"We talk a lot about how AI changes our work internally as communicators, but less about how it's transforming the audience behavior. We're moving from audiences consuming the coverage, content and conversations that we generate as communicators to trusting AI's answers instead. Your customers and stakeholders are increasingly relying on AI answer engines, and soon they will depend on agents, where AI leaves the chat box and becomes more ambient and proactive."
"This means that we're progressing from buying clicks and traffic to earning AI's endorsement. With zero-click search, brand reputation is earned when AI recommends, mentions, cites and advocates for your brand. As a result, a clear separation of marketing and communications is shifting to shared accountability. We've got to transition from campaigns and moments to always-on storytelling, and from measuring outputs to measuring reputation outcomes."
"So instead of optimizing for the social feed, as we've been doing for the last 15 years or so, we need to optimize for the AI answer. And where does that answer come from? Earned media, third-party experts, social communities, Wikipedia, and brand sites. That's because AI reputation cannot be bought - it must be earned. And that's where the role of the communicator is not just to run AI reputation management, GEO, or AIEO, but to put it into action."
Audience behavior is shifting from consuming branded coverage to trusting AI answers and proactively acting through agents that extend beyond chat boxes. Brand reputation now depends on AI recommendations, citations, and advocacy rather than clicks and traffic. Marketing and communications share accountability and must shift from campaign-focused activity to always-on storytelling measured by reputation outcomes. Sources that feed AI answers include earned media, third-party experts, social communities, Wikipedia, and brand sites. Communicators must monitor how brands are represented in AI, analyze which media drive AI answers, and align earned, owned, and social strategies to amplify strengths and close gaps.
Read at PR Daily
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