How AI search is changing PR in 2026
AI search is changing how audiences discover brands, evaluate authority and engage with media coverage. Google AI Overviews now appear in roughly a third of UK searches, while ChatGPT visits keep climbing and a large share of the queries that once delivered traffic to publishers and brand websites are answered before anyone clicks anywhere. For public relations teams, this is a shift that directly affects which placements matter, which journalists to prioritise and how to measure the impact of their work.
Key takeaways
Google AI Overviews appear in around 30% of UK searches; ChatGPT logged 1.8 billion UK visits in the first eight months of 2025, up from 368 million in the same period of 2024
Organic click-through rates for queries with an AI Overview are down 61%, according to Seer Interactive's September 2025 research
Being cited in an AI Overview drives 120% more organic clicks than not being cited. Earned credibility is now an AI search signal with measurable commercial consequences
84% of links cited by AI come from earned media, and journalism accounts for 27% of citations across major AI platforms, according to Muck Rack's What is AI Reading? study, updated May 2026
Only 2% of the journalists public relations teams actively pitch overlap with the journalists AI systems most often cite for those teams' brands
Half of all AI citations come from content published in the last 11 months
76% of public relations professionals use generative AI in their work, yet most measurement approaches do not account for how AI search is shaping brand discovery
The scale of the AI search shift
Google AI Overviews moved from experimental feature to default behaviour faster than almost any change Google has rolled out in the past decade. The AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of search results draw on multiple sources to answer a query directly.
Google Search is used by 82% of UK adults, according to Ofcom's 2025 Online Nation report, and around 30% of those searches surface an AI Overview. ChatGPT, meanwhile, logged 1.8 billion UK visits in the first eight months of 2025, up from 368 million in the same period of 2024, and reached 900 million weekly active users globally by February 2026. The adoption of artificial intelligence is rising steeply in the US too, with 35% of American adults using AI tools at least once a week (51% among Gen Z), according to YouGov's December 2025 survey.
A growing share of the queries that once sent users to a publisher's website or an owned content page are now answered without a click. The first impression of a brand is no longer shaped by the publication that ran the story, but by the AI platform that summarised it.
How AI systems choose their sources
AI answers are assembled from sources the system deems credible and authoritative, and the signals those systems use rely on what good public relations has always built.
seoClarity's analysis of 362,000 keywords found that 94% of AI Overviews cite at least one source from the top 20 organic results, with position-one pages appearing in AI Overviews more than half the time.
Organic ranking still matters, but the relationship has loosened over the past year. Ahrefs' February 2026 update found that AI Overviews reduce the organic click-through rate (CTR) for position-one content by 58%, and a growing share of citations come from pages that don't rank in the top 10 for the original query at all.
Google's AI search system breaks queries into multiple related sub-questions, drawing on sources that may rank well for those sub-queries even when they don't rank for the headline term. Being cited in an AI Overview drives 120% more organic clicks, as per the findings in Seer Interactive's AIO Impact on Google CTR: 2026 Update, which analysed 5.47 million tracked queries and 2.43 billion organic impressions across 53 brands.
Earned credibility is no longer just a public relations goal. It is an AI search signal with measurable commercial consequences. Media placements in respected, well-ranked publications are more likely to be drawn on by AI systems than coverage in lower-authority outlets, and clearly attributed expert commentary outperforms loosely written editorial.
Muck Rack's What is AI Reading? study, updated in May 2026, found 84% of links cited by AI come from earned media, with journalism accounting for 27% of citations.
Building genuine standing in credible places is what good PR has always done, but it matters now more than ever.
The zero-click problem
Zero-click search is creating substantial pressure for publishers, creators and the public relations teams that depend on them.
Seer Interactive's research found that organic click-through rates for informational queries with an AI Overview dropped 61%. Pew Research Center's analysis of the actual browsing behaviour of 900 US adults discovered that users clicked on a traditional link only 8% of the time when an AI summary appeared in their search results, compared to 15% when no AI summary was present. Just 1% of users clicked on the sources cited within the AI summary itself.
Presence in AI-generated answers is the difference between visibility and being passed over, and brands and publications cited within AI Overviews are in a much stronger position to those that are not.
