GEO: PR wins when AI answers first.

There’s a new acronym in town and it’s redefining how your brand gets noticed. We’ve been discussing AI in PR circles for several years now. Specifically, how to actively embrace its power and speed without losing people-led expertise and knowledge. 

AI is certainly accelerating and enhancing communications – but it needs human creativity, skill and experience to thrive. Without the personal touch, the words become, well, robotic. 

At Truth, we’ve seen how AI can help free up client retainer time for activities it simply can’t match us on. Strategy, storytelling and relationship building are all highly human endeavours. No offence to ChatGPT, I’m a big fan, but it can’t replicate 20+ years of first-hand reputation management. 

But the AI conversation has suddenly moved on and this is where PR is really going to come into its own. 

From creation to consumption.

AI isn’t only creating things faster and at a greater scale than anything before, it’s now the public’s preferred go-to for information. More of us are using AI as the source for our queries and we’re often getting complete, authoritative answers without ever having to visit a website. 

This new virtual environment is called GEO – or Generative Engine Optimisation. 

But us PRs have spent the best part of 10 years working to infiltrate search results with our clients’ brands! We mastered the art of SEO-driven storytelling and backlinks precisely to generate clicks to client websites. Does GEO mean SEO is dead? 

No, it just means SEO has grown up. GEO doesn’t replace SEO, it builds on it. AI still relies heavily on the same signals PR has always influenced – authoritative sources, relevant content, trust and consistency. So if your brand isn’t visible via SEO fundamentals, GEO has nothing to work with. 

But the emergence of GEO means the most important question is no longer, ‘Is your brand ranking?’ – it’s ‘Is your brand being cited?’ and here’s where PR can help. 

Citation, not clicks.

Clicks now matter less, presence matters more. GEO pulls from trusted, authoritative sources - not just well optimised web pages. 82-89% of search queries across Gemini and ChatGPT are using earned media as a source* - so those credible mentions in third party publications that are generated by PR are exactly the validation AI is looking for.

Furthermore, AI understands entities – brands, people, organisations – not just backlinks. And PR content typically offers named spokesperson quotes within repeated brand-topic associations, helping GEO to answer, ‘is this brand a credible source on this topic?’

Generative engines also prefer natural-language phrasing, editorial tone, quotable statements and the type of PR content that already matches this format – press releases, expert quotes and commentary pieces. 

PR’s moment in a GEO world.

Brands that rely on reputation, trust and expertise are set to benefit enormously from GEO and this is a huge opportunity for PR. You simply won’t optimise for AI visibility without earning authority – and PR is the fastest and most defensible way to do that. 

In summary: 

• GEO relies on authority signals – PR creates them.

• Brand mentions matter more than links – PR drives them.

• AI favours earned media language – PR matches this.

• AI answers reflect your brand narrative – PR shapes this.

PR has often faced scrutiny as to the value of its place as an accountable business function and this is something us PRs have battled with long and hard. The right data and sophisticated reporting measures help address this but thanks to GEO, PR’s importance is stronger and more measurable than ever. 

*University of Toronto research