Artificial intelligence isn’t just changing how we search—it’s changing what we see. The rise of generative AI search engines means your brand’s first impression may no longer be a website link on page one of Google. Instead, it could be an AI-generated answer—summarized, paraphrased, and filtered from multiple sources—before a person ever visits your site. That shift brings both opportunity and risk.
As a marketer and PR strategist, I’ve been watching this space closely, and here’s what I believe everyone—whether you’re a Fortune 500 company or a solo entrepreneur—needs to understand.
- Generative AI is the New Front Door In the world of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), AI models pull content from across the internet to answer questions instantly. People may never see your homepage. They’ll see what the AI has learned about you. That means you need to actively manage how you appear in these answers, just as you’ve optimized for Google in the past.
- Your Brand Narrative is Only as Strong as Your Sources AI tools rely heavily on earned media—credible news coverage, interviews, and third-party mentions. These sources often carry more weight than your own website in shaping AI-generated summaries. If you’re not proactively building media coverage, you’re leaving your story up to chance.
- Not All Prompts are Created Equal People don’t just search for your name—they ask questions like: “Best accounting firm for small businesses in Chicago” “Is [Your Name] a good keynote speaker?” AI will answer based on whatever content it has ingested. You need visibility in both branded prompts (direct searches for you) and unbranded prompts (topic-based searches where you should be included).
- Reputation Risks Move Faster AI search isn’t static—if bad information gets into the ecosystem, it can spread through AI-generated answers almost instantly. That makes real-time monitoring essential, so you can detect inaccuracies or damaging narratives and address them before they take root.
- AI SEO Isn’t Just for Businesses Leaders, executives, and public figures also need to think about how they appear in AI search. Your professional credibility could be summarized by an AI tool that’s pulling from outdated bios, unflattering articles, or incomplete data.
- Building Your AI SEO Playbook Whether you’re a brand or an individual, here’s where to start:
- Audit your AI presence:
- See what different AI platforms say about you today.
- Feed the right sources:
- Publish high-quality, factual, and brand-positive content on authoritative sites.
- Track branded and unbranded queries:
- Make sure you’re present in both.
- Integrate with PR:
- Use earned media to strengthen AI visibility and trust.
- Stay vigilant:
- Monitor for changes and act quickly to correct inaccuracies.
- Audit your AI presence:
The AI search era is here—and it doesn’t play by yesterday’s SEO rules. The organizations and individuals who win will be the ones who understand that managing their AI search results is just as critical as managing their website or social media. In the same way we once optimized for keywords, we now must optimize for answers. And those answers will define reputations in ways that can’t be undone by a simple Google ranking shift. If you’re not steering the AI narrative about your brand, you can be sure someone—or something—else is.
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By Cara Harbor, Founder & CEO, AMP Marketing and PR