The click decline is not down to AI Overviews alone. Even queries without them are seeing organic CTR fall by 41% year-on-year, as users seek answers via ChatGPT, Perplexity or social media, rather than Google.
Why PR outreach has not caught up to AI citation patterns
An earlier edition of Muck Rack's What AI is Reading study found a mere 2% overlap between the journalists public relations teams actively pitch and the sources AI systems cite in their responses. That means that the vast majority of media outreach is building relationships with journalists whose coverage has minimal influence on what AI platforms surface.
76% of public relations professionals use generative AI in their work, according to Muck Rack's 2026 State of AI in PR report. Most are using it to draft, brainstorm and edit. Few have yet asked whether they are pitching the journalists who shape AI responses, or only the ones with the biggest readerships.
Existing media relationships still matter, but the teams gaining ground are the ones layering AI citation data into their media list decisions alongside traditional reach and relevance metrics. To help with this, Muck Rack launched AI Visibility Badges in March 2026 to show which journalists and outlets are most cited in AI-generated answers.
What is happening to the media landscape
Falling traffic and revenue for publishers has consequences across the public relations ecosystem.
The media industry announced 17,163 job cuts in 2025 (pp 15% from 2024) according to Challenger, Gray and Christmas. 136 US newspapers closed in the year leading up to October 2025, according to the Medill State of Local News Report 2025. Whilst almost 3,500 of the country's local newspapers have ceased operating since 2005, .
AI is not the only reason for these losses, but it is contributing to the decline. For PR teams this means fewer placement opportunities, a smaller pool of high-trust publications and tighter editorial standards around what counts as genuinely newsworthy.
Publishers are also adapting their revenue models. Total digital publisher revenues grew 5.1% in 2025, with subscription revenue up 17% year-on-year and Q4 2025 marking the fourth consecutive quarter of overall growth, according to the AOP and Deloitte Digital Publishers Revenue Index.
Elsewhere, AI licensing deals, where publishers grant artificial intelligence platforms the right to use their content, are a new monetisation route that is becoming more widespread.
The result for PR teams is a media environment where sponsored and hybrid earned-and-paid formats are becoming routine, and where the line between editorial and commercial content continues to evolve. Pitches that are relevant, specific and immediately useful are more likely to land than ever before, whilst those that are not will be filtered out faster.
PR budgets keep rising as overall marketing spend stalls
The Q4 2025 IPA Bellwether report, published in January 2026, recorded the tenth consecutive quarter of rising PR budgets, with a net balance of +3.5% of firms increasing PR spend. Overall marketing spend flatlined at 0% in the same quarter, with PR the main driver of marketing budget growth in a period when most other categories were cut or held flat.
This is because trust, third-party validation and credibility travel further in an AI-mediated web than paid placement alone. When an AI system decides what to surface in answer to a query about your sector, it draws on a body of existing credibility, not on who spent the most in the last campaign cycle.
Brands that have invested in earned coverage are better positioned in AI search than those that have not, and the question for PR teams is how to build on that advantage.
What PR and communications teams need to do
Prioritise earned authority over volume
Respected outlets and clearly attributed expert commentary are the sources AI systems cite. A placement in a well-regarded trade publication or national title is worth more than ten mentions in low-authority aggregators. Use citation data from tools like Muck Rack's Generative Pulse to see which outlets and journalists are shaping AI responses in your sector, and build your media strategy around that.
Design content for answer extraction
AI systems cite content they can quote accurately and concisely. Structure your owned content with clear definitions, FAQ formats, accurate statistics with named sources and dates, and expert quotes with clear attribution. If your content cannot be extracted and quoted by an AI platform, it won’t be cited regardless of how much effort went into producing it.
Publish with recency in mind
Half of all AI citations come from content published in the last 11 months, with the first seven days after publication generating the highest citation rate in ChatGPT and Claude, according to Muck Rack's research. Regularly refreshing high-performing explainers, FAQs and reference pages are part of a strong GEO strategy. But make sure updates are genuinely useful new information, not fluff.
Rethink your journalist targeting
Given that only 2% of journalists that public relations teams pitch overlap with the sources AI systems cite, most teams have work to do here. This does not mean scrapping your existing media list. It means running it alongside AI citation data and identifying the gaps. Which journalists in your sector are most cited in AI-generated answers? Are they in your pitch list? Are you building relationships with the outlets that carry the most weight with AI systems?
