How media, search and AI work together
With the rise and rise of AI, you may be tempted to think that the traditional comms activity of securing column inches or coverage on news websites is outdated, as marketers rush to focus their attention on this latest technological development. Not so.
There’s no doubt that AI is taking the world by storm. Hundreds of millions of people now use AI to ask questions, summarise complex topics and support decision making, with ChatGPT alone reported to have approximately 900 million weekly users.
People are turning to AI tools to research a range of information from customer sentiment, competitors, industry data and market trends – to name a few.
And of course, Google search is still a hugely popular tool as it continues to dominate bottom of the funnel searches.
Meanwhile, traditional patterns of media consumption have changed dramatically. In the UK, print now accounts for just 12% of news attention, according to the latest statistics from Reuters Digital News Report 2026.
If you looked at this in insolation, you might question the value of investing time in securing commentary or by-lined articles in trusted publications – especially when budgets are stretched and marketing activity needs to be prioritised. But, as ever, it’s more nuanced than this.
Take a look at search engines first. They have developed well beyond simple keyword matching and now evaluate a wide range of credibility and relevance signals. One of these is whether reputable and relevant websites link to a source.
When respected publications quote an organisation’s news or commentary and link to its website, those links signal to search engines that the site is trustworthy and relevant.
Backlinks and references from credible media outlets can therefore help search engines understand which organisations are authoritative voices on particular topics. They are not the only factor in search performance, of course, but when combined with strong, owned content, technical SEO and consistent topical expertise, they can strengthen a firm’s visibility when prospective customers are searching.
The impact is rarely immediate. A single article will not dramatically influence rankings. However, consistent commentary across trusted publications gradually builds authority, as search engines recognise patterns of expertise over time.
AI tools also depend on large volumes of published information to retrieve and summarise answers. The way they select information varies between platforms, and is not always transparent, but credible, widely referenced sources are clearly important.
Large language models (LLMs) are trained on vast datasets that may include publicly available text, established publications, professional websites and other widely cited material. While organisations cannot control exactly how AI systems prioritise sources, they can improve their chances of being visible by ensuring their content appears in authoritative places.
This is known as generative engine optimisation, or GEO, reflecting the growing importance of appearing in AI-generated answers. In practice, however, the underlying principle is familiar. Businesses need to build a clear, consistent body of expertise around the topics they want to be known for – and ensure that expertise appears not only on their own websites but also in reputable third-party sources.
Visibility today is not about relying on one article or one platform. It is about appearing consistently across trustworthy sources, so that customers, search engines and AI tools encounter the same signals of expertise – over and over again.