond traditional media placements alone. We will need to better understand discoverability, narrative consistency, structured content, AI search behavior, and how visibility compounds across channels over time.
PR is increasingly influencing what AI sees, cites, and recommends, and how brands earn visibility, credibility, and trust."
Fidlon's comments highlight another emerging reality. Visibility is becoming increasingly cumulative, with media coverage, executive thought leadership, expert commentary, podcasts, social content and other forms of digital presence collectively influencing how AI systems understand and present brands.
That shift aligns closely with findings from the Truescope research, which notes that GEO requires communicators to think like information architects, ensuring that accurate and authoritative information is available across the digital ecosystem where AI systems gather and evaluate signals.
For Stacy Cohen, CEO of Co-Communications, the rise of AI is transforming how first impressions are formed.
"AI is becoming the new first impression for brands, and the rules seem to be changing almost overnight. The old playbook of chasing rankings and keywords is being replaced by building real authority online.
Reputation is something AI can measure by looking at credibility signals across the internet, like media coverage, podcast appearances, reviews, LinkedIn activity, speaking events, and expert commentary. This shift creates new opportunities for PR professionals who are ready, willing, and able to adapt. Brands that AI is most likely to recommend have clear messaging, strong third-party validation, and a consistent digital presence.
For example, if someone asks AI to name a top healthcare law firm, it looks at articles, interviews, bios, reviews, and thought leadership to form its answer.
The bottom line is that companies can no longer afford unclear messaging or a fragmented online presence. PR today goes beyond visibility. It is about building credibility, clarity, and trust in a world where AI has a growing role in deciding who gets noticed and recommended."
Cohen's observations reinforce another major GEO principle: AI systems increasingly synthesize information from multiple sources simultaneously. Organizations that present fragmented narratives or inconsistent messaging may find those weaknesses amplified when AI platforms summarize their brands.
Mirza Germovic, Senior Vice President, AI Solutions & Advisory at Edelman, compares GEO's impact to one of the most transformative moments in modern communications.
"GEO represents one of the most important shifts communications has faced since the rise of social media because it changes where and how reputation is formed. As AI search and large language models increasingly shape discovery, communicators are no longer optimizing only for audiences and journalists. They are also influencing the systems that summarize, rank and recommend information at scale.
Earned media, authoritative storytelling and credible third-party validation become significantly more valuable in an AI-driven search ecosystem because LLMs prioritize trusted, high-quality sources when forming responses and recommendations. In many ways, GEO signals a return to the core principles that have always defined strong communications: build trust, shape narratives and establish authority through credible influence.
At the same time, GEO changes the playbook. Communications teams will need to become more data-driven, measure visibility and narrative accuracy across AI platforms, and think of LLMs as a new media channel within the broader ecosystem. The organizations that succeed will be those that combine compelling storytelling with structured, discoverable content designed for humans, traditional search and increasingly, AI-driven discovery."
Germovic's perspective echoes what many participants discussed during CommPRO's May 20 town hall. AI is rapidly becoming another channel through which reputation is created, interpreted and distributed. The challenge for communicators is no longer simply earning media coverage. It is understanding how that coverage influences the information ecosystem from which AI systems draw their conclusions.
Taken together, these perspectives point toward a larger conclusion.
GEO is not replacing public relations. It is expanding its influence.
The same fundamentals that have always driven successful communications programs—credibility, authority, trust, consistency and earned influence—remain central. What has changed is the environment in which those principles operate.
As AI increasingly becomes a gateway to discovery, recommendation and decision-making, communicators are finding themselves responsible for managing not only public perception but also machine interpretation.
The organizations that thrive in this new environment will likely be those that create authoritative content ecosystems, earn credible third-party validation, maintain narrative consistency and actively monitor how AI systems understand and present their stories.
The conversation that began during CommPRO's AI and Reputation town hall is only growing louder. GEO is quickly moving from an emerging concept to a strategic communications discipline, one that sits at the intersection of reputation, discoverability, trust and technology.
In the age of generative AI, reputation is no longer shaped solely by what people say about a brand.
It is also shaped by what machines learn from it.