Measure beyond clicks
Fewer site sessions on your analytics dashboard does not mean your PR activity is failing. It could be that you’re being cited in AI Overviews, LLM (Large Language Model) responses or building brand recognition in places your current reporting doesn’t capture. If your measurement approach still relies primarily on coverage volume and referral traffic, it is not capturing the full picture. Add brand search lift, assisted conversions and direct presence in AI citations and summaries to your tracking process.
Plan for the paid side of AI search
Publisher revenue is shifting and sponsored content formats are growing. Where earned coverage is harder to secure, negotiated paid programmes can still deliver credibility, provided they carry clear labelling, real editorial value and proper audience fit. Google has also integrated advertising into AI Overviews and AI Mode, meaning brands appearing in both organic AI citations and paid placements will dominate visibility in ways that neither approach alone achieves. Earned credibility is the answer to pay-to-play.
Reduce platform dependency
Any strategy that rests entirely on what Google or ChatGPT decides to surface is a fragile one. Develop direct audience relationships that do not depend on an algorithm through newsletters, podcasts, events and owned communities. Diversification is good practice regardless of what happens next with search.
The bottom line for PR in the age of AI search
AI search has not killed discovery. It has changed who gets discovered, what determines authority and where the value from a well-placed piece of coverage ends up.
The teams gaining ground are not producing more coverage. They are earning placements in sources AI systems cite, structuring owned content for extraction, and tracking citation visibility alongside reach and referral traffic. The gap between those teams and the ones still reading from the pre-AI playbook is widening each month.
Author: Rob Phillimore is a Freelance public relations consultant based in Cornwall, UK, with ten years experience in B2B and enterprise PR, Marketing and Communications. For support in building your organisation's authority and visibility in the age of AI search, get in touch at robphillimore.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does AI search make PR more or less important? More. The signals AI systems use to decide which sources to cite, including credibility, trust, third-party validation and clear attribution, are exactly what good public relations builds, and now feed into how audiences first discover a brand, often before they visit a website or see any owned content.
What is zero-click search and why does it matter for PR? Zero-click search describes instances when a user's query is answered directly on a search results page or by an AI platform, without them clicking through to any website. The impact on public relations comes from reduced traffic to publishers and the shift in how you measure and report on PR campaigns. Media placements that would previously have driven a reader to your website may now result in your brand being summarised in an AI Overview instead. This is still valuable, but invisible in your current reporting.
How do I know if my brand is appearing in AI search results? You can test this manually by searching for your organisation, your senior executives and your key subject areas in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. These checks are a useful starting point, but ongoing tracking lets you spot trends, compare against competitors and feed findings back into your content and media strategy. Platforms such as Profound, Muck Rack's Generative Pulse and Semrush Enterprise AIO are purpose-built for this.
Should PR teams be targeting AI Overviews specifically? Not in the same way you target keywords. There is no AI-citation equivalent of keyword optimisation. The most effective approach is to earn coverage in high-trust publications, structure owned content clearly and ensure your brand has a strong, consistent presence in the sources AI systems draw on. Authoritative content in the right places will surface in AI answers without any need to game the system. What you can do directly is use AI citation data to inform which outlets and journalists you prioritise.
What types of content are most likely to be cited by AI systems? Structured, factual content with clear attribution performs best. This includes well-evidenced expert commentary, FAQ-format content, data-backed claims with named sources, and clear definitions of concepts relevant to your sector. Vague or promotional content is rarely cited regardless of where it appears. The practical rule: if an AI system could lift a sentence from your content and use it as a clear, accurate answer to a real question, that content is working. If it could not, it needs reworking.
How should PR measurement change in response to AI search? Traditional metrics, including coverage volume, reach and website referral traffic, remain useful but no longer tell the full story. Measurement should now include brand search lift, share of voice in AI-generated answers, direct citation tracking in LLM platforms and, where possible, assisted conversion data that captures the influence of public relations activity that did not result in a direct click. The challenge most PR teams face is explaining this shift to leadership teams who are used to seeing traffic as the primary proof of impact. That conversation is overdue.
